Now, in his first book, Don’t Be Canada: How One Country Did Everything Wrong All At Once (Sutherland House), Hopper takes aim at various Canadian policies implemented during the Trudeau years. 

“The examples are legion: the real estate bubble that never bursts, Orwellian internet regulations, harm reduction policies that escalate harm, official health guidelines that recommend the use of glory holes in a pandemic, and a runaway euthanasia system that inspired the Wall Street Journal to declare, ‘Welcome to Canada, the doctor will kill you now’. As sobering as it is comic, Don’t Be Canada examines the cascading consequences of extreme policies and tells the tragic story of a country that took its wealth, tolerance and functionality for granted,” reads the dust jacket for the eight-chapter book.

Hopper spoke with Canadian Affairs reporter Samuel Forster about some of the issues he chose to highlight in the book, and why he remains optimistic about Canada’s ability to solve its myriad problems.

SF: The book examines a wide range of problems and policy areas that may seem to outside observers as unrelated. How did you arrive at this list of issues? 

TH: It only got a chapter if it was something that Canada was doing uniquely bad, or on which we were an outlier — [if] we were doing something that no one else in the world was doing. So there’s no chapter on federal debt accumulation. There’s no chapter on poor military readiness. We’re not doing great in either of those categories, but the rest of the Western world is also not doing particularly well. So it only qualified as a chapter if I was able to show that there was something we were doing that was beyond the pale for any of our peer countries. 

SF: Of the various social and political trends you focus on in the book, does one stand out as especially harmful to the fabric of Canadian society, or especially irreversible?

TH: We’ve gone way harder on a lot of gender identity issues than even the United States. We’ve gone way harder on a lot of so-called anti-racism [policies], the sort of oppressed-versus-oppressor dynamic. We’ve gone harder on that than the United States. 

In terms of any particular issue, I think I would just point out that a unifying problem across all of these eight chapters is the fact that Canadians don’t understand what’s going on. I think why these problems were able to get so bad so quickly is because of this generalized Canadian sense that there are certain things that do not happen in Canada, that we are a well-run country — [that] we do not have corruption, we do not have bad actors … we’re different from any other country. 

SF: Early on in the book you say, ‘There is a lot of human tragedy in the coming pages, whole generations robbed of potential, scores of preventable deaths, and untold numbers of innocent people caught within the wheels of a terrifying Kafkaesque bureaucracy. But I’m not going to pretend that Canada’s descent into madness isn’t simultaneously one of the most darkly comic things a country has ever done to itself. Nobody will fault you if you laugh.’

In your mind, what is the most tragicomic part of the book?

TH: The shop teacher showing up with the giant, oversized fetish breasts, and then the school board sort of defending him. And then after a year, he says, ‘Actually, I’m a man again.’ 

SF: Are there attributes of the Canadian state that make you optimistic about the future?

TH: Yeah … The moment that you realize that every bad thing that ever happened to you, you’re the architect of that, that’s great because that means you can fix them. 

You don’t have to deal with an external force… You can get to this at the end of this book and realize high crime is a choice. Housing unaffordability is a choice. Low economic growth is a choice. These are all things we didn’t have to do…

Just look at any of the other countries that show up when we go to these big G20 gatherings, the problems they have to deal with demographically, culturally, socially, environmentally. Canada is still a giant pile of resources filled with people. We’re generally insulated from disruptive demographic waves. We have more control over our immigration system than almost any other country on earth…

So [for] anybody just looking at the raw fundamentals, we are still a country that can run on easy mode. All we have to do is stop punching ourselves directly in the nuts, or ovaries, whichever is your preference.

Reviewing ‘recent political absurdities’

December 16, 2025
https://thebcreview.ca/2025/12/16/2766-lacey-hopper/

Don’t Be Canada: How One Country Did Everything Wrong All At Once

by Tristin Hopper, 2025

Reviewed by Eugene Lacey

Downey 1. cover DontBeCanada_FC-scaled

Doubtless, many Canadian readers will wince with their elbows up at the title of Tristin Hopper’s Don’t Be Canada: How One Country Did Everything Wrong All At Once. Others may smirk, relishing in the literary vindication of their recriminations of the current government. This book, the first from the Victoria-based columnist, seeks to confront its audience with all the uncomfortable topics of issue that Canada has proven exceptional at displaying without acknowledging. The timing of this title is indeed incendiary, coming at a period which has seen the resurgence of annexationist rhetoric from the President of the United States; however, it is also incredibly pertinent. This book in many ways derides the Canadian impulse to use American disfavour to justify turning a blind eye to our own country’s shortcomings. A Canadian political desire to appeal to American progressivism has fueled performative policies that have caused real issues. Whether or not one agrees with the points of contention – political interests will inevitably influence the reader’s view of Hopper, a writer for the conservative National Post – there is considerable value in the way this book illuminates the rising dissatisfaction among Canadians. This book will prove a useful read as a sardonic and provocative examination into how Canada stopped being boring to the world.

