tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/stephen-harper-21945/articlesStephen Harper – The Conversation2023-11-08T17:58:12Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2166142023-11-08T17:58:12Z2023-11-08T17:58:12ZThe kids are alright: Aspiring political staffers are altruistically motivated<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-kids-are-alright-aspiring-political-staffers-are-altruistically-motivated" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Young people who work as political staffers in Canada have long been derogatorily labelled by politicians and pundits as “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/commenters-snipe-from-sidelines-but-the-kids-in-short-pants-are-all-right-1.2673611">the kids in short pants</a>,” a comment about their age and perceived inexperience <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/how-stephen-harper-s-inner-circle-has-changed-1.2652571">coined by an adviser to former prime minister Stephen Harper.</a></p>
<p>Despite the important roles political staffers fill in our democracy, their work is often overlooked and undervalued by the politicians and voters that they serve. </p>
<p>It’s these young people that we encounter when we contact a politician. Political staffers answer phones, respond to emails and organize community events. Political staffers often act as the link between voters and the decision-makers that we elect. </p>
<p>Within the halls of power, <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2016/07/demystifying-the-role-of-parliamentary-staffers/">political staffers serve politicians</a> by offering political advice, guidance and support in communications, policy, administration and parliamentary affairs. For better <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055418000606">or worse</a>, political staffers are undoubtedly influential.</p>
<h2>Self-interest or civic duty?</h2>
<p>But who are these people and why do they want this job? Are these smart young people driven by careerism, self-interest and personal gain? Or are they guided by altruism, civic duty and dedicated to working in the public interest? What motivates the kids in short pants?</p>
<p>Just as we should be concerned with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2005.00147.x">why politicians run for public office</a>, we should be interested in what motivates political staffers to undertake their work. </p>
<p>One way of answering these questions is to survey the young people who want to become political staffers: university students who study political science. </p>
<p>Political science majors have a <a href="https://uwaterloo.ca/political-science/graduate/career-outcomes-ma-political-science-graduates">variety of career opportunities</a> available to them. They can pursue professional degrees in law or public policy, work in the private sector in public relations or government affairs, or choose to join the civil services. </p>
<p>Yet some choose to become political staffers, a career that offers fewer material benefits and substantially less job security. Why pursue this work? </p>
<h2>Polling students</h2>
<p>We surveyed 252 university students in a political science course at the University of Toronto to find out.</p>
<p>We asked students if they were interested in going into a career as a political staffer, and why or why not they would pursue this option after university. In addition to examining whether the student is interested in working as a political staffer, we also categorized students <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414018784065">as either self-interested</a> or motivated to serve the public interest. </p>
<p>Among students who are not interested in political work, most stated it was because their own interests were better served elsewhere. Some believed that politics was a fool’s errand, or that it was too deeply flawed to actually help the public. Some students feel unsuited for politics due to power dynamics, public scrutiny or required expertise.</p>
<p>Among students who are interested in working as a political staffer, students we categorized as self-interested express personal career aspirations or a general passion for politics without explicit references to helping others or the community.</p>
<p>Public-interested students were marked by a desire to serve the public interest, represent <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/january-2022/do-mps-represent-canadas-diversity/">under-represented groups</a> and address areas of social concern. </p>
<h2>Serving the public</h2>
<p>Our analysis demonstrates that the vast majority of students interested in pursuing work as a political staffer are motivated by contributing to the public good. </p>
<p>Many of these students expressed interest in bettering their communities and Canada more generally. One of the students aptly expressed the group’s shared vision: “I want to help people and continue the transition of humanity towards a better future.” </p>
<p>Some young people are motivated by the opportunity to be part of positive political change: “I want to be a part of the next generation of Canadian politics.” One told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I want to be involved in working towards a better future for Canadians. I also want to help make change towards issues that matter for me such as environmental issues or advocating for human rights.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another major goal of these students is the opportunity to represent under-represented groups: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“As a member of the Black community, representation in places of distinction or decision making tables are immensely limited and I want to be that advocate for policies and laws as it pertains to the benefit of my community in order to create more access.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In contrast to these responses, only a few students reported self-interested reasons for working as a political staffer. Among this group, self-interest motivations ranged from enhancing resumes to aiming for future high-paying jobs or influential positions, or, as one student bluntly wrote: “I can make a LOT of money.” </p>
<p>At the same time, some envisioned careers as a lawyer after working on politics or even the possibility of becoming politician themselves: “After a decade or so of working as a political staffer, I intend to run for public office.”</p>
<h2>Motivated by the public good</h2>
<p>Working as a political staffer is underappreciated, underpaid and fraught with <a href="https://www.ipolitics.ca/opinions/anxiety-job-insecurity-and-betting-pools-what-its-like-to-be-a-staffer-during-a-cabinet-shuffle">job insecurity</a>. But we need smart young people to undertake this work, and we also need people who are not influenced by ulterior motives to have access to the halls of power. </p>
<p>In a time of <a href="https://theconversation.com/alberta-curriculum-end-the-failed-partisan-politics-over-what-kids-should-learn-153163">growing partisanship</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/05/ontario-steve-clark-resigns-greenbelt-land-swap">general political uncertainty</a>, our short research project provides a snapshot of the young people who might one day walk the halls of power.</p>
<p>Aspiring political staffers are motivated by a consistent passion for public service and contributing to a better Canada. </p>
<p>Maybe the kids in short pants are alright after all?</p>
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<p><em>We are grateful to Prof. Randy Besco for supporting our research by providing access to an omnibus survey of undergraduate political science students.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216614/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Roelofs receives funding from the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blake Lee-Whiting receives funding from the Policy, Elections, and Representation Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, and the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society at the University of Toronto.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lewis Krashinsky receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Fulbright Canada, and the Department of Politics at Princeton University. </span></em></p>In a time of growing partisanship and general political uncertainty, a short research project provides a snapshot of the young people who might one day walk the halls of power.William Roelofs, PhD Candidate, Political Science, University of TorontoBlake Lee-Whiting, PhD Candidate, Political Science, University of TorontoLewis Krashinsky, PhD Candidate, Politics, Princeton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2149342023-10-10T21:30:23Z2023-10-10T21:30:23ZAnti-trans protests: The Conservative party could use ideological polarization to win voters<p>The polarizing debates in Canada over issues of gender and sexuality recently led to heated demonstrations and counter-demonstrations in cities across the country. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://millionmarch4children.squarespace.com/educational-material">One Million March 4 Children</a> coalition that was behind the protests has its sights aimed at a range of issues related to sexual education in schools, <a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_1137">including the teaching of gender theory</a>. The coalition <a href="https://millionmarch4children.squarespace.com/supporters">includes truckers’ organizations and members of the radical right as well as religious organizations</a>. </p>
