Trumpism in Canada

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Trumpism (French: trumpisme),[1] which includes the rhetoric, methods of acquiring power, approach to government, movement and recurring themes of 45th President of the United States Donald Trump and his core followers,[2][3] exists in Canada.[4][5][6][7][8][9]

Overview[]

In 2020, academics at Ryerson University in Toronto, said that Trumpism had already "significantly affected the political discourse in Canada" and that there was clear evidence that it was "influencing our national and political identity, behaviour, economics and society."[10] Ryerson Department of Politics and Public Administration professor, Wayne Petrozzi, said that Trump was not simply an "aberration", but a "culmination of a process that was building inside American politics for decades."[10] Early indications of Trumpism in Canada, included alt-right flyers circulating in Toronto in 2016 asking, "Hey white person, tired of political correctness?"[10]

2017 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election candidate Kellie Leitch said Trump's 2016 election win was an "exciting message and one that we need delivered in Canada as well."[11] Leitch's proposal to screen immigrants for "anti-Canadian values" was compared to Trump's immigration restrictionism.[12] Kevin O'Leary, a candidate in the same leadership election until he withdrew mid-race, was prominently compared to Trump. Both were celebrity businessmen and reality television personalities. O'Leary contended that his policies differed from Trump's, but also that with his toughness and business background he could represent Canada in negotiations with Trump.[13][14]

Public opinion researcher Frank Graves had been studying the rise of populism in Canada for a number of years. In a June 30, 2020 School of Public Policy journal article he co-authored, the authors described a decrease in trust in the news and in journalists since 2011 in Canada, along with an increase in skepticism which "reflects the emergent fake news convictions so evident in supporters of Trumpian populism."[15] Graves and Smith wrote of the impact on Canada of a "new authoritarian, or ordered, populism" that resulted in the 2016 election of President Trump.[15] They said that 34% of Canadians hold a populist viewpoint—most of whom are in Alberta and Saskatchewan—who tend to be "older, less-educated, and working-class", are more likely to embrace "ordered populism", and are "more closely aligned" with conservative political parties.[15] This "ordered populism" includes concepts such as a right-wing authoritarianism, obedience, hostility to outsiders, and strongmen who will take back the country from the "corrupt elite" and return it a better time in history, where there was more law and order.[15] It is xenophobic, does not trust science, has no sympathy for equality issues related to gender and ethnicity, and is not part of a "healthy" democracy.[15] The authors say that this ordered populism had reached a "critical force" in Canada that is causing polarization and "needs to be addressed".[15]

According to an October 2020 Léger poll for 338 Canada of Canadian voters, the number of "pro-Trump conservatives" has been growing in the Conservative Party of Canada, which is now under the leadership of Erin O'Toole. Maclean's said that this might explain O'Toole's "True Blue" social conservative campaign.[16] The Conservative Party of Canada also includes "centrist" conservatives as well as Red Tories,[16]—also described as small-c conservative, centre-right or paternalistic conservatives as per the Tory tradition in the United Kingdom.

Journalist, Max Fawcett, who is a former editor of Alberta Oil magazine, warned that the use of "Trump-style rhetoric" by some of Canada's "key politicians" is "dangerous".[6] O'Toole featured a modified version of Trump's slogan—"Take Back Canada"—in a video released as part of his official leadership candidacy platform. At the end of the video he called on Canadians to "[j]oin our fight, let's take back Canada."[17][6] In a September 8, 2020 CBC interview, when asked if his "Canada First" policy was different from Trump's "America First" policy, O'Toole said, "No, it was not."[18] In his August 24, 2019 speech conceding the victory of his successor Erin O'Toole as the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party, Andrew Scheer cautioned Canadians to not believe the "narrative" from mainstream media outlets but to "challenge" and "double check...what they see on TV on the internet" by consulting "smart, independent, objective organizations like The Post Millennial and True North.[19][6] The Observer said that Jeff Ballingall, who is the founder of the right-wing Ontario Proud,[20] is also the Chief Marketing Officer of The Post Millennial.[21]

Following the 2020 US elections, National Post columnist and former newspaper "magnate", Conrad Black, who had had a "decades-long" friendship with Trump, and received a presidential pardon in 2019, in his columns, repeated Trump's "unfounded claims of mass voter fraud" suggesting that the election had been stolen.[9][22]

In a November 2020 interview on The Current, immediately following the US elections, law professor Allan Rock, who served as Canada's attorney general and as Canada's ambassador to the U.N., described Trumpism and its potential impact on Canada.[23] Rock said that even with Trump losing the election, he had "awakened something that won't go away". He said it was something "we can now refer to as Trumpism"—a force that he has "harnessed". Trump has "given expression to an underlying frustration and anger, that arises from economic inequality, from the implications from globalisation."[23] Rock cautioned that Canada must "keep up its guard against the spread of Trumpism"[4] which he described as "destabilizing", "crude", "nationalistic", "ugly", "divisive", "racist", and "angry".[23] Rock added that one measurable impact on Canada of the "overtly racist behaviour" associated with Trumpism is that racists and white supremacists have become emboldened since 2016, resulting in a steep increase in the number of these organizations in Canada and a shockingly high increase in the rate of hate crimes in 2017 and 2018 in Canada.[23]

