Former MP Charlie Angus planned a quiet retirement. Now, he'd rather 'kick at the darkness'

Sitting in Ottawa's Rainbow Bistro, preparing for his band to play a gig, former MP Charlie Angus was reflecting on the past year. His plan to quietly retire and write a book turned into creating viral videos viewed around the world and a cross-Canada tour to fight Donald Trump.

A few months ago, Angus was preparing to wrap up a run of nearly 21 years as NDP MP for the northern Ontario riding of Timmins-James Bay and had begun researching the 1930's era in towns like Timmins, Kirkland Lake and Rouyn-Noranda for a book. He had just gotten to the end of 1938 and the rise of fascism when U.S. President Donald Trump was re-elected.

"I think I was one of the first people to come out and start using terms like the fascist threat," Angus recalled. "I've been living this in my research and suddenly it was there before me."

Angus knew that his time in Parliament was coming to an end so he decided to use his final speeches to talk about the threat he saw to democracy.

"I decided very quickly that I wasn't going to spend any more time in Parliament. I didn't know how much time I had, but I wasn't going to spend another minute asking dumb questions about bills that nobody was paying attention to. I was going to start to try and put on the record what was happening because I felt the threat was very, very serious, given what was happening with Putin, given what was happening in Europe, and then Trump."

Little did Angus know, MeidasTouch News, a popular U.S.-based news site that has been critical of Trump, was watching. It started posting some of those speeches.

"People started stopping me on the street … the bus on [Ottawa's] Elgin stopped in the middle of the street and the bus driver gave me a shout out," said Angus. "I couldn't figure out what was going on."

Angus's speeches — meant for the historical record — touched a chord with Canadians.

"What really struck me was that people really saw the nature of the threat. Ordinary Canadians saw threat and, for some reason, I was one of the voices speaking up."

"So, it's full-time work. That's what I do all the time now."

In January, while still an MP, Angus began a Substack called The Resistance with columns that stand up for Canada, warn about the risk of Trump's administration and, as Angus says, "kick at the darkness."

Angus began a Resistance tour, criss-crossing Canada from coast to coast, talking about the dangers Canada was facing and that it was going to get worse — but that the Canadian people had the power to resist.

On Labour Day, Angus launched MeidasCanada, featuring YouTube videos commenting on the news of the day – part rant, part op-ed and often featuring the kind of language Canadians are unlikely to hear on mainstream television airwaves.

Nearly four months later, MeidasCanada's YouTube channel has more than 206,000 subscribers. That's well shy of the 570,000 subscribers Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre has built up over the past 14 years but far more than the 24,000 to Prime Minister Mark Carney's channel over the past 10 months.