It might be comforting to think that Canada has avoided the kind of populism which is now the mother's milk of American and British politics. But don't get too comfortable. Beatrice Paez writes at The Hill Times:
Canada’s upcoming federal election could expose deepening societal rifts that will test the country’s immunity from Trumpian-style populism, says one leading pollster, but other politicians and political observers say while there are worrying signs, it has limited appeal.
Thanks to economic stagnation, the hyper-concentration of wealth, and a brewing cultural backlash, Canada’s political climate is ripe for populist forces that mirror the experiences of the U.S. and the U.K. to gain traction, said Frank Graves of EKOS Research. He said the polling he’s conducted over the years has suggested there’s a widening gap between the attitudes that left- and right-leaning voters share towards issues such as immigration and climate change.
This is something we've never seen before; and, therefore, it's tempting to deny its existence:
“This particular phenomenon has never expressed itself in Canada [until now]. The differences across the people who are attracted to ordered or authoritarian populism and everybody else are on a scale that we haven’t seen in the past,” said Mr. Graves of his research.
Under the Harper government in 2011, for example, 43 per cent of respondents who identified as Liberal thought the country was heading in the wrong direction. In contrast, under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) in 2019, 87 per cent of Conservative respondents said the country isn’t headed in the right direction. When such sentiment is widespread, it’s often cited as an indication of an openness to embracing ordered populism, or populism that seeks to revert to the status quo of a bygone era in response to perceived chaos or disorder, Mr. Graves said.
Whereas in years past, Mr. Graves’ research indicated, working-class and less-educated voters’ support was more evenly distributed across parties, the Conservatives have started to gnaw away at the Liberals’ hold. In 2015, for example, the Liberals’ and Conservatives’ share of high school and college graduates was in the range of 30 per cent. But in 2019, the Liberals’ support dipped to around 20 per cent among both groups, increasing the Conservatives’ share to 40 per cent or more. “The gaps that have opened up are dramatic. The Conservative base was [once] evenly distributed. Now, there’s a 20-point gap.”
The simple truth is that we have not been able to avoid the consequences of the digital revolution -- and the neo-liberal political philosophy which has supported it:
“Although, authoritarian (or what I prefer to call ordered populism is moving very rapidly in the West, its roots are long simmering forces. Economic stagnation, hyperconcentration of wealth, cultural backlash from the previously privileged, a magnified sense of external risk,” Mr. Graves tweeted earlier this month. “I could go on but what is happening is a pattern mimicking the patterns in the U.S. and other advanced Western democracies. Authoritarian populism is rooted in widening polarization and sneering and denial aren’t going to solve this problem.”
If Frank Graves is right, we are about to reap the whirlwind.
Image: goalpostgroup
4 comments:
I wish pundits would call things by their proper names instead of hiding behind euphemisms. There are two types of popular authoritarianism: communism and fascism. Both are bad forms of government responsible for millions of deaths. Communism dreams of a future workers' paradise, while fascism harkens back to imaginary glory. What Graves is describing is fascism. Time to stop beating about the bush and clearly identify the danger at hand.
Cap
He's not the first to sound this alarm, Owen. A Tyee article on the 15th reported on two polls by Angus Reid and Ekos that found rightwing extremism of the sort that forms Trump's base is very much established in Canada:
...when we no longer even agree on problems, our version of democracy doesn’t work. We’re divided into camps, staring at each other with incomprehension, scorn or, occasionally, hatred.
And when the breakdown is centred on an issue that’s widely accepted as a grave threat to humanity, we’re moving away from useful political debate to destructive factionalism.
Canadians have broadly accepted the notion that racism is wrong. It is part of the context for our society and politics.
But current Conservative supporters are rejecting that principle.
EKOS concludes something much bigger is going on. The poll results reveal a surge in support for “ordered or authoritarian populism,” it says.
Then Globe columnist, Yakabuski, wrote of the "diploma divide" in which two camps are emerging - the educated and the poorly educated, the latter group flocking to the hard right exemplified by the Harper/Scheer Conservatives:
University of Ottawa professor Amir Attaran set off a Twitter storm this week by calling the Conservatives “the party of the uneducated,” based on Abacus Data poll showing the Tories with a 12-percentage point lead over the Liberals among Canadians with a high-school education or less. This, in Prof. Attaran’s view, is why “Conservative governments offer numbskull policy, like Buck-a-Beer,” one of Ontario Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford’s signature initiatives, which may or may not be as dumb as it sounds.
As Yakabuski put it, Canada has had its "Deplorables moment." Andrew Scheer knows it. So too do Doug Ford, Jason Kenney and the rest of the rightwing gang of thugs. It worked for Trump and they figure with the right dog whistles it'll work for them.
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2019/07/15/Canada-Divisions-Hardening/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=150719
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-did-canada-just-have-its-deplorables-moment/
I take your point, Cap. Perhaps if we called this fascism, people would recognize it for what it is.
Thanks for the links, Mound. I breathed a sigh of relief when Ontarians loudly booed Doug Ford. But it seems that my relief was premature.
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