OP-ED: Mamdani’s victory is Canada’s warning

Dotan Rousso writes, "The most worrying aspect of Zohran Mamdani’s election in New York is not that a democratic socialist won, but that so few voices pushed back against what his rise represents."

Source: Facebook

Author: Dotan Rousso

The most worrying aspect of Zohran Mamdani’s election in New York is not that a democratic socialist won, but that so few voices pushed back against what his rise represents. His victory should be seen less as an endorsement of one man’s ideology and more as a reflection of a more profound Western crisis — a collapse of confidence in the very values that built liberal democracy.

Mamdani’s ascent is not an isolated event; it’s a symptom of a cultural and intellectual surrender that has been maturing for decades within our universities, media, and political class. When the political centre of the West stops believing in the moral and philosophical foundations that gave it life, it leaves a vacuum ready to be filled by movements that question those foundations altogether.

A glimpse of this broader moral drift can be seen in Mamdani’s ambiguous response to Hamas’s actions after October 7, where the language of anti-colonial critique seemed to overshadow moral judgment. It reflects a wider Western tendency to relativize violence rather than condemn it outright.

As a philosophy faculty member in Alberta, I see this erosion every day. The self-doubt begins in our classrooms, where ideas such as post-colonial theory and Western guilt are too often taught not as interpretive frameworks but as moral verdicts. Properly understood, these theories can illuminate blind spots in our history. But treated as dogma, they invert moral perspective — teaching students to see prosperity, democracy, and freedom not as hard-won achievements but as evidence of historical wrongdoing.

The results are visible. A 2022 Fraser Institute–Leger survey found that 46 per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 34 agreed that “socialism is the ideal economic system,” while 39 percent said the same of capitalism. Although the questions were asked separately rather than as a direct comparison, the data reveal a striking generational divide. Many younger Canadians express greater sympathy for government-led economic models and less confidence in traditional market capitalism — a shift that reflects not only changing economics, but a deeper uncertainty about the moral foundations of the liberal order itself.

Political and cultural elites, eager to appear compassionate or “on the right side of history,” increasingly equate moral confidence with intolerance. They frame the defense of liberal democracy, free markets, and the rule of law as forms of “colonial aggression.” In doing so, they replace principle with performative neutrality — a posture that mistakes moral hesitation for sophistication.

The danger is not confined to the United States. The same intellectual fatigue is spreading through Canada’s own institutions, from Vancouver’s city politics to Parliament Hill. What fuels this shift is not the strength of radical ideas but the silence of the mainstream. When leaders stop defending the achievements of the West — constitutional liberty, free enterprise, individual rights — they cede the moral language of justice to those who would redefine it entirely.

Mamdani’s victory should therefore be read as a warning. It shows what happens when the defenders of liberal democracy lose faith in their own civilization. Ultimately, our greatest threat is not the radicalism of others, but our growing inability to believe in and defend our own values.