Some of the reaction to the British Columbia provincial election provides more evidence that Canadian society in 2026 is beyond the possibility of satire

British Columbia Premier David Eby, leader of the New Deomcratic Party, had two years remaining before his slim majority government would have to face another election, but with the opposition Conservative Party in disarray, decided to call a snap election for October 24, 2026. Mr. Eby's government has been disastrous for B.C., and the voters rewarded him by electing the province's first Conservative government in almost 100 years. The Conservatives, with Lorne Doerksen as interim leader, took 63 of the 93 seats in the Legislative Assembly, an increase of 27 from before the election. The NDP dropped from 47 seats to 28, while the Green Party remained with 2 seats. The result came as such a blow to NDP supporters that a few decided to have a "grief swim." This is how some people whose faith is limited to this world react to misfortune.

As reported by Alex Zoltan of the Western Standard, October 26, 2026:

VANCOUVER — A North Vancouver resident is inviting people to gather in West Vancouver waters Monday evening to process their frustration and anger after Saturday’s provincial election with a so-called "grief swim."

Megan Sheldon, co-founder of Be Ceremonial and a self-described "humanist celebrant and end-of-life doula," posted the invitation on Instagram under the heading “Post-Election Grief Swim.”

The post describes a community swim “to process whatever you may be holding or feeling after the BC election.” It lists Monday evening in West Vancouver and directs people to message for details.

Peter McCaffrey, president of the Alberta Institute, shared a screenshot of the Instagram post on X Monday with the comment “This can’t be real.”

This can't be real. pic.twitter.com/owpwUt7jE6
— Peter McCaffrey (@peteremcc) October 26, 2026

The caption of the original Instagram post reads, “The sea can hold what we can’t hold alone.” It continues that many people are carrying “grief, frustration, anger, disappointment, or something we don’t have a name for yet” in the wake of the election. Participants are invited to gather as the sun goes down, name what they are carrying, and offer it to the ocean. They may swim, dip their toes, or stand on the shore.

Sheldon has organized similar secular gatherings on North Shore beaches for years. She combines elements of her work as a "celebrant" with cold-water swimming. A "celebrant" is a person who designs and leads ceremonies, usually as a non-religious alternative to a clergy member or civil official.

Previous locations have included Dundarave Beach in West Vancouver and sites near Whytecliff and Lions Bay. She has described the sessions as a way for people to acknowledge and release what they are holding, sometimes using objects from the beach that are later released into the water.

She is also the author of Ritual Without Religion: A Humanist Guide to Creating Secular Ceremonies and co-founder of Be Ceremonial, an online platform for designing rituals. She lives and works in North Vancouver...

According to the Be Ceremonial website's page on Ms. Sheldon's book Ritual Without Religion (bold, link in original):

The Premise

Ritual Without Religion begins with a simple premise: you are already ceremonial. You don't need religion, expertise, or permission to create meaningful ritual — you simply need to remember how.

For many of us, there's a quiet longing in life for something more intentional, more connected, more personal. Maybe you've gone through a transition and not known how to mark it, or you've experienced a loss and are looking for ways to honour your grief. This book gives that longing a name and offers ways to reimagine our relationship with ritual and ceremony.

Where To Begin

Drawing on anthropology, mythology, neuroscience, and years of experience as a humanist celebrant and end-of-life doula, Megan shows us that ritual has never belonged to any one tradition. It belongs to all of us.

This book is divided into four sections: The Nature of Ritual, The Science of Ritual, The Art of Ritual and The Practice of Ritual. In each section, Megan explores the roots of ritual and how we can reclaim a relationship with ceremony that is meaningful to us without appropriating from other cultures.

Reimagining Ritual

Part storytelling, part guidebook, this book walks you through how to design rituals and ceremonies that are unique and meaningful, from life's biggest rites of passage to the often invisible transitions we move through.

This isn't a book about grand gestures; it's an invitation to start small, with daily moments of intentionality that build over time, strengthening our ritual muscles. From birth to death, this book offers a path back to something deeply human — the capacity to weave meaning into our lives and build communities of care along the way.

Click on the link above, and it takes you to a page titled What Is A Humanist Ceremony?, which includes the following (bold, link in original):

The short answer

A humanist ceremony is built entirely around meaning and relationships, without mention of the supernatural. No deity is invoked, no script is required. Instead, the ceremony draws its authority from the people actually standing in the room: their values, their history, their stories.

That might sound simple, but it changes everything about how a ceremony gets built. There's no template handed down from an institution. Every element (the words, the symbols, the order of things) has to be chosen on purpose, because it means something to these people, in this moment. That's the work, and it's also the gift of a humanist ceremony.

Why "humanist" and not just "secular"

People often use "secular ceremony" and "humanist ceremony" interchangeably, but I'd push back on that a little. A secular ceremony just means non-religious — it tells you what's absent. Humanist tells you what's present.

. A secular wedding might simply remove references to God from a standard religious script.

. A humanist wedding is built from the ground up around the couple's actual values, chosen symbols, and the community's role in witnessing and supporting the relationship going forward.

I've noticed that for all their boasting about not needing God or the supernatural, the "humanists," under whatever label they choose to use, are incapable of coming up with anything original of their own; they always use the form of religion, while refusing to acknowledge the source.

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,...
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. II Timothy 3:1-2,5