Northern composure: Can Canada stave off the West鈥檚 populist anger?
| Toronto
Accusations of fraud and corporate favors, secret tapes, and political rivals expunged: For two months, the nation has been gripped by a scandal at the highest tiers of government. This week, after two prominent members were expelled from the ruling political party, one newspaper dubbed it the 鈥淭uesday night massacre,鈥� a reference harking back to the Watergate scandal.
No, this is not the United States, nor does it have anything to do with the Mueller investigation. This is Canada, under the leadership of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose 鈥渟unny ways鈥� have been symbolizing all that is right about Canada 鈥� and all that seems to be going so very wrong in the rest of the world.
Now Mr. Trudeau鈥檚 office faces allegations that it pressured former Attorney General and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to drop bribery and fraud charges against a Quebec engineering firm over its dealings in Libya. The scandal, which broke in February, has always been about far more than the charges at hand.
Why We Wrote This
While right-wing and anti-globalist populism plagues the West, it remains rarer in Canada. Canadian politics have taken a different path thanks to geography, to wars past, and to political decisions made centuries ago.
It started after a newspaper alleged that Ms. Wilson-Raybould, the first indigenous woman to hold that office, was reassigned for refusing to bend to the will of those at the top who wanted to shield the company, SNC-Lavalin, from prosecution. It has since turned into a he-said, she-said. And the optics couldn鈥檛 be worse for Mr. Trudeau, a self-defined feminist leader, and his narrative of a new way of governance: It looks like white male power punishing the new player for not doing politics as usual.
鈥淪unny ways鈥� have definitely clouded over. In a recent poll by Ipsos, Mr. Trudeau鈥檚 approval rating fell to 40%, lower than President Donald Trump鈥檚 43% approval rating.
Yet for Canadians, this is more than a story of the political fate of Mr. Trudeau or his Liberal party. It sits at the heart of how Canadians view themselves, and how the world views Canada 鈥� long touted as an exception in the era of the right-wing populist. An opinion piece this week in The Globe and Mail, which broke the original story, worried whether Mr. Trudeau has 鈥渃hanneled Trump.鈥� It hints at the question many Canadians are asking themselves: Have we become what they are?
History suggests the answer is no.
Canadian politics have taken a different path than in the United States and many Western democracies, where anti-immigrant and anti-globalization sentiment has grown 鈥� and it鈥檚 not just because of Mr. Trudeau. There鈥檚 a much longer history that owes to geography, to wars past, and to political decisions made centuries ago.
That鈥檚 not to say there is no anxiety. This is an election year, and many political observers are worried about the populism creeping into public discourse in this normally restrained nation. Yet even the humblest Canadian will admit that the cleavages don鈥檛 run nearly as deep as they do elsewhere 鈥� the mood not nearly as angry or explosive.
Mike Gray sits in his Singer sewing shop in early January in downtown Oshawa, which was rocked by economic news in late November when General Motors announced a five-plant closure across North America, including its last assembly line here. He says he believes Canada won鈥檛 be torn apart and politics won鈥檛 turn mean-spirited as it has south of the border. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 just the way we were brought up,鈥� he says. 鈥淧eople are probably a little more gentle. ... I think that we鈥檙e used to not rattling people up; it鈥檚 just not our nature.鈥�
Loyalists and rebels
It鈥檚 become almost a parlor game: Canadians and Americans comparing the differences in national character. Americans are the brash and boastful (at least according to the view up here) while Canadians are the polite and pleasant. The election of Mr. Trump in 2016 after a boisterous campaign, compared with the election of Mr. Trudeau in 2015 after a more muted national plebiscite, did nothing to dispel these views.
