Recently, I had this strange encounter on a packed subway at midnight. I was coming back from the OASIS concert in Toronto when I ran into two veteran political journalists from Ottawa. They struck up a conversation.
Very quickly, it turned into a full-on interrogation of my views on the Trump crisis, The Resistance and what I was doing with Meidas Canada.
I fielded question after question until I finally said that I found it strange that they were so interested in my work, considering I had not appeared on any major Canadian news network in eight months — not since I began talking about the rise of a new era of fascism. Somehow, it seemed I didn’t fit into the familiar “he said/she said” format of the nightly pundit shows.
“Well, what if you’re wrong?” the journalist shot back.
About fascism? About the threat to our country and the global order?
“Wouldn’t that be the best thing ever?” I replied. “I’d be thrilled to be proven wrong. But if I was wrong, I doubt you would be here at midnight questioning me so intently.”
One of them then admitted to being worried about the state of the world. But they never did have me on their networks.
I’ve been reflecting on that conversation and about how far The Resistance has come over the last nine months. When I started this Substack back in January, it was a bit of a panicked scramble — an attempt to make sense of the threats facing our nation. The hope was to find language to articulate what we were dealing with and provide a path through the darkness.
I didn’t expect that my voice would be heard, but from the get-go, the response was overwhelming. People immediately understood that this had nothing to do with a trade war. We were watching the rise of a new form of gangster fascism, and they wanted to be part of pushing back.
Since then, we’ve published over 200 essays, held 16 Resistance Tour events, and built a Substack community of 68,000 readers. What’s even more extraordinary is where people are tuning in from: every Canadian province and territory, every U.S. state, and 134 countries around the world.
The work of The Resistance has helped shift the language on the nature of the threat we are dealing with. And then we launched the Meidas Canada Network on Youtube.
Meidas Canada has welcomed a global audience who are as concerned as we in Canada with the threat to democracy. Our team has moved from being a Canadian nationalist “Elbows Up” campaign to working to frame issues within the larger threat to global democracy.
Meidas Canada has grown to over 170,000 subscribers, and in the last month alone, our work has reached 2.2 million views, with support coming from all over the globe.
In addition, the Meidas Canada Resistance Tour has received an increasing number of requests to host town halls and organize meetings. The fall calendar is now full but we are starting to plot out tour stops for 2026.
It’s a pace that just won’t let up. So here’s where I’m asking for your help.
Every essay we post is free for anyone to read, and it always will be. We don’t receive any outside funding. Everything we do is powered by you.
If you are a paid subscriber — a thousand thank yous. If you're reading The Resistance as a free subscriber, thank you so much, and please continue sharing.
But if you’re able to take the next step and upgrade to a paid subscription, it would make a huge difference. Paid subscriptions mean that we can do more, reach further and sustain this work.
Some folks across North America have reached out with contributions to help support the costs of putting our team on the road. Maybe you’ve met Raul or Jan at Meidas Canada Resistance Tour stops or perhaps you’ve received an email from Cate, our amazing volunteer who helps to keep up with all the correspondence we receive.
If you’d like to make a contribution beyond a subscription, please get in touch with Meidas Canada / The Resistance at info@charlieangus.ca
We are going to keep kicking at the darkness until it bleeds daylight.
Thank you.
— Charlie
Charlie, I came across a quote recently that made me think of you. I know you were not and are not exactly a folk singer but you are also not exactly not a folk singer.
Anyway the guy who quoted this would have approved I am sure.
“It’s a folk singer’s job to comfort disturbed people and to disturb comfortable people.” Woody Guthrie.
Thanks for all you do.
I am subscribed. I often wonder why the "mainstream" media are not having their feet held to the fire for their absolute failure to alert the public here and elsewhere to the perils posed by our unchallenged ruling class regimes.