<p>Since the demonstrations were mainly driven by different conservative movements, it was not surprising to note the presence of <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-america-to-ontario-the-political-impact-of-the-christian-right-107400">Christian groups</a> at the rallies. But the strong presence of immigrant communities, particularly Muslims, came as a surprise to many. During that week, both a Muslim association and a conservative nationalist Québec columnist, <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/09/03/nvld-s03.html">Mathieu Bock-Côté</a>, each from opposite ideological spectrums, denounced <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/with-omar-alghabras-departure-trudeaus-losing-his-point-man-in-the-muslim-community">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s call for a tolerant attitude</a> in almost identical terms. </p>
<p>Libertarian fiscal policies and highly conservative social policies have wind in their sails at the moment, and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t appeal to religious groups among different minority groups in Canada. </p>
<p>While Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada (PPC) has made gender issues its hobbyhorse, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) has been more cautious about jumping into the fray and has asked his MPs to exercise restraint. Yet his party could benefit from the polarization that the gender question is creating. Three elements seem to point in this direction. </p>
<p>Firstly, the CPC largely holds the evangelical Christian vote on moral values and could bolster the mobilization of this part of its base. Secondly, unlike many European populist right-wing parties, when it comes to anti-immigration rhetoric the CPC doesn’t have much room to manoeuvre. A party that wants to win federal elections in Canada cannot alienate immigrant communities. And finally, the search for a fault line within immigrant communities along the conservative/liberal axis over the question of sexuality and gender may alter the balance of political forces in the long term. Gender issues could be that fault line.</p>
<p>Respectively a professor of sociology at the Université du Québec à Montréal and a doctoral student in political science at Université de Montréal, our research focuses on nationalism, populism and political conflicts in Québec and Canada. </p>
<h2>The politicization of trans issues by the conservative right</h2>
<p>While there is nothing new about the religious right politicizing issues around sexuality, debates on gender and the inclusion of trans people have recently taken on greater importance. </p>
<p>The American right has been making these issues part of its general critique of liberalism for years. <a href="https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2023/07/17/how-the-political-right-are-contesting-pride-month-in-canada/392313/">The appropriation of these issues in Canada is more recent</a>. Bernier’s PPC has made opposing “gender ideology” an important part of its program. </p>
<p>More recently, bills proposed by the Conservative governments of New Brunswick and <a href="https://theconversation.com/saskatchewan-naming-and-pronoun-policy-the-best-interests-of-children-must-guide-provincial-parental-consent-rules-212431">Saskatchewan</a>, which would require school principals to notify parents of a child’s request to change their first name or pronouns, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-parents-should-be-defending-childrens-rights-rather-than-rushing-to/">have also sparked heated debates</a>. These debates pit “parental rights” against the rights of trans children to live in safety. In Québec, the use of gender-neutral first names and the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/blainville-rejects-gender-neutral-washrooms-in-schools">question of gender-neutral washrooms</a> have been added to the list of issues fuelling this polarization.</p>
<h2>The conservative values of cultural minorities: a road to victory?</h2>
<p>CPC results in the last three elections fell short of its expectations. However, slipping support for the Liberals, inflation, and the issue of home ownership being out of reach have all helped the CPC make inroads among young voters, particularly young men. </p>
<p>In the last election, the CPC’s challenge was to reconcile the social conservatism of its base with a platform that would be acceptable to centrist voters. Andrew Scheer and Erin O'Toole stumbled over this problem. </p>
<p>Stephen Harper’s Conservative majority in 2011 owed its success to wins in ridings with a high proportion of immigrants in the Toronto area, notably in Mississauga, Brampton, Richmond Hill and Vaughan. While these ridings were not part of <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/the-winner/the-emerging-conservative-coalition/">Harper’s initial strategy</a>, the difficulty of rallying Québec nationalists forced him to change tack, so Harper turned his attention to the cultural minorities in Toronto’s suburbs. In addition to conservative values, these communities shared the Conservatives’ attachment to religion and to business friendly free-market policies. Harper also introduced <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/income-splitting-what-it-is-and-who-benefits-1.2818396">tax measures that favoured a traditional model of the family, often a patriarchal family structure</a>, which values the work of a single parent and where one spouse has a much higher income than the other. </p>
<p>Currently ahead in the polls, the CPC could make gains at the expense of the Liberals in Markham, Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Whitby and Pickering-Uxbridge, in some Toronto ridings, in Oakville and as far as the Hamilton suburbs. The CPC could also regain ridings in Greater Vancouver that it lost to the Liberals in the last election. </p>
<h2>PCC’s likely strategy</h2>
<p>Poilievre probably sees the politicization of gender and sexuality issues as an opportunity to bolster support for the CPC in the run-up to the next election. To achieve this, it is unlikely that he will follow the example of the People’s Party, which promised to limit the rights of transgender children, and choose not to interfere in provincial jurisdictions. </p>
<p>The CPC will probably stick to using dog whistles to call out “wokeism” and to support provincial governments and religious communities that denounce sex education programs. </p>
<p>That is exactly what Poilievre did at a gathering of Toronto’s Pakistani community in August. In a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-lgbtq-pronouns-schools-1.6950029">speech delivered as part of Pakistan’s Independence Day celebrations</a>, he defended religious freedom as well as the right of parents to “pass on their traditional teachings to their children,” and to “bring them up with their own values.” Earlier in the summer, he <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-new-brunswick-lgbtq-students-1.6889770">opposed federal government interference in New Brunswick’s policy requiring parental consent for LGBTQ students wishing to change their name or pronouns</a>. </p>
<p>The CPC could benefit from public <a href="https://angusreid.org/canada-culture-wars-gender-and-trans-issues/">support</a> on these issues. Although practices related to gender transitions <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/gender-affirming-care-canada-1.6967503">are rare in Canada</a>, they do spark the ire of conservative circles. </p>
<p>Other conservative positions, such as <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/local-news/poilievre-blames-wave-of-violence-in-alberta-on-prime-minister-justin-trudeau-and-ndp/wcm/d6805980-8a25-43ba-93be-fe44bd2d5b89">criticizing drug decriminalization in British Columbia and Liberal “wokeism” in response to crime</a>, could also strike a chord with religious voters. So a strategy based on fiscal conservatism, law and order, the traditional family and conservative sexual values could be very advantageous for the CPC in many ridings. </p>
<h2>What dilemmas for the opposition parties?</h2>
<p>The CCP’s strategy also calls into question those of the Liberal Party and the NDP. As defenders of ethnic communities and religious, sexual and gender minorities, but also as critics of Québec’s Bill 21 on secularism, these parties have been nurturing voters at opposite sides of this ideological polarization. </p>
<p>This development was predictable. The significant presence of certain cultural communities in anti-LGBTQ+ mobilizations shatters the simplistic idea promoted by the identitarian left that “diversity,” because it is often in a minority position, is necessarily liberal and progressive. </p>
<p>Immigrant communities are heterogeneous and their views on <a href="https://angusreid.org/canada-religion-interfaith-holy-week/">issues of freedom of conscience and expression</a> vary widely. But their community institutions, which are sometimes religious and patriarchal, don’t always fit with the Liberal and NDP orientation towards citizenship and sexual diversity.</p>
<p>Reactions from Québec’s nationalist milieu have been equivocal on these issues. On the one hand, the Bloc Québécois (BQ) says it <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-federal-election-lgbtq-1.5306119">supports LGBTQ rights</a> and will continue to do so, but on the other says it is <a href="https://www.ledevoir.com/societe/798447/opposants-defenseurs-droits-personnes-lgbtq-affrontent-rues-pays">incapable of taking a position at the moment and wants to listen to both sides of the divide</a>. The issue is also far from consensual among its provincial nationalist allies. Both the governing Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) and the Parti Québécois (PQ) <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/blainville-rejects-gender-neutral-washrooms-in-schools">raised concerns</a> around gender theory in schools. The PQ leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, went as far as speaking of a risk of seeing the “radical left” impose gender ideology on children. By refusing to take a clear position, the Bloc Québécois missed an opportunity to take a stand in favour of the rights of sexual minorities over those of outraged parents. By defending the right of provinces to use the notwithstanding clause, it chose to defend provincial autonomy over a defence of Quebec’s National Assembly’s stances on academic freedom and secularism. From the point of view of its constitutional strategy the BQ’s strategy is coherent, but it opens the way to criticisms that its defence of LGBTQ rights and secularism is asymmetrical. </p>
