ADAMS: Leave Sasha Carney the Hell Alone

I've hit my limit. I've scrolled past it one too many times—the smug posts, the “just asking questions” comments, the barely veiled glee as people drag Mark Carney's kid into the political arena. And I'm done being quiet about it.

If you are posting about Sasha Carney online, questioning their identity, or using them as a cudgel to attack their father, you need to hear this: you are a fucking weirdo, and you need to mind your own business. Sasha Carney is a private citizen. They are 24 years old. They did not sign up for public office. They did not ask to be dissected by strangers on the internet who have built their entire personality around being outraged by other people's identities.

They exist, they are non-binary, and that is quite literally the beginning and end of the conversation.

Let me be absolutely crystal clear about something that should not need explaining in a civilized society: what they do with their life, how they identify, and what medical decisions were made on their behalf as a minor by their parents is none of your goddamn business.

None.

But here we are, watching the same playbook unfold yet again. The radical right has mastered the art of political warfare: find an opponent's family member, dehumanize them, and turn them into a talking point. It's not an attack on the family, they claim, even as they're literally attacking the family. It's about “judgment” and “accountability,” they insist, as if a parent supporting their child through a complex medical journey is a character flaw.

The cognitive dissonance would be hilarious if it weren't so destructive.

Imagine, for just one second, what would happen if someone did this to Pierre Poilievre's kids. Just imagine it. If a single person—let alone 40% of an entire political movement—started posting about one of his children, digging into their private lives, questioning their identities, using them as a political prop?

The right-wing establishment media would detonate. It would be a weeks-long scandal, minimum. Every outlet would lead with it. They would use it as a crutch to avoid any legitimate criticism of Poilievre's policies for months. They would hunt down whoever gave that sentiment momentum and ruin their life, professionally and personally.

They would demand apologies from every corner of the left, even those who had nothing to do with it. They would milk it until the last drop of outrage was dry, and then they'd find a way to squeeze out a few more. But when it's their side doing the attacking? When it's a conservative politician's child who happens to be transgender or non-binary? Suddenly it's “fair game.” Suddenly it's “accountability.” Suddenly, it's “just asking questions about parental judgment.”

It's a sickness. And it reveals something ugly about the people doing it.

You know what else reveals something ugly? The way the radical right manufactures outrage over absolutely everything while demanding perfection from everyone else.

In 2023, Justin Trudeau said flat-earthers were stupid, and the radical lost their collective minds. Not “I disagree with the Prime Minister's tone.” Not “here's why I think he's wrong.” Full-scale meltdown. Indignation. Outrage. How dare he question objectively stupid viewpoints? How dare he be so “dismissive?”

But those same people will turn around and dismiss an entire human being's identity as “ideology.” They will question the medical decisions made by a family they've never met. They will attack a 24-year-old they don't know, based on absolutely nothing except their own pre-existing bigotry and a desperate need to find something to use against a political opponent.

So let me say this as plainly as I can, in a tone that leaves no room for misunderstanding:

Leave Sasha Carney alone.

You don't get to use a young person's identity as a weapon. Ever. If you want to criticize Mark Carney's policies? Go ahead, that's what democracy is for. Debate his economic record. Question his stance on tariffs. Challenge his foreign policy. That's fair game.

But his family? Off limits. Always.

The fact that this even needs to be said in 2026 is embarrassing. The fact that grown adults are sitting behind keyboards typing out paragraphs about someone else's kid—someone they've never met, someone who has done nothing to them, someone whose only "crime" is existing authentically—is ridiculous.

You want to know what real accountability looks like? It starts with looking in the mirror and asking yourself why you're so invested in attacking a politician through his family. It starts with recognizing that your concern is actually contempt dressed up in nicer clothes. It starts with shutting the hell up and moving on with your life.

Sasha Carney doesn't owe you an explanation; they don't owe you anything. Mark Carney doesn't owe you a defence of his parenting. And the rest of us don't owe you a platform for your transphobic nonsense disguised as political discourse.

Mind your own fucking business.

This piece was written by an individual contributor and reflects the editorial position of The Provincial Times and Left Lane Media Group. Read our Content Policy here.