Yesterday, Robin Sears warned that, out in the hinterland, there is palpable rage:
My neighbours in northeastern Ontario are quick to vent their rage about all manner of foolish government regulations and about guns, opioids, and their children’s futures. Trudeau pounding on about women, climate and Indigenous Canadians are the angry backyard chat among our friends. They are not racists, but they are deeply angry about two things: no good jobs for their children unless they leave for the city, and being talked down to by smart aleck politicians.
At the gas pump or the mall, they are the picture of polite deferential Canadians. But scratch the surface on “cruelty to farm animals” or cutbacks to their health clinic and they erupt. They are neither conventional conservatives nor narrowly populist. Their irritations are sparked by too much spending on sex education and too little on the “basics;” too much CRA harassment over GST payments while ignoring “the real rich tax cheats:”; and too little spent on roads in rural Canada versus “billions for big city subways.”
There are two troubling connectors in this welter of grievances: first, governments and politicians are all frauds and corrupt — even “Tyrants!” Second, everything is “rigged” against them by “George Soros and Trump’s gang of billionaire friends” and the politicians they control. The range of enemies runs from “the rich guys” to “the politicians they own,” to mainstream media appearing to sneer at their concerns.
The combinations of villains and issues may seem bizarre, but perfectly defensible to people who feel they are now permanently cast as outsiders, and “losers.”
“Why should my son work for less than minimum wage and yours makes three times that in town?! He worked just as hard at school? I am terrified he is going to fall into the opioid hole,” says an angry father to a richer neighbour, as I quietly eavesdrop at our local diner.
The digital revolution has left many in small town and rural Canada behind:
The so-called “big muscle jobs” at the small industrial plants are gone, the township jobs are being held onto to by elderly men who should have retired but can’t afford to, and there’s no money in farming. For an 18-year-old high school grad in these towns, someone with no family farm or business to fall back on, there are very few local choices. She can be a small-town cashier or domestic helper. He can serve summer tourists or be a handyman — the original insecure gig economy jobs.
It's true that only 15% of Canadians live in the hinterland. But politicians like Doug Ford and Jason Kenny have stoked their anger successfully. If voters in rural Canada are ignored by the major parties, there will be hell to pay.
Image: pressfrom.info
2 comments:
A permanent underclass. Untermenschen. I'm not sure this is new. My mother was one of eight. The eldest son stayed on to work and eventually inherit the farm. Everyone else migrated to work in nearby towns and cities.
Farm families were quick to chose a party allegiance and loathe to change afterward. That's what kept Gene Whelan in office for so long.
This perceived rural alienation isn't unique to Canada. The spread of industrial agriculture has gutted the 'family farm' and, with it, the rural community. The nuclear family is dispersed. They think, rightly, that no one much cares.
There was a time, Mound, when the family farm was the backbone of this country. But farming -- like so many other things -- has changed.
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