<p>The CPC could, however, be faced with the possibility of a province using the notwithstanding clause to pass legislation protecting “parental rights,” <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/moe-parental-rights-christian-pronoun-1.6961432">a use recently confirmed by Premier Scott Moe in Saskatchewan</a>. It would be tricky for Poilievre to, on one hand, defend conservative provinces using the notwithstanding clause, and on the other, oppose Québec using the clause to defend its laws on secularism and the French language. Both the BQ and the CPC could therefore face catch-22 decision-making situations. </p>
<p>So a window could be opening up for Poilievre and the CPC. Wear and tear on Liberal power along with repeated Liberal blunders and economic challenges are all contributing to this. That said, the growing support of young people from different social and political trajectories for conservatism is part of a series of broader social and demographic changes that could shake up the political landscape for years to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214934/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative party could make gains by rallying the libertarian right, evangelical Christians and immigrant communities, especially Muslims, on issues of sexuality.Frédérick Guillaume Dufour, Professeur en sociologie politique, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)François Tanguay, Doctorant en science politique, Université de MontréalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1948992022-11-18T16:56:01Z2022-11-18T16:56:01ZWhy did Xi scold Trudeau? Maybe because Canada spent years helping China erode human rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496020/original/file-20221117-19-o0udct.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=173%2C40%2C5264%2C4426&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping after taking part in the closing session at the G20 Leaders Summit in Bali, Indonesia on Nov. 16, 2022</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Chinese president Xi Jinping has given Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/china-justin-trudeau-xi-1.6653939">well-publicized dressing-down</a>, accusing him of leaking to the media the contents of a meeting between the two leaders about <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mps-probe-chinese-interference-elections-1.6651121">alleged Chinese interference in the 2019 federal election. </a></p>
<p>The confrontation has grabbed attention around the world and sparked debate about the ways diplomatic conversations are communicated to the public.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1593387487447384064"}"></div></p>
<p>It’s also an object lesson in diplomatic communication as Xi was apparently trying to push Canada back towards an earlier Canadian stance that accepted closed-door discussion. Chinese leaders believe they can push Canada around, because Canadian governments have been broadcasting for decades that they don’t mind being pushed around.</p>
<p>That’s one reason why China feels free to <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-which-canadians-are-left-in-chinese-prisons-as-kovrig-and-spavor-are/">arrest Canadian citizens</a> like <a href="https://www.amnesty.ca/huseyin-celil/">Huseyin Celil</a>, “re-educate” Uighurs and thumb its nose at the global human rights system.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-diplomatic-boycott-of-the-2022-beijing-olympic-games-could-bring-huseyin-celil-home-170167">A diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games could bring Huseyin Celil home</a>
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<h2>Started with Jean Chrétien</h2>
<p>To see how we got here, we need only look to <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/chretien-too-timid-on-human-rights-activists-say/article1030171/">Jean Chrétien’s Liberal government of the 1990s</a>. </p>
<p>Canada was among the world’s top enablers for Chinese Communist Party rights violations. In the 1990s, it helped the CCP undermine the international human rights system. We’re now living with consequences of an eroded, weakened rights system.</p>
<p>Beginning in 1997, Canada, along with other countries, began to hold what they called “<a href="https://www.dd-rd.ca/canadas-bilateral-human-rights-dialogue-with-china-considerations-for-a-policy-review-page-1/">bilateral human rights dialogues</a>.” Under the Chrétien government, Canada opened three dialogues — with China, Cuba and Indonesia. Not coincidentally, all three were countries that were then criticized by Canadian human rights activists for their poor human rights records. </p>
<p>The three new “dialogues” were a government effort to demonstrate some action on rights without actually imposing any sort of sanctions.</p>
<p>The Chrétien Liberals <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/03/29/canada-eyeing-vast-chinese-market-deemphasizes-rights-issues/5f505745-00e7-4dcc-90ab-49f63b98944e/">opposed any sort of concrete action to pressure China on human rights, and just embraced trade</a>. After all, they argued, trade would make everybody wealthier, and that would lead to more democracy.</p>
<p>How did that work out?</p>
<p>Judging by recent events, not so well.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two men in suits chat. A Canadian flag is in front of one and the Chinese flag is in front of the other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496023/original/file-20221117-13-pn6wl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496023/original/file-20221117-13-pn6wl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496023/original/file-20221117-13-pn6wl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496023/original/file-20221117-13-pn6wl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496023/original/file-20221117-13-pn6wl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496023/original/file-20221117-13-pn6wl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496023/original/file-20221117-13-pn6wl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jean Chrétien and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao chat at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in October 2003 as the prime minister at the time kicked off a visit to China.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CP PHOTO/Paul Chiasson)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Scant results</h2>
<p>Far from changing things, these supposed human rights dialogues became an end in their own right, showing few measurable results and freezing out meaningful participation by civil society. They became an excuse to avoid multilateral action. </p>
<p>The dialogue with China ended in <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwix9emxlrb7AhXyj4kEHdYqALcQFnoECAkQAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fspartan.ac.brocku.ca%2F%7Ecburton%2FAssessment%2520of%2520the%2520Canada-China%2520Bilateral%2520Human%2520Rights%2520Dialogue%252019APR06.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1iyy6mJNYzi5_dpTeRR0YY">ignominious failure</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496032/original/file-20221117-16464-o6lv70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man and a dark-haired woman disembark from a plane that says Team Canada in both official languages." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496032/original/file-20221117-16464-o6lv70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496032/original/file-20221117-16464-o6lv70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496032/original/file-20221117-16464-o6lv70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496032/original/file-20221117-16464-o6lv70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496032/original/file-20221117-16464-o6lv70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496032/original/file-20221117-16464-o6lv70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496032/original/file-20221117-16464-o6lv70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In February 2001, Jean Chrétien and his wife Aline, followed by Ontario Premier Mike Harris, arrive in Beijing for the start of the Team Canada Trade mission.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CP PHOTO/Fred Chartrand)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadas-fruitless-human-rights-dialogue-with-china">Canada opened a “dialogue” with China in 1997</a>. At the same time, it stopped sponsoring an annual resolution on human rights in China at the United Nations <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/ccpr">Human Rights Committee</a>. The Chrétien government called this u-turn <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/11926422.2010.9687296">“constructive engagement.”</a> </p>
<p>Instead of public criticism, the defence of this tactic went, Chrétien would bring up human rights quietly and privately while he was visiting China on his travelling jamborees to promote Canada-China trade — trips that he insisted on calling <a href="http://www.china.org.cn/english/2001/Feb/7372.htm">“Team Canada.”</a></p>
<h2>Providing an assist to China</h2>