But the differences in character, caricatured or not, show up in other measures as well. One recent Canadian study compared 40 million tweets among Canadians and Americans. The idea was to explore what language choices reveal about stereotypes of national temperament. The researchers found that Canadians tend to use words that are positive, such as 鈥済reat,鈥� 鈥渁mazing,鈥� 鈥渁wesome,鈥� 鈥渢hanks,鈥� and 鈥渂eautiful,鈥� while Americans鈥� tweets skew more negative, with words such as 鈥渉ate,鈥� 鈥渢ired,鈥� or 鈥渂ored.鈥�
鈥淲hat may be coming out here, if this is a reflection of Canadian culture and our choices, may be that Canadians are more invested in a sort of friendly and accepting identity,鈥� says Bryor Snefjella, one of the study鈥檚 researchers from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
The differences in national persona, in some ways, extend all the way back to the Revolutionary War. The rebellious members of the 13 Colonies fought to carve out their own identity and country, while those who wished to stay the subject of the British crown fled north. 鈥淟oyalists,鈥� essentially anti-revolutionaries, shaped the foundation of English-speaking Canada, with the values of 鈥減eace, order, and good government鈥� dominating the early political culture, while those in a fledgling America infused their guiding charter with words such as 鈥渦nalienable Rights鈥� and 鈥淟ife, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.鈥�
To this day, Americans seem more comfortable engaging in a fiery populism. Stephen Marche, a Canadian author, wrote an essay called 鈥淐anadian Exceptionalism.鈥� In it he argues that one of the key differences behind the divergent paths of Canada, compared with the U.S. under Mr. Trump, lies in the conservative parties of each nation. Although Canadian Conservatives have taken up wedge issues, especially around immigration, in their quest to regain power, he says it is nothing like what he hears from some far-right elements of the U.S. Republican Party, in which 鈥渢here really is a sense of wrecking the whole thing,鈥� he contends.
Anger over diversifying populations and influxes of people from other countries is fueling populist movements around the world. In Europe, it鈥檚 helped push Britain into unknown territory as it stumbles out of the European Union. From Hungary, to Turkey, to the Philippines, authoritarian leaders have risen to office, greatly expanding their powers, in part over concern about controlling borders and a backlash to the 鈥渙thers鈥� in society.
Those voices exist in Canada, too 鈥� and in an election year are reverberating more loudly than ever 鈥� but the country has a longer history in tolerance-building, forming a multicultural ethos that views immigration as a pragmatic response to an aging population and declining fertility. When the Canadian government announced plans to attract 1 million newcomers in the next three years this winter, it was to very little opposition. New figures show Canada surpassing the U.S. in the number of refugees it resettled in 2018 for the first time in 72 years.
One of those newcomers arrived on a rainy night in December.
鈥楢ccommodation and compromise鈥�
The usual crowd has congregated outside customs at Toronto Pearson International Airport. They are there to greet passengers of Turkish Airlines Flight 17 from Istanbul.
Among those waiting are Lana Delmaestro, her husband, and their young son. The youth holds a homemade poster with a maple leaf drawn in red marker and the name 鈥淎laa.鈥� They intently watch the sliding doors for a Syrian refugee they鈥檝e never met, but whom the family sponsored with a group of other Canadians.
By now, these airport scenes 鈥� of Canadians holding their flags and 鈥渨elcome鈥� signs as they meet refugees they鈥檝e helped bring to Canada through the country鈥檚 private sponsorship model 鈥� are commonplace. In fact, the Delmaestros are one of three groups of people waiting for Syrian refugees on this flight alone.
Ms. Delmaestro hugs Alaa when she walks through the main arrival area, dressed in a black sweatshirt and maroon headscarf after a long journey from Jordan. She hands the young Syrian an Ikea bag with a winter coat and boots. Then Ms. Delmaestro turns to her son, still holding his sign, and repeats something she鈥檚 told him over and over since they decided to sponsor a refugee family, legally committing to a year of supporting her financially and emotionally: 鈥淭his is the most important thing our family will ever do.鈥�
Many see this acceptance rooted in the way the country was founded. After the British prevailed over New France in the Seven Years鈥� War, British officials signed the Quebec Act of 1774. It guaranteed French-speakers the right to maintain their religion and civil laws, laying the groundwork for what鈥檚 often called Canada鈥檚 鈥渃ulture of accommodation.鈥�
Peter Russell, author of the 2017 book 鈥淐anada鈥檚 Odyssey,鈥� argues that the 鈥渋ncomplete conquest鈥� of French-speaking Canada as well as its indigenous peoples created a series of 鈥渘ations鈥� within the country that formed the foundation of a high level of tolerance for diversity today.
