Monday Miscellany, 5/5/25

Canada’s election. Only 11% of transgender “women,” or fewer, get the operation. And the truth about chemical abortion.

Canada’s Election

Canada has been in thrall to woke progressivism even more than the United States, what with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s authoritarian ways, such as suspending the law so that he could persecute truck drivers protesting COVID restrictions, actively recruiting hundreds of thousands of unassimilated immigrants, and implementing an ever-expanding euthanasia program that is responsible for one out of twenty deaths in the country.

No country was in greater need of a Trump-like populist movement. And Canada had one, with the young and dynamic leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre. In December, Poilievre and his Conservatives had a 25% lead over the Liberals. The conservative wave was so strong that Trudeau stepped down from office, turning over the party and the Prime Minister’s office to the technocratic progressive Mark Carney. He was widely seen as a caretaker until the Conservatives would sweep into power in the April 28 election.

Meanwhile, south of the border, President Trump started trolling Canada, calling for its annexation and for making it America’s 51st state. Then came Trump’s trade war, imposing large tariffs on Canadian goods, even though Canada has always been a close ally of the United States and is a signatory to the the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) that Trump negotiated in his first term to allow for free trade between the three countries.

Canadians from across the entire political spectrum were insulted and alarmed. An anti-Trump, anti-American backlash ensued, in which Canadians boycotted American products and cancelled their vacations to the states.

Poilievre, who had supported Trump had to repudiate Trump’s policies in regard to Canada. But that wasn’t enough. When the election came, Canadians voted for the liberals and kept the progressives in power. Though the Conservatives made some gains, Poilievre was even voted out of his seat in Parliament.

This would seem to be an example of Trump’s lack of impulse control helping the liberals and harming his own conservative cause. But let’s put the best construction on everything.

Trump’s ideology can best be described as nationalism. Trudeau, in praising multi-culturalism, said, “There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada.” That makes his country, he said, “the first postnational state.” Not any more! Trump has been a catalyst for the rise of Canadian nationalism! He has also done wonders for Danish nationalism, Greenland nationalism, Mexican nationalism, Chinese nationalism, and on and on. If nationalism is good for us (and it is), it is good for other countries as well.

Similarly, if tariffs are good for our economy (though I’m not convinced they will be), they should be good for the economy of other countries as well. Trump said that putting up trade barriers in an attempt to be self-sufficient and to return to a manufacturing is our “liberation day.” Well, if we are liberated from other countries, they are also liberated from us! Trump will Make All Countries Great Again!

Right? Wrong? Or is this just a rationalization like the supporter who described the cratering of the stock market as Trump making stocks affordable again?

UPDATE: My son pointed me to initiatives in the Western conservative provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan to secede from Canada. The plan would be for them to form a separate country, as Quebec is always threatening to, but the article gives as an option joining the United States.

UPDATE: And now the same thing has happened in Australia. The leftists are back in power thanks to the backlash against Trump.

Only 11% of Transgender “Women,” or Fewer, Get the Operation

A big tip of the hat to long-time reader reg, who made this comment on a recent post [the links being to journals I dug up that confirm his statistics]:

I will use this comment to mention something I discovered recently following some google research as it relates to trans-women in locker rooms, bathrooms and prisons with cis-women. These facts were eye opening:

1. Only 11% of trans-women have bottom surgery, i.e., vaginoplasty. 89% retain their functioning male apparatus. [A 2019 medical journal gives the range 5-13%.]

2. Of those who claim to be trans-women, over 68% claim to be primarily attracted to women. This suggests that of the non-bottom surgery trans-women, woman attraction is likely north of 75%.

This kind of puts into perspective the foolishness of the arguments favoring trans women in women’s locker rooms, showers, prisons. The trans women will be naked in and displaying male apparatus to unwilling women in showers, etc., they are likely to stare/ogle at the likely object of their desires (women) showering with them and may even display some level as arousal as a result. This kind of makes all the talk about shared facilities pretty silly. That also explains prison rapes by trans-women in women’s prisons. Essentially the large majority of trans women are simply elevated cross-dressers, but otherwise sexually male.

The Truth About Chemical Abortion

The high rates of abortion, even after the overturning of Roe v. Wade and many states restricting the procedure, are due largely to the easy availability of the abortion pill, which is widely marketed, requires no in-person doctor’s visit or follow-ups, and can be sent through the mail.

The abortion industry claims the abortion pill is safe. New research shows that it isn’t.

Michaela Estruth in her article Not Pro-Women, Not Pro-Choice: New Data Shows Abortion Pills Harm Women, points out that nearly two-thirds of the abortions in 2023 were chemically-induced. Since the abortion pill was approved in 2000, it has taken the lives of some 5 million children in the womb.

The FDA-approved label on the pill says that adverse reactions occur “less than 0.5 percent” of the time. This new study, based on insurance claims with a sample 28 times larger than that of the FDA, found that the actual rate is 10.93%. That is 22 times more than advertised. In reality, one in nine women who take the abortion pill have serious infections, hemorrhaging, or other health risks within 45 days of taking the drug.

Estruth quotes one of the researchers:

“This study is the statistical equivalent of a category 5 hurricane hitting the prevailing narrative of the abortion industry,” EPPC President Ryan T. Anderson said in a statement. “It reveals, based on real world data, the shocking number of women who suffer serious medical consequences because of the abortion pill. The Trump FDA should take immediate action to protect the safety of American women by reinstating the safety regulations that the Obama and Biden Administrations removed.”

Go here for the study.