<p>Dialogue with China sounded good. What “dialogue” actually meant, though, was Canada helped China achieve its major goal — <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/14/chinas-influence-global-human-rights-system">changing how the UN human rights system addresses rights violations</a>.</p>
<p>After the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48445934">Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989</a>, the Communist government in China started calling for “dialogue” about human rights with western countries. Premier Li Peng, the “butcher of Tiananmen,” <a href="https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/olj/jia/jia_win9619.html">told the UN</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“China values human rights and stands ready to engage in discussion and co-operation with other countries on an equal footing on the question of human rights.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What that meant was talking, quietly, in closed sessions, one-on-one. In open sessions, countries can advocate together with human rights groups. Behind closed doors, with only two governments present, Canada’s voice is that of a pipsqueak — and easy for the CCP to ignore.</p>
<p>“Bilateral human rights dialogues” replaced multilateral pressure. China could not have succeeded on its own. The system changed because governments like Canada’s helped it.</p>
<p>The result: China managed to alter international human rights norms at the UN, so much so that <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/7/un-human-rights-council-rejects-debate-on-treatment-of-uighurs">it’s no longer possible</a> to even hold a debate on Uighur rights at the UN Human Rights Committee.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/un-report-on-chinas-abuse-of-uyghurs-is-stronger-than-expected-but-missing-a-vital-word-genocide-189917">UN report on China's abuse of Uyghurs is stronger than expected but missing a vital word: genocide</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Trade trumped rights</h2>
<p>Why did Canada help China’s leaders undermine human rights at the UN? The Chrétien government wanted trade with China. </p>
<p>Though Stephen Harper would criticize this valuing of “the almighty dollar” ahead of human rights, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/how-harpers-foreign-policy-focus-evolved-from-human-rights-to-the-almighty-dollar/article15631389/">his own government ended up hugging China just as closely</a>. </p>
<p>As foreign affairs minister, John Baird shamelessly (and falsely) called China <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/national-post-editorial-board-baird-shouldnt-refer-to-china-as-an-ally">an “ally.”</a> Harper signed a major <a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/harper-government-ratifies-controversial-canada-china-foreign-investment-deal/">trade deal with China</a>, returning to the bipartisan status quo on the Chinese.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A dark-haired man whispers into the ear of a grey-haired man with glasses as a Chinese man stands next to them. The Canadian and Chinese flags are seen in front of them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496030/original/file-20221117-13-ov4wv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496030/original/file-20221117-13-ov4wv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496030/original/file-20221117-13-ov4wv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496030/original/file-20221117-13-ov4wv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496030/original/file-20221117-13-ov4wv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496030/original/file-20221117-13-ov4wv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496030/original/file-20221117-13-ov4wv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stephen Harper speaks with John Baird while they stand next to Wen Jiabao, premier of the People’s Republic of China, in Beijing in February 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Governments of both parties wanted trade. And both were willing to sacrifice human rights to get it. If previous governments had not aided and abetted China’s campaign to undermine the UN human rights system, we might not be where we are today with China.</p>
<p>It is this closed-doors style of bilateral relationship that Xi wants to force Trudeau back into, as he publicly showed in hectoring Trudeau in Bali. </p>
<p>He thought he could do so, because this is the lesson that the Chrétien and Harper governments conveyed to China’s leaders: don’t take us seriously when we talk about rights. </p>
<p>It’s a lesson that it will take a long time to overhaul – if the Trudeau government even truly wants to.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194899/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Webster receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>Xi Jinping thought he could chastise Justin Trudeau because this is the lesson the Jean Chrétien and Stephen Harper governments had conveyed: Don’t take us seriously when we talk about rights.David Webster, Associate professor, Human Rights Studies, King's University College, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1805522022-04-07T20:56:00Z2022-04-07T20:56:00ZFederal budget 2022: More defence funding in wake of Canada’s F-35 about-face<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456610/original/file-20220406-15-a7h8e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=311%2C236%2C1604%2C1113&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In this 2006 photo, the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is unveiled in a ceremony in Fort Worth, Texas.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/LM Ottero)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/federal-budget-2022--despite-more-defence-funding--canada-s-f-35-about-face-is-troubling" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The Canadian government <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/f-35-negotiations-1.6399978">recently announced</a> its decision to enter negotiations with American aerospace giant Lockheed Martin to buy 88 F-35 fighter jets. </p>
<p>The $19-billion contract is separate from <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/defence-department-military-canada-norad-ukraine-nato-1.6410530">$8 billion</a> in additional funding for defence that Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland unveiled as part of the 2022 federal budget. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456613/original/file-20220406-22-aap83i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man with grey hair and glasses speaks into a microphone with a photo of a fighter jet in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456613/original/file-20220406-22-aap83i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456613/original/file-20220406-22-aap83i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456613/original/file-20220406-22-aap83i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456613/original/file-20220406-22-aap83i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456613/original/file-20220406-22-aap83i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456613/original/file-20220406-22-aap83i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456613/original/file-20220406-22-aap83i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks following a tour of F-35 fighter jet contractor in Waterloo, Ont., in March 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Geoff Robins</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/11926422.2011.638199">second time</a> Ottawa has chosen the stealthy aircraft. In 2010, the governing Conservatives said the F-35 was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/002070201306800109">the only choice</a> for the Royal Canadian Air Force. The opposition disagreed, and the warplane <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0020702015609360">became an issue</a> in successive federal elections.</p>
<p>This history is what makes the recent announcement <a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/government-communications-strategy-designed-two-years-ago-to-justify-f-35-purchase">so embarrassing</a> for the Liberal government. </p>
<p>Campaigning to unseat the Conservatives in 2015, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/09/20/liberals-would-scrap-f-35-jet-purchase.html">the Liberals criticized the sole-sourcing of the F-35</a> as both unfair and misguided. They were wrong.</p>
<p>In 1997, the United States government asked a few of its <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09700161.2013.821277">allies to participate</a> in co-developing and co-producing a fighter jet that would become the F-35, and Canada agreed. </p>
<p>The deal was unusual, but its logic made sense, especially to the Canadian government. Why not work with its biggest economic and security partner while also giving Canadian aerospace firms opportunities to win contracts in what is sometimes referred to as the “<a href="https://fmep.org/media/reading/top-news-from-palestine-israel-november-10-2020/">the arms deal of the century</a>?”</p>
<p>The current lifetime cost estimate of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/air-force-admits-f-35-fighter-jet-costs-too-much-ncna1259781">$1.6 trillion</a> makes it the most expensive weapon system ever built and puts it on equal footing with the entire outstanding U.S. <a href="https://educationdata.org/student-loan-debt-statistics">federal student loan debt</a> and President Joe Biden’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/build-back-better/">Build Back Better plan</a>. </p>
<h2>Fighter jet competition</h2>
