David Frum warns Canada not immune to populism

CALGARY Canadians should not assume the country is immune to the international trend of “authoritarian populism” that helped spawn the presidency of Donald Trump, conservative thinker David Frum said earlier this week.

Frum — a dual Canadian and American citizen who is one of Trump’s leading conservative critics — acknowledged that Canada is an “outlier” so far, in being relatively unaffected by the emerging global political dynamic.

But Frum suggested the Liberal government’s plan to ramp up Canada’s intake of immigrants could lead to the tensions seen in both the United States and many European countries.

And while Canada emerged from the worldwide financial crisis of 2008-09 relatively unscathed, it may not be so lucky the next time around, he said.

“At that time, the social kindling accumulated in the good years may prove every bit as combustible north of the 49th parallel,” said Frum, who was delivering the 13th James S. Palmer lecture Monday at the University of Calgary.

“But possibly some good genie has fated that Canada will forever remain an exception. Congratulations, if so.”

Frum, whose book Trumpocracy will be released next month, said there are a number of common factors in the rise of the scandalplagued U.S. president and other populist leaders who have little respect for democratic norms.

The slowdown of economic growth over the last decade in response to financial crises, the aging of the baby boom generation and rising ethnic diversity, leading to less social solidarity, have fostered the current situation.

“So, (there’s) less to go around, rising claims from baby boomers as they move to retirement age, at a time of decreased trust and willingness to share,” said Frum, the son of famed CBC journalist Barbara Frum and brother to Conservative Senator Linda Frum.

Further, in the U.S., a wealthy elite that is so terrified of losing its economic advantages have helped abet the “virulence and radicalism” of Trump, he said.

Frum, a senior editor at The Atlantic magazine and former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, dismissed comparisons of the advent of Trump to the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s, but said there is still significant cause for concern about his impact on democratic institutions.

“There are a lot of stops on the train line of bad before you reach Hitler station,” he said. “It is those stops we need to monitor and guard against.”