CANADA’S POLITICAL MELTING POT
Liberals and Conservatives are finding common ground, even as U.S. politicians embrace polarization.
Canada doesn’t have its own Donald Trump; nor does it want one.
A new poll by Abacus Data shows that the likely Republican candidate for the U.S. presidency would do “really badly” if he were seeking election in Canada.
At least four out of five Canadians would vote for Democrats Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders in any contest with Trump, Abacus found.
“The breadth and depth of the negative reaction to Mr. Trump seems unusual,” Bruce Anderson, chairman of Abacus, said in the poll report. “Canadian progressive, centrist and conservative voters all hold his values in poor regard.”
On a weekend when Canada’s two major parties, Liberals and Conservatives, are holding their big conventions (in Winnipeg and Vancouver, respectively), it’s a good time to be reminded of that breadth of agreement — across party lines. It’s not just a statement about Trump, but about the moderate, Canadian middle.
While American politics has been polarizing over the past decade or so, Canadian politics has so far resisted those forces.
Sure, there are big differences between the two conventions taking place in Canada this weekend — winners versus losers of the last election; one with a leader, one without; red versus blue colour schemes. Nevertheless, Canada’s two major parties are far less sharply divided than Republicans and Democrats in the U.S.
The Pew Research Center in the U.S. keeps close track of the polarizing phenomenon in politics south of the border. Earlier this year, it released some findings published in a book chapter titled “Political Tribes.”
“Americans are increasingly sorted into think-alike communities that reflect not only their politics but their demographics,” Pew researcher and author Paul Taylor wrote.
“These days, Democrats and Republicans no longer stop at disagreeing with each other’s ideas. Many in each party now deny the other’s facts, disapprove of each other’s lifestyles, avoid each other’s neighbourhoods, impugn each other’s motives, doubt each other’s patriotism, can’t stomach each other’s news sources and bring different value systems to such core social institutions as religion, marriage and parenthood. It’s as if they belong not to rival parties but alien tribes.”
The most striking thing about these findings is how partisan differences have bled into lifestyle differences in the United States. American partisans have organized not only their ideas but also their daily lives to avoid fraternizing with the opposition.
Contrast this with the major message that Justin Trudeau left with his troops the last time the Liberals met at a convention — in Montreal in 2014.
“People in Ottawa talk about the ‘Conservative base’ as if it is some angry mob to be feared,” Trudeau said in his keynote speech to the Montreal gathering. “They’re wrong. As all of you know, the 5.8 million Canadians who voted Conservative (in 2011) aren’t your enemies. They’re your neighbours.”
Canadian Conservatives gathering in Vancouver this weekend probably won’t have many generous things to say about Trudeau or Liberals, but they will be debating policies that may edge their party slightly closer to the moderate middle, whether it’s abandoning opposition to same-sex marriage or grappling with climate change. Since their defeat, numerous Conservatives have acknowledged that they need to recapture some of the political territory that Liberals now own, particularly with regard to youth, diversity or even optimism.
It all says that Canadian political rivals haven’t given up on each other. Liberals still believe that there are Conservatives who can be persuaded to vote in another direction, and Conservatives will be trying in 2019 to reclaim some of the voters who switched to the Liberal team last year. New Democrats will have their eyes on those floating voters, too.
The modern “flexibility” of the Canadian electorate can make things volatile in politics; elections are now hard to predict. As we are learning with each subsequent study of last fall’s election results, Canadians were changing their minds frequently during that super-long campaign, many not totally decided until they entered the polling booth.
Given what’s happening in the United States, Canadians should keep embracing that fluidity. It prevents our politics from descending into the often-cartoonish extremes that we’re seeing south of the border. And if the Liberal government ever does get around to electoral reform, as promised, it should also be looking at a system that preserves, or even enhances, that voter flexibility. It seems we should want voters willing to change their minds and consider all options — not two sets of “alien tribes” thinking and living in hostile, isolated camps.
There’s a lot of distance between Winnipeg and Vancouver, and this weekend Canadians will get a chance to see two different parties in action.
But while the differences between Liberals and Conservatives are fascinating, we should keep an eye on what they have in common. Donald Trump’s values, for instance, probably won’t be getting huge applause at either convention. sdelacourt@bell.net