<p>In 2017, the Trudeau government launched what it called an “<a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-services-procurement/news/2017/12/government_launchesopenandtransparentcompetitiontoreplacecanadas.html">open and transparent</a>” competition for fighter jets. Designed to rigorously assess bids on elements of capability, cost and economic benefits, this process eventually came down to just two warplanes — the F-35 and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/swedens-jas39-gripen-may-be-worlds-best-nonstealth-fighter-jet-2021-11">Sweden’s Saab Gripen</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456616/original/file-20220406-7184-9emya2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A fighter jet in a greyish sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456616/original/file-20220406-7184-9emya2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456616/original/file-20220406-7184-9emya2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456616/original/file-20220406-7184-9emya2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456616/original/file-20220406-7184-9emya2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456616/original/file-20220406-7184-9emya2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456616/original/file-20220406-7184-9emya2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456616/original/file-20220406-7184-9emya2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Saab Gripen from the Hungarian Air Force performs during an airshow in Austria in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ronald Zak)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This all but guaranteed the F-35’s win. The last non-American fighter to enter the Royal Canadian Air Force was <a href="https://www.warplane.com/aircraft/collection/details.aspx?aircraftId=15">the Vampire</a> in 1948, manufactured by the British company de Havilland. </p>
<p>As a general rule, Canada’s military wants platforms that offer seamless or advanced interoperability with U.S. forces — not merely compatibility or basic interoperability that would have been the case with the Swedish jet.</p>
<p>The fact that the F-35 is yet to lose a competition is due both to <a href="https://thedisorderofthings.com/2014/05/16/aircraft-stories-the-f-35-joint-strike-fighter-part-i/">the size of the program</a> and <a href="https://thedisorderofthings.com/2014/05/17/aircraft-stories-the-f-35-joint-strike-fighter-part-ii/">U.S. influence</a>.</p>
<p>The more air forces that buy it — Canada’s decision brings that number to 18 — the lower its operational and other costs. That’s because <a href="https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/what-are-network-effects">network effects</a>, as economists call them, generate not only profits for contractors but also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423914001103">international power and influence</a>. </p>
<p>Citing security concerns about the aircraft’s design details, the U.S. government is requesting <a href="https://www.c4isrnet.com/smr/5g/2022/01/27/f-35-fighters-5g-networks-and-how-the-uae-is-trying-to-balance-relations-between-the-us-and-china/">every F-35 customer</a> remove all 5G equipment made by China’s Huawei from their networks in the coming years. Those failing to comply will likely be removed from the program. </p>
<p>Something similar <a href="https://breakingdefense.com/2019/07/turkey-is-cozying-up-to-china-after-f-35-expulsion-israelis-warn/">happened to Turkey in 2019</a> after its government decided to buy a Russian missile defence system. U.S. officials said that posed risks to the F-35s, including the possibility that Russia could covertly use the system to obtain classified details on the jet.</p>
<h2>Strings attached</h2>
<p>The strings attached to F-35 purchases have prompted some to call the fighter jet program “<a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/07/12/f-35-sales-are-americas-belt-and-road/">America’s One Belt, One Road</a>” — a tongue-in-cheek reference to China’s major foreign policy initiative and the Chinese tendency to strong-arm smaller states into participating. In Canadian politics, however, those strings are largely immaterial because dependence on the U.S. and its military power has long been a huge net benefit. </p>
<p>But what about today, with <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/2022/02/25/what-the-ukraine-invasion-is-really-about-and-what-comes-next.html">the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/mu8hg">a rising China</a> and a <a href="https://blogs.city.ac.uk/internationalsystemofpower/2021/08/30/white-supremacy-in-hegemonic-contestations/">radicalized U.S. Republican Party</a>? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An elderly woman with a white wool scarf on her head and carrying a yellow plastic bag walks past a destroyed apartment building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456618/original/file-20220406-5430-m4xe2r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456618/original/file-20220406-5430-m4xe2r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456618/original/file-20220406-5430-m4xe2r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456618/original/file-20220406-5430-m4xe2r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456618/original/file-20220406-5430-m4xe2r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456618/original/file-20220406-5430-m4xe2r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456618/original/file-20220406-5430-m4xe2r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An elderly woman walks by an apartment building destroyed by Russian shelling in Borodyanka, Ukraine, on April 6, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These developments are troubling and disorienting, but the fundamentals of Canada’s defence are not necessarily shifting dramatically. Whatever happens in Ukraine and in future American elections, the U.S. will almost certainly prioritize the North American homeland, keeping a close eye on both Russia and China.</p>
<p>Accordingly, Ottawa will be expected to <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-this-election-canadians-cant-afford-to-ignore-parties-defence/">add capacity</a> to Canada’s NORAD and NATO commitments, and that means investing in the new aircraft. The new defence budget measures announced by Freeland are in fact designed to strengthen these commitments. </p>
<p>But Trudeau’s topsy-turvy relationship with the F-35 will continue to be mocked. Had the Conservative plan survived the end of the Harper government, RCAF pilots would now be much closer to flying the new jet. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1508615120410365954"}"></div></p>
<p>Instead, until at least 2025 — when the first new F-35s are expected to arrive — they will have to rely on an aging CF-18 fighter force, plus the equally aging, used <a href="https://www.military.com/equipment/f-18c-d-hornet">F/A-18s</a> the Liberals acquired in 2019 <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/procurement/fighter-jets/supplementing-cf-18-fleet.html">from Australia</a> as a stop-gap measure. </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/2022/03/29/assessing-the-costs-and-benefits-of-canadas-12-year-f-35-odyssey.html">taxpayer money</a> might have been saved, too, had the government bought the F-35s 12 years ago.</p>
<h2>Standing on its own</h2>
<p>Given the assorted risks and threats Canada could face — including from authoritarian powers, cyber warfare, another pandemic, natural disasters and the accelerating effects of climate change — military procurement is only a small piece of the overall puzzle. </p>
<p>The principal challenge for the federal government is assessing problems in their totality and improving Canada’s own ability to tackle these issues on its own, without being overly affected or reliant on the U.S.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-shows-why-canada-must-reduce-its-dependence-on-the-u-s-136357">Coronavirus shows why Canada must reduce its dependence on the U.S.</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This requires aligning goals and commitments with necessarily limited resources. A far-reaching, comprehensive review of the defence, security, diplomatic and development issues facing Canada would be a step in <a href="https://www.cips-cepi.ca/2017/02/12/national-interest-in-the-age-of-trump/">the right direction</a>. </p>
<p>One way for the Liberals to atone for their contributions to Canada’s fighter jet replacement farce would be to put forth a strategic vision for the country — and do so sooner rather than later.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180552/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Srdjan Vucetic received funding in 2011-2014 from Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for a research project on U.S. arms transfers.</span></em></p>Canada’s F-35 flip-flop amid the Ukraine war underscores the need for a far-reaching, comprehensive review of the defence, security, diplomatic and development issues facing the country.Srdjan Vucetic, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1763402022-02-03T02:14:46Z2022-02-03T02:14:46ZThe sun sets on Erin O'Toole as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444184/original/file-20220203-13-g0e7hy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=36%2C131%2C4010%2C1862&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Erin O'Toole speaks about climate change at an Ottawa event in April 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-sun-sets-on-erin-o-toole-as-leader-of-the-conservative-party-of-canada" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>When the dust settled and the caucus votes had been counted, 73 MPs from the Conservative Party of Canada <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2022/02/02/erin-otoole-makes-final-appeal-to-keep-his-job.html">voted to oust their leader</a>, Erin O'Toole.</p>
