​Trump victory has lessons for Canada

Donald Trump’s huge victory in the U.S. Elections has major implications for Canada. When this writer stayed up to see that Trump had won key battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, I felt sick to my stomach, turned the television off, and went to bed.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris took much of the criticism for the defeat, but overall, she did her job very well. The explanation lies in much deeper problems in the Democratic Party, problems which parallel those in recent years with the national Liberal Party in Canada.

In my last blog column before the American election, I set out Trump’s horrific record with his 34 felony convictions, sexual assaults, hush money payments, over $500 million in civil liability judgments etc. Then there is his threat to mobilize the U.S. National Guard and American troops against those he calls “the enemy within.”  His encouragement of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on Capitol Hill following his refusal to accept his 2020 election defeat is further evidence of his terrible record. Of course, Trumps most frightening current promise is the massive deportation of illegal immigrants from the U.S.

In that same column before the Nov. 5 election, I wrote that while Harris made an excellent campaign, there were key places where her campaign was lacking.

I will not review in detail here the frightening Trump record or the Harris shortcomings. I am more concerned now with American and Canadian lessons for the future.
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The Democratic Party has a rich history of governing in the USA. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a reputation for being close to the people, leading the nation through both the Great Depression of the “Dirty Thirties” and World War II. He had a strong connection to New Brunswick and Canada with his summer cottage on Campobello Island.

By today’s standards, Abraham Lincoln would be considered a moderate Republican. But he lead the U.S. in the most difficult period in its history, backing  the Union side in the American Civil War, and then was responsible in 1863 for making the Emancipation Proclamation, which abolished slavery.

This was an extremely dangerous and stormy period which culminated in Lincoln’s assassination.
 
The examples of Roosevelt and Lincoln demonstrate the historical use of political power on the side of the angels in the USA.
 
Fast forward to the current era when the Democratic Party has grown comfortable in a privileged position in American society. For many it is now viewed as an establishment institution, comfortable with the growth of government, and responsible for inspiring one of Trump’s favorite goals to “drain the swamp” of Washington DC. The party may have grown “tone deaf” to the impact of the COVID pandemic, inflation, unemployment and the largely Eastern-controlled media, on struggling working-class men and women.
 
Like it or not, Donald Trump has been able to speak in common sense language to the populations feeling alienated and forgotten, such as in the “Rust Belt” of declining industries. America’s “outsiders” have become a key source of support for the MAGA wing of the Republican Party, with its extreme rightest and “cult-like” actions.
 
As noted in my last column, John Kelly a former retired chief of staff of Donald Trump, and a retired Marine general, has said that Trump “fits the general definition of fascist.” Adolf Hitler in the 1930’s, with his mass rallies, his propaganda banners, his appeal to hatred, his offer of solidarity and security to the alienated, especially to young males, is similar to that of Trump. Hitler’s National Socialist Party saw the “Great Inflation” as critical to the rise of social unrest in Germany.

Suitcases of money were needed to buy a loaf of bread.
 
Turning now to the Canadian experience, with great Prime Ministers such as Wilfrid Laurier, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the national Liberal Party as become known as the country’s “natural governing party”.
 
But the COVID pandemic, relentless inflation, and the affordability crisis has produced a similar alienation and resentment in much of the population, witness the “Progressive Conservative” Party that has morphed into the “Conservative” Party with increasingly right-wing leaders reaching a pinnacle now with Pierre Poilievre, and his promise of “commonsense” government.
 
On the other hand, Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau emerged by advocating “sunny ways’ and using the opposite of “plain speech.” In fact, in this space, the Against the Flow blog has described Justin Trudeau’s method of speaking as “marshmallow talk” – many words but little substance.
 
Like their counterparts in the Democratic Party in the U.S., Canadian Liberals have come to be seen as too comfortable, out of touch, and too much in favour of big government and high taxation. Too late, the federal Liberals have come to recognise the visceral impact of the high cost of groceries, fuel, and housing, and the general cost of living.
 
Poilievre has leaped on the carbon tax, a well-intentioned attempt to reduce the impact of climate change, as unfair and too costly. Poilievre speaks in overly simplified slogans such as “Axe the Tax”. Once again, the federal Liberals have been slow to recognize the importance of affordability issues and explain and advocate for their rebate system for the carbon tax.
 
Poilievre states that everything wrong in the country is “Trudeau’s fault”, to the point that he sounds very like Donald Trump in the U.S., even though he doesn’t come out and say he supports the views of the now U.S. president-elect.
 
A right-wing shift is evident throughout the world, and New Brunswick came close to succumbing to this trend under former Premier Blaine Higgs. Fortunately, Higgs’ reluctance to consult even with his own cabinet and caucus members, and his increasingly authoritarian style of leadership, has been politically eclipsed by the new Premier, Susan Holt, who spoke with thousands of New Brunswickers in touring the province, and concluded that what is really on the minds of New Brunswickers is the terrible state of primary health care and committing to do  something about it.
 
With his high standing in the opinion polls, Poilievre could be in a strong position to bring a Trump-style government to Canada. Surely, Canadians don’t want to wake up one day sick to their stomachs and wondering what went wrong.