Say no to Trump politics
It was truly alarming to hear federal Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch celebrate Donald Trump’s victory in the American presidential election last week.
It is even more alarming to think, even briefly, that her party could be hijacked by Trump’s odious brand of politics. Canada is a big place — but it has no room for this. Perhaps few of MP Leitch’s Tory colleagues agreed when she said in an email that the “exciting message” Americans had thrown out “the elites” is “one that we need delivered in Canada.”
Perhaps none of the other 11 Tory leadership candidates share her view that immigrants, refugees and even visitors to Canada should be screened to ensure they hold “Canadian values.”
And perhaps another leadership candidate, MP Brad Trost, speaks only for himself when he criticizes same-sex marriages and says, “I don’t believe climate change is a real threat.” But we know the following things are true. Having lost last year’s federal election, the Conservatives are out of power and looking for a way back in.
They realize many Canadians feel left out of the new economy. They observe there is anger and resentment to tap north of the U.S. border, too.
They probably saw that a Forum Research Poll in September showed two-thirds of respondents liked Leitch’s proposal to screen the values of newcomers.
In addition to all this, the Conservatives will not be able to overlook how the elite-bashing, migrant-baiting, climate-change-denying Trump was able to divide America and then conquer his Democratic rivals.
Yet the federal Conservatives should reject the Trump model. It would hurt Canada if, against the odds, it found currency here. Beyond this, to embrace Trump’s divisive politics could be like touching a subway line’s third rail for the Conservative Party.
To be sure, Canada is struggling with the same forces of globalization that are buffeting the U.S.
Despite this, Canadians as a people are more comfortable with diversity — racial, ethnic, religious and sexual — than Americans. Maybe it’s because we lack America’s horrible history of black slavery. Maybe it’s because we chose the cultural mosaic over the melting pot. Maybe it’s because we call ourselves a nation of immigrants.
Whatever the reason, Canadians will not be seduced by the kind of right-wing populism so successfully exploited by Trump. When, in last year’s federal election, some federal Conservatives proposed creating a “snitch line” to report “barbaric practices,” voters were generally appalled. When the federal Liberals advocated bringing in 25,000 Syrian refugees by Christmas, voters generally applauded. When the ballots were counted, look who won.
And then, when Trump was elected last week, 70 per cent of Canadians told Ipsos pollsters they disagreed with the result.
It is fortunate that, in the current Tory leadership race, there’s at least one candidate, MP Michael Chong, who has slammed Leitch for trying to import the corrosive Trump brand into Canada.
When Conservatives choose their next leader, it should be someone like Chong who would erect a big Conservative tent with room for everyone.