Bicultural tensions between English and French, the 鈥渆ndemic fault line of Canadian politics,鈥� adds author Erna Paris, has required compromise at every facet of Canada鈥檚 political life. As Quebecois identity strengthened in the 1960s, then-Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Justin Trudeau鈥檚 father) set to quell tensions with an official policy on multiculturalism in 1971. It codified in essence that no one religion or ethnicity was more important than another. 鈥淎ccommodation and compromise have been the modus vivendi of nationbuilding in this country,鈥� says Ms. Paris.
Multiculturalism has also been encouraged by geography. A cold mass of land, bordered by two oceans and the most powerful country in the world across its entire southern flank, Canada has had to invite people to live here. Unlike the uncontrolled immigration from Mexico and Central America to the U.S. or from Northern Africa to Europe 鈥� which fuels perceptions of chaos and crisis 鈥� Canada relies on a highly-controlled points system based on language ability, age, and skills. Its immigrants are the 鈥渂est and brightest鈥� 鈥� the most educated immigrants among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries 鈥� which is one reason diversity, multiculturalism, and views toward immigrants rank so high in opinion surveys.
鈥淚ncreasingly I feel [Canada] has its own momentum, and it鈥檚 just going off on its own route. It鈥檚 not just not-London, not-New York, which is what it always was,鈥� says Mr. Marche. 鈥淐anada is way more of an idea than it is an ethnic identity or even a collection of myths. Multiculturalism really does have that power as a binding agent.鈥�
Mr. Russell argued in his book that modern Canada 鈥渕ight be more like a civilization than a nation-state.鈥� 鈥淎s an example of how diverse peoples can live together in freedom and peace,鈥� he writes, 鈥渢his loose never settled alliance of peoples called Canada could replace empire and nation-state as the most attractive model in the twenty-first century.鈥�
A different kind of populism
That does not mean populism doesn鈥檛 exist here.
In fact, the Reform Party, a right-wing populist movement founded in the late 1980s, predates America鈥檚 tea party movement. Today Canadians will immediately point to Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, who won on a decidedly populist platform last spring. Or to Quebec, where Premier Fran莽ois Legault ran as an outsider in the fall. He promised language tests for new immigrants and has proposed secular restrictions on religious symbols for some public-sector employees, both interpreted largely as anti-Muslim policies. To the extent that Canada gets 鈥渋llegal immigration,鈥� most of it flows through the border Quebec shares with the U.S., giving space to new populist faces.
Far-right groups are here too. Hate crimes have also increased in recent years, according to federal statistics. Before the New Zealand mosque shootings, Canada suffered its own shooting at a Quebec City mosque that killed six in 2017. And the shame of the federal government鈥檚 policies toward Canada鈥檚 indigenous peoples, and what many see as a halfhearted attempt at reconciliation, hangs heavy 鈥� made worse by the ouster of Ms. Wilson-Raybould from the Liberal Party.
Trump admirers exist here as well. Ken Montgomery, a truck driver in Oshawa, is one. He says he hates Mr. Trudeau because Mr. Trudeau hates Canada. He wishes a Trump-like figure would emerge on the national scene. 鈥淲e need it,鈥� he says.
This doesn鈥檛 surprise Frank Graves, the president of Ekos Research, who says that it鈥檚 denial to think that Canada is immune from the nativist forces kicking up elsewhere. He measures attitudes between 鈥渙pen鈥� versus 鈥渙rdered鈥� 鈥� ordered implying those with pessimistic economic outlooks or anti-elite sentiment, or the kind of worldview that fueled a political backlash in the U.S. 鈥� and counts 30% of the population holding such attitudes. He says the SNC-Lavalin affair could intensify resentments, leaving Canadians with the impression that the justice system is two-tiered.
Still, far-right populism in Canada is different than in the U.S. Mr. Graves calls it a 鈥渘orthern populism.鈥� Its key distinction 鈥� apart from not being as well-developed, nor as widely embraced as it is in the U.S. or Europe 鈥� is that it is not racially charged.
鈥淯nlike the United States, where populism is bounded by race and typically the attraction to [it] is restricted largely to white Americans, in Canada we don鈥檛 see that particular boundary. The boundaries are more rooted in social class,鈥� he says. Mr. Ford, for example, does not invoke race or ethnicity in his campaigns and in fact drew heavy support from nonwhite neighborhoods that ring Toronto.
