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Journal of Language and Politics: Online-First Articles

From social awareness to authoritarian other

The conservative weaponization of woke in Canadian parliamentary discourse

ORCID logo | University of Ottawa
ORCID logo | University of New Brunswick
ORCID logo | London School of Economics and Political Science
This study examines the evolution of (anti)woke discourse in debates within the Canadian House of Commons from 2019 to 2023, analyzing how “conceptual flipsiding” and moral panic operate to transform democratic language into tools of illiberal politics. Our critical discourse analysis of Hansard transcripts identifies three key themes: the semantic shift of woke from social awareness to authoritarianism, the strategic redefinition of woke by Conservative MPS — led by party leader Pierre Poilievre — to construct a moral panic around an anti-Canadian ideological Other, and inadequate attempts by MPs from other parties to challenge this negative framing. We argue that the discursive weaponization of woke demonstrates how political actors appropriate and invert democratic language to advance illiberal agendas while maintaining democratic legitimacy. This Canadian case illuminates broader patterns in how democratic language is manipulated across national contexts while revealing how ineffective counter-frames can inadvertently legitimize anti-democratic action within democratic institutions.
Keywords: anti-woke discourse, Canadian conservatives, far-right populism, moral panic, normalisation, conceptual flipsiding, Pierre Poilievre, illiberal politics, politics of exclusion
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.History of woke
  • 3.Methods
    • Standalone uses
    • Moral panic
    • Delegitimization strategies
  • 4.Results and analysis
    • 4.1Woke: From awareness to authoritarian
    • 4.2From adjective to anti-Canadian adversary: Constructing the authoritarian ‘other’
    • 4.3Push-back or paradox? MPs’ challenges to the negative framing of woke
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Note
  • Author queries
  • References
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