A common, almost compulsive response of many Canadians to expressions of political discontent is to point out that things are really quite bad everywhere. For example, the high cost of living, which is totemic of the myriad of problems that young Canadians are facing, is on the rise in liberal democracies around the world. Don’t Be Canada contests such a generous comparison between Canada and the rest of the democratic world. Its very basis is that Canada is unique in doing a number of things wrong, voluntarily engaging in self-destructive activities in an attempt to appeal to a progressive American mindset. In this vein, Hopper runs the gamut of controversial topics, including Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), criminal justice reform, harm reduction, and censorship legislation. This book is not an outright denunciation of the sympathies behind these causes but rather attempts to show the extremities to which Canada has strayed in a semi-conscious fervour. As an emblematic illustration Hopper cites the United Kingdom, who, in exploring policy options for their own version of MAID, highlighted Canada as a “disturbing” (viii) example to avoid. With a focus on how Canada appears from the outside looking in, Hopper gives himself the ability to ignore the Canadian social convention strongly avoiding divisive political topics. Canadians are generally taught to think of themselves as a country little thought about – a country that leads by example on the world stage. Though domestic politics might rage like a storm, Canadians have historically been able to rely on a benign, boring, yet attractive image abroad. Indeed, Canada’s comfortable historic reputation is that of a tempest in a teapot. As Hopper has it, the teapot is cracked, and the tempest is leaking out.

Downey 2. Tristin Hopper

Victoria-based National Post reporter and columnist Tristin Hopper
The reader may ask themselves whether the comically inept image of Canada developing abroad is a politically motivated exaggeration. Surely, one might think, the disruptive and divisive actions of the US President, Donald Trump, and the incapacitated image of the Biden presidency, have made Canada to appear as a competent and cooperative alternative? President Trump has indeed both united many Canadians against him and made Canadian politicians look incredibly cordial by comparison. However, he has simultaneously served as a major distraction in the way of Canada’s own self-criticism. This book’s second chapter, “Outdoing the Americans at Identity Politics,” alludes to this very problem. As Hopper characterises it, Canada’s singular focus on providing a progressive alternative to Trump’s America resulted in escalatory statements with little to no plan of accountability. This culminated in the Canadian government’s admittance of its own guilt in committing an ongoing genocide without the imposition of any consequences or to prospect of any prosecutions. This focus on pinning Canada’s political reputation to American progressivism can give people a false sense of confidence.

American populists on the left, notably Independent Senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, continue to laud Canada’s healthcare system while Canadians are made to wait for nearly 24 hours for hospital beds. With the recent rise of annexationist threats coming from President Trump and Albertan separatists alike, it is important to untether the conversation on Canada’s failings from American political contexts. Perhaps the focus of de-Americanising our discourse is slightly impinged by Hopper’s use of American spellings for words like “defense” and “license,” but that hardly distracts from the overall point being made.

One need not subscribe to any particular political position in order to read Don’t Be Canada. One need not agree with Mr. Hopper’s contentions about the state of this country in order to recognise the value of discussing the issues and consequences he raises. The humour with which this book is infused may indeed strike some readers as a provocation. However, it is important to realise that Hopper does not pull this ridiculing assessment of Canadian policy out of thin air. Such is the value of the relatively lengthy notes section at the back of this relatively short book. This book addresses a Canadian audience that is so unacquainted to derision on the world stage that it requires hard evidence to be convinced otherwise. Indeed, Canada has long enjoyed an international reputation of being pleasantly charmless –  The New Republic once christened “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative” to be “the most boring headline ever written.” 

However, this is a comfort that Canadians can no longer rely on. Don’t Be Canada is not for those who want answers to Canada’s problems, nor is it for those wanting a balanced assessment of the Trudeau government’s policy agenda. However, for those who want to know the reasons why so many people in Canada seem to be so angry all the time, this book provides a summary that is both digestible and evidently researched. While covering a lot of territory in under one hundred pages, sacrificing depth of analysis for breadth of content, Hopper’s survey of Canada’s recent political absurdities largely succeeds in its goal of guiding its reader through the underacknowledged controversies of our time.

Downey 4. 'Bomber' Lacey, aka Mackie, Richard Ernest cropped
Eugene “Bomber” Lacey

As a young man, Eugene Lacey worked as a bus driver in southern British Columbia where he earned his nickname, Bomber, for his speedy transit between coast and Interior. In 1983, he was awarded the Ewart Bowering medal for the fastest trip between Princeton and Vancouver on the Crowsnest Highway. Later he enrolled in political science courses at Okanagan College before earning a Master’s degree from Notre Dame University in Nelson. Now retired, he lives quietly on the Chilcotin Plateau and spends too much time surfing the web. This is his first contribution to The British Columbia Review. Welcome to the Review, Bomber Lacey!*

The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

“Only connect.” – E.M. Forster

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One comment on “Reviewing ‘recent political absurdities’”
Glenn T Allen says:
December 31, 2025 at 8:13 am
Tristin Hopper’s book details somber realities in Canada. I identify as an aging baby-boomer. My parents identified as WWII veterans.
One of my identifiers never waivered over 7 decades. Proud Canadian defined my existence as much as any personality marker.
I acknowledge my life long interest in current affairs and global political structures to a lesser degree.
So this book is not opening up on topics I know little about. But, it does condense these issues into a credible format.
Canada clearly lies at a crossroads in its brief history as a nation. I won’t be around for the next 50 years. If the political climate does not change then there clearly will be a climate catastrophe in my opinion. Nothing to do with the weather.
My hope is that many, many conscious Canadians will read this book. Minimally it will provide a thought provoking assessment of this country they call home.
But don’t count on mainstream media to advocate it as a pathway to understand these Canadian realities.