Not all Canadians agree that Trumpism is viable in Canada. Canadian communications and political strategist, Peter Donolo, said in an August 2020 The Globe and Mail article that Canadians feared that "the pathogens of Trumpism—with all its hatred and rage—would "infect the Canadian body politic", but they should not.[7] While populist politicians, such as Jason Kenney and Doug Ford were compared to Trump, Donolo rejected the comparison. Kenney had served as former Prime Minister Stephen Harper's senior cabinet minister, and a very "effective ambassador to Canada's ethno-cultural communities"[7] and Ford hosted an annual festival with a highly diverse gathering.[7] Donolo agreed with the findings of the pollster Michael Adams who wrote about the possibility of Trumpism in Canada in his 2017 book, entitled Could It Happen Here? Canada in the Age of Trump and Brexit.[24] Adams said that Canada has a "long history of compromise and accommodation", that lacks both "glamour" and "drama" but has been "quite effective." He cites the example of consensus on Canada's public health, and immigration. Adams says Canada's immigration policy results in "demographic renewal" that had "plausibly become" a "defining feature" as well as the mechanism that "injects values of openness, tolerance and compromise into every sphere of social life."[24] Donolo said that the more important reason that Canada does not need to fear Trumpism, is "money and economies of scale". The Canadian market is neither "big or lucrative enough".[7]

Casual Trumpism[]

Ken Boessenkool, a senior research fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute who worked as a Conservative strategist and as Stephen Harper's campaign manager, cautions Canadians against what he called "casual Trumpism" in the personal and political, in a January 12, 2021 CBC The Current interview.[25][26] He urged party members to "find policy solutions that speak to [voters], as opposed to stoking their anger."[25]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "La tentation du trumpisme au Canada". December 3, 2020.
  2. ^ Reicher, Stephen; Haslam, S. Alexander (November 19, 2016). "The politics of hope: Donald Trump as an entrepreneur of identity". Scientific American. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  3. ^ Blyth, Mark (November 15, 2016). "Global Trumpism: Why Trump's Victory was 30 Years in the Making and Why It Won't Stop Here". Foreign Affairs.
  4. ^ a b Delacourt, Susan (November 8, 2020). "Donald Trump lost, but Trumpism is still thriving. Could it take hold in Canada, too?". Toronto Star. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  5. ^ Donolo, Peter (January 9, 2021). "What will become of Trump's Canadian fan base?". Toronto Star. Toronto, Ontario. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  6. ^ a b c d Fawcett, Max (January 12, 2021). "Rigged Canadian election? Why Canada's Conservatives can't seem to quit Donald Trump". National Observer. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d e Donolo, Peter (August 21, 2020). "Trumpism won't happen in Canada – but not because of our politics". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  8. ^ "Trumpism in Canada". Global News. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  9. ^ a b Fournier, Philippe J. (January 10, 2021). "Canada is not immune to Trumpism". Maclean's. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  10. ^ a b c Bir, Surbhi (October 29, 2020). "Trump vs. Biden – how does the U.S election impact Canada?". Ryerson University. Retrieved January 14, 2020.
  11. ^ "Trump's win an 'exciting message' that's needed in Canada, Kellie Leitch says | Toronto Star". The Toronto Star. November 9, 2016. Retrieved November 13, 2016.
  12. ^ "Q&A: Kellie Leitch, the potential future prime minister who wants to bring President-elect Trump's message to Canada". November 9, 2016.
  13. ^ "Kevin O'Leary: Canada's Donald Trump?". BBC News. February 22, 2017.
  14. ^ "'Shark Tank' investor Kevin O'Leary ready for showdown with Trump". January 20, 2017.
  15. ^ a b c d e f Graves, Frank; Smith, Jeff (June 30, 2020). "Northern Populism: Causes and Consequences of the New Ordered Outlook". School of Public Policy. 13. doi:10.11575/sppp.v13i0.69884. ISSN 2560-8320. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  16. ^ a b Fournier, Philippe J. (October 1, 2020). "How much do Canadians dislike Donald Trump? A lot". Maclean's. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  17. ^ Woods, Mel (June 11, 2020). "Erin O'Toole's 'Take Back Canada' Slogan Prompts Plenty Of Questions". Huffington Post. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  18. ^ Erin O'Toole (newly-elected leader of the CPC) (September 8, 2020). O'Toole on his 'Canada First' policy. Power & Politics. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  19. ^ "Andrew Scheer praises Erin O'Toole as next leader of Conservative Party". CBC. August 24, 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  20. ^ Platt, Brian (June 5, 2018). "Ontario Proud, the right-wing Facebook giant in Ontario's election, eyes federal election involvement | National Post". National Post.
  21. ^ Samphir, Harrison (July 23, 2019). "The Post Millennial joins Conservative party's online booster club". NOW Magazine. Retrieved November 28, 2019.
  22. ^ Fisher, Marc (May 16, 2019). "After a two-decade friendship and waves of lavish praise, Trump pardons newspaper magnate Conrad Black". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  23. ^ a b c d Matt Galloway (Host), Allan Rock (Guest) (November 6, 2020). "Allan Rock on what the presidential election means for U.S.-Canada relations". The Current. CBC. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  24. ^ a b Adams, Michael (September 26, 2017). Could It Happen Here?: Canada in the Age of Trump and Brexit. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-5011-7742-2.
  25. ^ a b Matt Galloway (Host), Ken Boessenkool (Guest) (January 13, 2020). "Conservatives must reject Trumpism and address voter anger rather than stoking it, says strategist". The Current. CBC. Retrieved January 14, 2021.
  26. ^ Boessenkool, Ken (January 8, 2021). "Enough is enough with Trumpism". The Line. Retrieved January 14, 2021.
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