Geoff Russ: Woke 1 was crazy. Woke 2 is worse and has already conquered Canada
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called the first wave of "woke" activism (Woke 1) extreme and chaotic, marked by public struggles over race, gender, and identity, but warned that a more enduring and powerful second wave (Woke 2) is emerging.
- Woke 2, already present in Canada, is characterized by quieter, institutionalized efforts led by activists now entering government and professional roles, focusing on systemic change through policies, funding control, and integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into government operations.
- Canada is particularly susceptible to Woke 2 due to a long absence of conservative federal government and the Liberal Party’s incorporation of Woke 1 ideals into policy, including government strategies on gender, anti-racism, and DEI across multiple sectors.
- Unlike the U.S., where Woke 1 was centered on Black-white racial tensions, Woke 2 emphasizes broader identity and foreign policy issues with less visible public turmoil, and resistance to it in Canada remains limited and localized, leaving Woke 2 largely normalized and institutionalized.
United States Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently declared that “Woke 1 was crazy.” That was supposed to represent a retreat from the extremes reached during the alleged first wave of “woke,” conjuring up memories of compulsory struggle sessions, left-wing racialization in universities and the workplace, and pronoun creep.
Woke 1 was rather ridiculous and provided great fuel for laughs and cheap entertainment across North America. However, Woke 1 implies Woke 2 is coming, and it will be far worse when it does. In fact, in Canada, at least, Woke 2 is already here, and the fact it is quieter is not a sign of weakness. Not only is Woke 2 turning the accommodation of Woke 1 into durable power, it is cycling in fresh causes post-pandemic.
The second wave is being driven by the same people who insisted on gender-neutral washrooms, the relitigation of history, and the eradication of basic standards concerning appearance and hygiene. Now they are graduating from law schools and entering government. If Woke 1 was able to bludgeon the establishment into partial compliance, Woke 2 will complete the transformation as more and more inmates start to run the asylum.
Woke 1 started in the mid-2010s, when the mediocre NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick was considered important for taking a knee during “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Alongside that came the rise of land acknowledgements and activist students ripping the gender signs off campus washrooms.
The high-water mark of Woke 1 was the George Floyd riots and unrest of 2020, capped off by the first defeat of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election. There is no question that Trump’s victory in 2016 and the ascendancy of right-wing populism in western politics saw a parallel eruption on the left.
People learned to roll their eyes as institutional panic gave way to corporate sermons, renamed universities, and plans to spend billions on “anti-racism” strategies. However, this was still accommodation rather than full-scale transformation.
Woke 2 will have different ideological pillars on the surface, but the same agenda of deconstruction. New bosses and department heads who will swap out rants about “privilege” for removing “barriers,” which, in effect, means curtailing the career advancement for straight, white men to the benefit of everyone else. This is already happening, but Woke 2 will cement it with more professional, less politicized language, rather than leave it as a short-term circus.
Persuading the public is no longer the goal of Woke 2. Rather, it will be about controlling money and sinecures and deciding who and what receives grants, contracts, and licences.
Canada is uniquely exposed because, unlike almost every other western country that experienced a non-left interlude, it has not had a federal Conservative government since 2015. For almost 11 years now, the Liberals have happily incorporated Woke 1 into the “big tent” and twisted government policy to suit it.
Whatever changes Mark Carney has nominally brought to the Liberals, the imprint of Justin Trudeau’s zeal for Woke 1 is found in the qualifications for Canada Research Chairs, academic advancement, and grant-making. In fact, Canada exited Woke 1 ages ago and is already deep into the quieter, more effective and insidious Woke 2.
The Privy Council Office’s 2026–27 plan says “Gender-based Analysis Plus” will be thoroughly integrated into the affairs of government, including mandatory assessments in cabinet committee documents and memoranda to Cabinet. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat is pushing through an expansive DEI plan for 2026–29, and Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy explicitly seeks a whole-of-government approach reaching housing, immigration, justice, health and employment.
Canada and the United States both now host a powerful form of diasporic politics, in which North American money and political capital is looted in the service of foreign causes. This may represent less of a convergence than the U.S. catching up to Canada given Ottawa’s long history of pandering to ethnic voters, no matter which party is in-charge.
Conversely, one of the most striking divergences between Canada and the United States is the decline of prominent Black American movements and initiatives that defined the previous wave. Woke 1 was deeply tied to racial tensions between Black and white Americans, especially regarding police conduct and the presence of controversial symbols like the Confederate flag.
Woke 2 features less of that, and Middle Eastern affairs have instead come to dominate it, with Muslim Americans flexing their electoral power in cities like New York and swing states like Michigan.
With no Donald Trump-type figure to smash the DEI initiatives of Woke 1, Canada has continued to entrench them while allowing Woke 2 to shape foreign and domestic policy. The cleverness of Woke 2 is that cabinet ministers and other officials will quietly normalize all of it and describe it in ways that sound responsible, lawful and eminently fundable to moderates.
In lieu of a right-of-centre prime minister, Canada’s Conservative premiers have offered little more than skirmishes against either Woke 1 or Woke 2. There certainly has been no organized, large-scale counteroffensive. Alberta and Saskatchewan enacted meaningful parental-rights measures, while New Brunswick’s earlier Policy 713 controversy briefly became part of the same battle before its government was replaced by a Liberal provincial government. However, all of that resistance has been confined largely to schools, names, pronouns and parental consent.
Nova Scotia’s own Progressive Conservative government, despite its name, has proudly introduced a whole-of-government Equity and Anti-Racism Strategy. With few exceptions, Atlantic Progressive Conservative parties never fail to make the first word in their names shine.
Canada has undergone a steady laundering of controversial, radical left-wing ideas into neutral-looking administrative obligations. There has never been a federal election fought on these issues, and what voters never expressly approved or rejected can easily become the default setting of government.
Woke 2 is already alive and well here in Canada, less a sequel to Woke 1 than its second act.
Consider that and try to have a nice weekend.
National Post