<p>After weeks of speculation about whether or when it would happen, the vote proved a quick and decisive repudiation. Just what the rejection was about, however, will be the subject of debate both inside and outside the party as it moves to select <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/how-the-race-was-won-otooles-campaign-to-take-down-mackay-for-the-conservative-leadership">its third leader in less than five years.</a> </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1488980291108900864"}"></div></p>
<p>For some, the vote will be seen as a rejection of O'Toole’s very public attempts to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/world/canada/the-conservative-erin-otoole-shifted-left-to-broaden-his-partys-appeal.html">shift the party towards a more moderate stance on a range of issues</a>, in a bid to expand the pool of potential voters.</p>
<h2>Not the ‘Liberal lite’ party</h2>
<p>For those critics, the party must stop trying to be some version of <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/o-toole-versus-the-grassroots-conservative-leader-finds-himself-divided-from-base-1.5649949">“Liberal lite</a>” and plant its flag firmly on issues supported by the party’s most fervent, and typically right-leaning, supporters. </p>
<p>Such measures include <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/truckers-vaccine-vandetta-conservative-mps-1.6325761">unwinding restrictions related to the pandemic</a>, <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/conservative-mp-supports-riding-association-s-petition-against-o-toole-carbon-tax-1.5761464">rejecting a carbon tax</a>, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-otoole-faces-caucus-revolt-as-35-mps-sign-letter-calling-for/">standing up for social conservative values,</a> and more. </p>
<p>For others, including many who agreed with O'Toole’s conclusion that the party had to moderate in order to win back the urban supporters it had lost to the Liberals, the vote may seem instead a rejection of the fitful style in which O'Toole attempted to remake the party.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three smiling men in blue suits in the House of Commons." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444185/original/file-20220203-21-x0pvft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444185/original/file-20220203-21-x0pvft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444185/original/file-20220203-21-x0pvft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444185/original/file-20220203-21-x0pvft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444185/original/file-20220203-21-x0pvft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444185/original/file-20220203-21-x0pvft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444185/original/file-20220203-21-x0pvft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">O'Toole is lead into the House of Commons by former prime minister Stephen Harper and
the late Jim Flaherty, finance minister at the time, in December 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shift to the centre</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/conservative-party-leadership-results-1.5695925">After winning the leadership with a campaign based on a commitment to “true blue” values</a>, O'Toole began to tack to the centre with his comments.</p>
<p>It was reminiscent of an American Republican presidential candidates, <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18664285">like John McCain</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/05/us/politics/entering-stage-right-romney-moved-to-center.html">and Mitt Romney</a>, moderating their positions during the general election after winning the support of their right-wing base in the primaries. But while such activity is the norm in the United States for Republicans and Democrats alike, it struck many in Canada as disingenuous. </p>
<p>At the heart of the critique for most Conservative Party supporters, however, is the party’s showing in September 2021 federal election. In the space of a five-week election campaign, O'Toole updated and reversed positions repeatedly. </p>
<h2>Reversed course</h2>
<p>Most of the changes were intended to further moderate the party, like when he suggested <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal-election/2021/09/14/erin-otoole-says-the-liberals-carbon-price-wont-automatically-get-scrapped-if-he-is-prime-minister.html">the Liberal carbon tax might persist under a Conservative Party government</a>, or when he <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/gun-control-wedge-issue-1.6165532">reversed course on a Conservative platform pledge to end a ban on some assault-style weapons</a>. </p>
<p>The strategy was clear: win over disgruntled Conservative supporters who had migrated toward the Liberals while hoping to hold on to as much of the far right wing of the party as possible.</p>
<p>For the first two weeks of the campaign, the strategy appeared to be working, as the Conservatives erased the pre-election Liberal lead. Through the first week of September, O'Toole appeared to pull ahead. One enthusiastic pollster <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/federal-election-2021/o-toole-a-political-freight-train-as-conservatives-take-clear-lead-nanos-1.5572456">described O'Toole as a “political freight train.”</a> </p>
<p>That momentum eventually stalled however, even as the policy reversals increased in frequency. In the end, even though the CPC once again won the popular vote, it finished a distant second to the Liberals in seats as Justin Trudeau <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-21/trudeau-wins-third-term-as-canada-prime-minister-ctv-projects">was returned to power with a minority government</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A bald man in a dark suit speaks into a microphone with stadium lights beside him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444205/original/file-20220203-19-z52z6e.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444205/original/file-20220203-19-z52z6e.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444205/original/file-20220203-19-z52z6e.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444205/original/file-20220203-19-z52z6e.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444205/original/file-20220203-19-z52z6e.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444205/original/file-20220203-19-z52z6e.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444205/original/file-20220203-19-z52z6e.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">O'Toole speaks during a campaign stop at a campaign office in Flamborough, Ont.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Accused of flip-flopping</h2>
<p>For critics in the party, the flip-flopping throughout O'Toole’s leadership created the impression of a leader willing to say and do anything to be elected. As one caucus member described it, the reversals were the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/otoole-post-election-report-1.6329961">“elephant in the room” and should have been a focus of the party’s official post-mortem report</a>.</p>
<p>At the same time, O'Toole’s attempts to expand the tent and move the party to the centre alienated many in the more conservative wing of the party. Many of the <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/conservatives-headed-for-yet-another-tense-caucus-meeting-over-move-to-oust-otoole">loudest and most public post-election critiques</a> of O'Toole’s leadership, in fact, came from social conservative groups. </p>
<p>Ironically, in the months since the election, O'Toole had to make additional course corrections to mollify his opponents within the party.</p>
<p>After initially agreeing to COVID-19 containment measures, he subsequently felt compelled to <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/otoole-does-about-face-on-vaccine-mandate-for-mps-in-commons-now-says-decision-infringes-on-their-rights">voice opposition to a vaccine mandate</a> for MPs entering the House of Commons.</p>
<p>As the Omicron variant tore through provinces across the country, O'Toole <a href="https://kitchener.citynews.ca/national-news/erin-otoole-urges-accommodations-for-unvaccinated-canadians-amid-omicron-wave-4929008">supported exemptions for the unvaccinated</a> even as polling continues to suggest <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/majority-of-canadians-surveyed-support-fines-for-unvaccinated-citizens-nanos-1.5752630">most Canadians were less tolerant of those who wouldn’t get jabbed</a>. </p>
<h2>A party divided</h2>
<p>While the party united sufficiently to expel O'Toole, it remains unclear what else its members can agree upon. In his departing remarks, <a href="https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=2374237">O'Toole issued a warning that the country faced a dire moment of division.</a> At present, however, it’s the party that he led that’s bitterly divided.</p>
<p>Candice Bergen, a right-wing member of the party, has been named interim leader in a possible signal of what direction the Conservative caucus is heading.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1489052835044106248"}"></div></p>
<p>Throughout his time as leader, O'Toole continually tried to ride two horses going in different directions. No leader, however adept, can indefinitely look graceful doing that. The endless reversals that were a hallmark of his leadership were the inevitable result.</p>
<p>Whoever follows him in the role will have to grapple with those same divisions, and face the same choice. </p>
<p>The leadership race will certainly feature would-be successors planting flags on either side of the fault line dividing the party, but when the dust settles once more, the next Conservative leader will face the same unpalatable choices — and the same seemingly unbridgeable divide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176340/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stewart Prest does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After being ousted as Conservative leader, Erin O'Toole warned the country faced a dire moment of division. At the moment, however, it’s the party he attempted to lead that’s bitterly divided.Stewart Prest, Lecturer, Political Science, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1682352021-09-23T17:37:44Z2021-09-23T17:37:44ZCanada’s exclusion from the AUKUS security pact reveals a failing national defence policy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422779/original/file-20210922-23-1bdsskl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C22%2C3000%2C2038&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman waves a Canadian flag as the frigate HMCS Halifax heads from the harbour in Halifax in January 2021 to start a six-month deployment in the Mediterranean Sea to assist in NATO counter-terrorism patrols.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan </span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/16/world/europe/france-australia-uk-us-submarines.html">The recently announced deal on nuclear submarines between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States</a>, known as AUKUS, likely seems irrelevant to many Canadians.</p>
<p>But AUKUS is about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/opinion/AUKUS-australia-us-china.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article">far more</a> <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8196164/aukus-defence-deal-canada-china-relations/">than submarines.</a> And Canada’s exclusion from the pact represents <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-canadas-exclusion-from-three-eyes-only-confirms-what-was-already-the/">growing suspicions</a> about the Canadian commitment to the rules-based <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/defending-liberal-international-order">international order</a>.</p>
<p>The problem stems from Canada’s tacit “<a href="http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/vol15/no3/page5-eng.asp">grand strategy</a>” underlying our defence policy.</p>
<p>A country’s grand strategy typically outlines geopolitical realities alongside a plan to achieve its diplomatic goals. </p>
<p>In 1924, Liberal politician <a href="https://www.thewhig.com/2013/09/16/dreams-of-a-fireproof-house">Raoul Dandurand</a> famously said “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/002070209905400106">Canada is a fire-proof house, far removed from flammable materials</a>,” putting into words Canada’s approach to defence since 1867. Simply put, three oceans and a superpower sufficiently shield us from having to think about how to achieve national security. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X14536562">Canadian defence policy</a> has never varied from three priorities — defend Canada, defend North America and contribute to international peace and security — that have appeared in every Defence Department white paper since the 1950s, regardless of the governing party. This attitude was evident in the recent election campaign, when discussions about defence were largely absent, despite growing threats from abroad and the turmoil within our own military.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-election-2021-a-campaign-marked-by-failure-and-frustration-168240">Federal election 2021: A campaign marked by failure and frustration</a>
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<h2>Diminished Canadian military</h2>
<p>Since the heydays of defence spending of the 1950s, <a href="https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1991/6/17/meaner-and-leaner">the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) have been gradually shedding fundamental capabilities</a> — including long-range artillery, <a href="https://www.cfc.forces.gc.ca/259/290/308/192/johns.pdf">tanks</a>, <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/canadas-air-force-destined-become-old-obsolete-40802">fighters that are now obsolete</a>, submarine forces, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4113222/halifax-hmcs-athabaskan/">destroyers</a> and <a href="https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/retired-hmcs-protecteur-on-final-sail-to-scrap-heap-it-served-the-country-well-1.2864462">maritime logistics</a>. </p>
<p>The current #MeToo moment racking military leadership, creating a turnstile for key senior positions, hasn’t gone unnoticed among our allies. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-misconduct-abuse-of-power-adultery-and-secrecy-what-i-witnessed-in-canadas-military-158345">Sexual misconduct, abuse of power, adultery and secrecy: What I witnessed in Canada’s military</a>
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<p>And while the CAF specifically faces new challenges in terms of diversity, its traditional approach to leadership has alienated thousands within the ranks, causing a rush to the exits, <a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/kurl-crisis-in-canadas-military-could-make-recruitment-even-harder">especially among the most experienced of personnel</a>. The lack of support for modern equipment has also contributed to this problem.</p>
<p>Canadians, meantime, remain <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-canadians-pay-little-attention-to-their-military-101236">blissfully unconcerned by these things</a>. </p>
<h2>Harper dithered too</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/procurement/fighter-jets/supplementing-cf-18-fleet.html">The need to replace CF-18 fighter jets</a> has been evident for more than two decades. </p>
<p>Governments have had all the information they need to make a decision. <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/tough-choices-for-defence-spending/article1215484/">Yet even the pro-defence Conservatives under former prime minister Stephen Harper dithered.</a> </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Royal Canadian Air CF-18s fly over the National War Memorial" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422777/original/file-20210922-24-b5i94g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C29%2C4868%2C2998&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422777/original/file-20210922-24-b5i94g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422777/original/file-20210922-24-b5i94g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422777/original/file-20210922-24-b5i94g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422777/original/file-20210922-24-b5i94g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422777/original/file-20210922-24-b5i94g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422777/original/file-20210922-24-b5i94g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornets fly over the National War Memorial during the National Remembrance Day Ceremony in Ottawa in 2017. The need to replace CF-18 fighter jets has been evident for years, but it’s one of several military lapses that don’t get addressed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our fire-proof house defence strategy encourages this antipathy. When you think you live in a gated community, the pressure to invest in alarms for your home disappears.</p>
<p>We remain steadfastly convinced that we are far removed from flammable materials. In recent weeks, some have even suggested that all Canada requires is some sort of <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-defence-doesnt-fit-the-job-of-canadas-military-any-more-lets-create-a/">constabulary force</a> whose primary responsibilities involve fighting wildfires or search and rescue missions. </p>
<p>Perhaps that’s so. In the foreseeable future, <a href="https://uwaterloo.ca/defence-security-foresight-group/sites/ca.defence-security-foresight-group/files/uploads/files/dsfg_lackenbauer_workingpaper_defence_against_help.pdf">only the U.S.</a> would likely have the ability to invade Canada. In that unlikely event, our policy would have to be in a faint hope the international community would come to our rescue. </p>
<p>But what if the unthinkable happened? In the future, Canada’s geographic situation won’t save us from having to make hard decisions, just as it hasn’t in the past. </p>
<p>We could not avoid going to war in <a href="https://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/">either 1914</a> <a href="https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/wars-and-conflicts/second-world-war/">or 1939</a>. In 2001 and 2003, we were compelled by circumstances <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/international-campaign-against-terrorism-in-afghanistan">to send Canadian soldiers to Afghanistan to demonstrate our reliability as a partner</a>. In 1941, 2,000 unprepared and very poorly supported Canadian troops were sent to safeguard Hong Kong: <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/battle-of-hong-kong">800 of them were either killed in battle or through mistreatment as prisoners of war</a>, a direct outcome of our fire-proof mentality.</p>
<h2>China and the future international order</h2>
<p>The two recently released Canadian prisoners of China — Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, known as the “two Michaels” — <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/east-asia-pacific_voa-news-china_canadians-two-michaels-ordeal-exposed-dark-side-china/6203716.html">paid the price</a> for Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou following an extradition request from the United States, another decision the Canadian government could not avoid.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-have-canada-and-australia-taken-such-a-different-approach-to-china-168236">Why have Canada and Australia taken such a different approach to China?</a>
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<p>Australia clearly would have preferred not to have to choose between the two biggest global superpowers, especially given its proximity to China. The country is also Australia’s biggest trading partner.</p>