Mr. Graves sees reasons for concern, though. Even though Canada has been held up as a success story on immigration 鈥� and polls show Canadians becoming more accepting of foreigners 鈥� a vocal minority who oppose the influx of outsiders is growing louder. And politicians are listening.
Better protections for workers
Maybe so, but Dan Carter isn鈥檛 one of them. Lean and silver-haired, he is the new mayor of Oshawa, sworn in just days after GM announced its plant closure, what he says is the No. 1 issue at city hall.
The assembly plant has been in Ottawa since 1953 鈥� a sprawling icon of Canadian manufacturing. The American carmaker itself has been operating in this town, east of Toronto, for more than 100 years. In the 1980s some 23,000 people had company jobs. Now there are only 2,600 unionized jobs left at the plant. And all of those will be gone by the end of this year.
Resistance to the shutdown exists, with protests and social media campaigns like #SaveOshawaGM. But the anger is not an outright backlash against mainstream politicians or even globalization 鈥� the kind that flipped many Rust Belt states to Mr. Trump in 2016. Instead it remains narrowly focused on the U.S. company itself. 鈥淕reedy Motors,鈥� read one sign at a protest in January.
In fact, anger might not even be the right word. Donna Lindsay is waiting in the parking lot for her daughter to get off work. Ms. Lindsay worked at the plant for 35 years, until she retired in an earlier round of downsizing. Yet when asked who she is upset with, it鈥檚 not immigrants or refugees who could be competing with Canadians for jobs. It鈥檚 not politicians either, local or federal. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not their fault. It鈥檚 GM鈥檚 fault,鈥� she says. Then she qualifies her feelings even more: 鈥淚鈥檓 not angry. I鈥檓 sad and hurt.鈥�
Steven High, a history professor at Concordia University in Montreal, has interviewed workers in former industrial regions on both sides of the border and notes some key differences in the way workers react to economic disruptions.
The first centers around blame. When closures happened in previous decades, Canadian unions would rail against the U.S.
鈥淎 lot of the Canadian unions would wrap themselves in the Canadian flag with a discourse around American bosses and Canadian workers,鈥� he says. After decades of free trade and globalization, that kind of rhetoric doesn鈥檛 bring a response from the government the way it once did, though the culprit 鈥� in this case a U.S. company 鈥� remains the same.
Canadian workers are also better protected, which helps quiet some of the vitriol over layoffs. Rates of unionization, which were similar in both countries in the 1960s, are about three times as high in Canada today as in the U.S., giving members a progressive working-class voice to represent them. Canadians have a stronger safety net, too 鈥� with universal health care and more affordable education 鈥� which further softens the blow of losing a job.
Still, disillusionment among the working class may be rising. Deindustrialization has happened later in Canada, and Mr. High theorizes that means discontent could just be lagging. 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 seen this rupture and the polarization like across both Eastern and Western Europe and the United States,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut I think we鈥檙e seeing that rupture starting to emerge.鈥�
鈥榃e are our brother鈥檚 keeper鈥�
The closure of the plant in Oshawa does mark a milestone, but it doesn't have to become an anti-globalization narrative, says the mayor. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 get us anywhere to say 鈥榯hey鈥檙e making it somewhere else in the world.鈥� That鈥檚 why we鈥檙e able to buy TVs for $400,鈥� he says at city hall in early January.
While GM still maintains a footprint here, with its corporate headquarters for Canada and a research center for alternative-fuel cars and other technologies, the assembly plant was long vulnerable to closure, says David Paterson, vice president of corporate affairs at GM Canada. He says it was running at 30% below capacity.
The company says it will retrain workers who seek new employment, and has already been approached by firms looking to hire. The company is also partnering with community colleges to identify future jobs and the training required to fill them.
Mayor Carter says a diversified economy and strong employment can help buffer the blow. But residents also need a vision for their future. In some ways that鈥檚 an easier sell than it might be in the U.S., he says. 鈥淲e in Canada look at things a little bit differently. We believe that we are our brother鈥檚 keeper,鈥� he says.
Yes, the GM closure is bad, he acknowledges. 鈥淎nd I understand the anger, and I understand the frustration.鈥�
鈥淏ut we need to set the environment where people understand that we鈥檙e going to get through this storm ... that whatever we face we鈥檒l still be able to succeed,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his moment is calling for the best of us.鈥�
