Vote, for the sake of our futures.

The federal election on Monday, April 28, 2025 will be a day of reckoning for many of us living here in Canada. It’s an election that has been, purportedly, about the economy, about the housing crisis, about rising grocery prices, price gouging, and more — yet never has so much been at stake. We’ve seen, over the last few months, relentless attacks on Canada’s very sovereignty and continued existence by an expansionist, colonialist power in the south. And here at home, we’re seeing the same strategies — hateful rhetoric, attacks towards minorities, and attempts to appear “tough” at the cost of destroying our democracy.

I’m terrified for our futures.

The Conservatives have made anti-trans campaigning an important part of their messaging. The last three years have seen a never-before-seen increase in anti-trans rhetoric in Canada, in great part metastasized from the U.S. and abroad. Hate groups have taken root here, using their power and deep wallets in an attempt to pit people against each other — leading to hundreds of hate protests across the country, and legislation attacking the rights and freedoms of trans youth in two Canadian provinces. Poilievre’s promise to endanger trans women in prisons — and simultaneous failure to introduce any measures concretely protecting women — is telling. He does not want to protect Canadians; merely punish them. Law and order, as in “obey and abide”. Sounds Trumpian, doesn’t it?

Constitutional protections are equally being eroded as we speak. As section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms turns 40, the very idea of equality rights — one of the very principles underlying Canadian law in the last 40-60 years — is starting to slip away. Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Québec have already chipped away at Canadians’ human rights, one at a time; whether it’d be with trans youth, unionized workers or hijab-donning teachers. Poilievre’s suggestion to expand its use to the federal level would send it straight to its deathbed. To quote The Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne, “He’s picked the perfect starting point, of course. There can be few less sympathetic figures than multiple murderers.” Yet, we live in a society where everyone, by virtue of being alive, are deserving of dignity and of humanity. To dispose of this idea would be to turn back the clock fifty years, and to plunge us into a new dark age — one where Japanese-Canadians were expropriated and forcibly relocated, one where Indigenous kids were scooped away from their parents, one where we couldn’t necessary fall in love with the persons we love.

Is that the future that we deserve? Is that the future that you want?

Our political parties have been far from perfect. Some have, arguably, been horrible — and in a way, have allowed our current status quo, one of generalized disenfranchisement, to take root. But none have shown so much contempt towards humanitarianism as one of them: the Conservatives. They’ve allowed disinformation campaigns in their name to take hold. They’re teaming up with DOGE wannabes to destroy this country. They’re talking about attacking trans women, denying healthcare for trans kids. They’re calling on defunding humanitarian organizations such as UNRWA, and defunding universities which doesn’t align with his values. They’re talking about defunding Canada’s public broadcaster, about womens’ “biological clocks”. Poilievre himself is calling Nazis “socialists” instead of what they are: Nazis. That doesn’t smell like democracy to me; that sounds like authoritarianism — because Trumpism is fascism is authoritarianism.

We shouldn’t live in a society in which every election — and the times preceding it — are times filled with uncertainty and fear, yet that’s exactly what it’s like to be a trans woman in Canada in 2025. And I don’t want us to end up like the U.S. — a country from which people are actively fleeing owing to authoritarian laws and policies. I don’t want us to end up that way.

So please — don’t Trump Canada.

Whether you think your vote will make a difference or no, vote as if your life depends on it — because it does.

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Read more about different federal political parties’ positions on 2SLGBTQ+ issues on Queer Momentum’s website.

For strategic voting, look up 338canada.com and VoteWell.

For ridings in which the Conservatives have no chance of winning, look up VotePalestine — we don’t need just a strong wave of votes against fascism, but also strong leftist opposition MPs able to hold a (hopefully) Carney government to account.

For information on how to vote: Elections Canada.