Canada’s left-wing populism woes
The numerous discussions on populism in recent years have predominantly focused on right- wing politicians and movements. When we hear the term “populism,” many of us immediately think of U. S. President Donald Trump, various rightwing parties in Europe, or Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada.
While there are certainly legitimate grounds to be concerned about populism on the right side of the political spectrum, it also exists on the left and can present a serious danger from that angle, too.
Because left- wing populism is often downplayed and neglected, it has quietly made its way into the mainstream, rarely being identified and duly called out.
Even more alarming, populism has crept into and seems to have taken ahold of our federal government policy in Canada.
The recent promises of the Liberal government to consider universal basic income and to increase spending with a range of new government programs aimed at solving such complex issues as homelessness and climate change are a good example of this trend. These programs promise a lot, including to fix problems quickly, but their effectiveness and cost have been noted by many to be negligible and highly questionable, in that order.
By their very nature, populist policies focus on boosting the popularity of the politicians in power and on securing votes for them, instead of on achieving the best possible outcomes for the country, especially in the long term.
In order to capture the public’s attention, these policies promise simple, sweeping solutions to profound problems, while neglecting careful consideration of their actual effectiveness and any potential negative outcomes. A populist counters any criticism of such policies with divisive accusations of not wanting to solve the problem at all. “You don’t like our plan to solve issue X? This shows you don’t care about X and are responsible for perpetuating it.”
This populist approach is especially dangerous in difficult times, such as the current pandemic and economic downturn, when utmost caution and pragmatism are needed on the part of government.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s grandiose promises to solve complex and global problems merely by creating new government programs and increasing spending, combined with his consistent disregard of criticism and warnings, betray his populist approach.
His fi rs t term was marked by aspirations to fix everything, including poverty, climate change, gender inequality, the global refugee crisis and the addiction crisis, to name a few issues. This naturally gained him new supporters — who doesn’t want these problems to be fixed, especially if all it takes is a few government bills and some more spending?
However, the complex nature of these issues means they cannot be fixed merely by government programs and legislation, regardless of how attractive such plans sound in politicians’ speeches.
Most of Trudeau’s programs have achieved little noticeable success, yet have cost the public billions of dollars in government debt, significantly endangering our economy and future prosperity.
The carbon tax and expensive environmental programs have not solved climate change. The gender- neutral national anthem and “gender budget” has not solved gender inequality. The supervised injections sites have not solved the addiction crisis. The temporary accommodation of refugees and the homeless in hotels has obviously solved neither the refugee crisis nor homelessness. Yet, all these programs were accompanied by intemperate spending and belligerence towards those who expressed criticism.
Throughout history, many politicians in many different countries have taken the populist approach and sought to boost their support by making unrealistic, grandiose promises, offering handouts, expanding government spending and powers, and sowing division by scorning their critics.
Most often this has resulted in economic disaster, scarcity and austerity, because one day the public runs out of money to foot the bill for all the grand promises their politicians have made. In addition, with the expansion of gov
POPULIST POLICIES FOCUS ON BOOSTING THE POPULARITY OF THE POLITICIANS IN POWER AND ON SECURING VOTES FOR THEM.
ernment powers and its size, increase in waste and corruption are inevitable.
As someone who lived in and closely observed former Soviet countries, I have seen this pattern many times, and the results were always similar.
Canada has a solid tradition of pragmatic leaders who were thoughtful and insightful when making policy, taking into account first and foremost its outcomes for the people, and thinking of its effects on their own popularity second. Whether they were Liberals like prime minister Paul Martin, or Conservatives like prime minister Stephen Harper, they were guided by what they thought was best for the country, even if some of their policies garnered little enthusiasm from the public and afforded few photo-ops.
To prevent the perpetuation of populism in our politics with its dangerous consequences, we need to do better at calling it out when we see it, and not letting it become our new normal.