<p>In 2018, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared: <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/morrison-won-t-pick-sides-in-us-china-spat/9ba69ad1-ac62-4697-bd91-39743b23ec89">“Australia doesn’t have to choose and we won’t choose” between China and the U.S.</a> </p>
<p>But a global order based on submitting to the whims of a renewed China clearly would have been intolerable to liberal-minded Australia. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/16/world/australia/australia-china-submarines.html">In the end, the Australians really had no other choice.</a></p>
<p>Canada has skated on thin ice so far this century. It’s avoided confronting the erosion of its strategic defence.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The former chief of defence staff inspects the troops" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422774/original/file-20210922-15-hbgyr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3990%2C3164&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422774/original/file-20210922-15-hbgyr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422774/original/file-20210922-15-hbgyr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422774/original/file-20210922-15-hbgyr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422774/original/file-20210922-15-hbgyr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422774/original/file-20210922-15-hbgyr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422774/original/file-20210922-15-hbgyr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The former chief of defence staff inspects the troops during a change of command parade on Parliament Hill in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We can continue to drag our heels, but eventually the bill will come due when our government commits our forces to a mission they can no longer fulfil because we thought we didn’t need to concern ourselves with the health of the military. </p>
<p>In recent years, the “unthinkable” took place as we committed to a land war in Afghanistan and a bombing campaign over Libya. These will not be the last such surprises.</p>
<p>An honest rethinking of our strategy is the first step out of this dangerous situation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168235/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul T. Mitchell works for the Department of National Defence as a Professor of Defence Studies at the Canadian Forces College. </span></em></p>Canada’s ‘fireproof house’ defence strategy is causing problems among its allies. When you are convinced you live in a gated community, the pressure to invest in alarms for your home disappears.Paul T. Mitchell, Professor of Defence Studies, Canadian Forces CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1680182021-09-21T15:06:51Z2021-09-21T15:06:51ZWhy minority governments have been good — and sometimes bad — for Canada<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422409/original/file-20210921-15-1fvje6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5456%2C3634&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau greets commuters at a Montréal Metro station the day after the federal election that saw him win re-election. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick </span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/why-minority-governments-have-been-good-—-and-sometimes-bad-—-for-canada" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Canada has another minority government. Is this good or bad for Canadian democracy? <a href="https://emond.ca/two-cheers-for-minority-government-the-evolution-of-canadian-parliamentary-democracy.html">Mostly good</a> — for now.</p>
<p>There’s a lot to like about a governing party having a minority of seats in the House of Commons, which requires that it work with opposition parties. </p>
<p>Minority government tempers the chronic problem in the parliamentary system of a prime minister and senior political staff having an <a href="https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/governing-from-the-centre-the/9780802082527-item.html">excess of power</a>. Instead of barrelling forward with public policy, or taking members of Parliament for granted, there is a need to spend more time consulting widely.</p>
<p>In a minority government, <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/whipped">backbenchers matter</a> more. The average MP’s votes have more impact; the government could fall if it lacks their support. Parliamentary committees are no longer dominated by the governing party. Instead, committees have more freedom to monitor the government, and to question what ministers and the Prime Minister’s Office are trying to do.</p>
<p>In short, a minority government gives more power to the legislative branch, which acts as a check on the executive branch. This is precisely what Justin Trudeau was trying to avoid when he determined that an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/18/world/canada/justin-trudeau-snap-election.html">early election</a> was warranted.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rhetoric-check-parliament-wasnt-toxic-justin-trudeau-just-wants-a-majority-167245">Rhetoric Check: Parliament wasn't toxic — Justin Trudeau just wants a majority</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A win is a win</h2>
<p>From Trudeau’s point of view, and that of his key political staff, a minority government is still a win. He is still prime minister, most of his ministers were re-elected and the Liberals won enough seats that there are unlikely to be threats to his leadership from within anytime soon.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Trudeau and his family wave to supporters with a Canadian flag beside them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422407/original/file-20210921-13-1esx6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422407/original/file-20210921-13-1esx6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422407/original/file-20210921-13-1esx6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422407/original/file-20210921-13-1esx6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422407/original/file-20210921-13-1esx6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422407/original/file-20210921-13-1esx6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422407/original/file-20210921-13-1esx6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trudeau and his family wave to supporters in Montréal on election night.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But Trudeau wanted a majority government for a reason.</p>
<p>The prime minister and his team will be stymied if they attempt to ram things through Parliament, like they did at the <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/government-coronavirus-bill-scott-reid_ca_5e7a893cc5b6e051e8dcfe09">height of the pandemic</a>. </p>
<p>If parliamentary committees investigate his government’s ethical lapses, like they did over the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/we-contracts-lobbying-ethics-1.6060441">WE Charity scandal</a>, his main recourse is to shut things down <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7283685/trudeau-prorogues-parliament-explained/">by asking the governor general to prorogue</a> Parliament. </p>
<p>The next time he wants to go to the polls early, his attempted power grab will still be fresh on Canadians’ minds.</p>
<p>Yet we know from recent history that Canadians are likely to grow weary of the political games that occur during a minority government. From 2003 to 2006, Paul Martin headed a Liberal minority government, and Stephen Harper presided over two Conservative minorities until 2011, when he won a majority. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422414/original/file-20210921-21-1qs4b7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Harper speaks with a Canadian flag behind him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422414/original/file-20210921-21-1qs4b7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422414/original/file-20210921-21-1qs4b7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422414/original/file-20210921-21-1qs4b7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422414/original/file-20210921-21-1qs4b7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422414/original/file-20210921-21-1qs4b7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422414/original/file-20210921-21-1qs4b7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422414/original/file-20210921-21-1qs4b7x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivers a speech to supporters during a campaign stop during the 2011 election in Niagara Falls.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The acrimony that played out during that tempestuous period climaxed with the Conservative government being declared in contempt of Parliament for not disclosing information, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/harper-government-falls-in-historic-commons-showdown/article4181393/">which led to it falling</a> on a non-confidence motion in 2011. Undeterred, Harper then campaigned on a message of the need for a “strong, stable, Conservative majority government.” </p>
<p>Many Canadians agreed, and initially were relieved to put the political fighting of minority governance behind them. It was a reminder that prime ministers know that what happens in Parliament rarely ignites voter outrage on the campaign hustings.</p>
<h2>Rough waters ahead</h2>
<p>We can expect rough waters with a minority government. There will be constant politicking. The parties will be in a <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/permanent-campaigning-in-canada">perpetual election mode</a> as they try to win every communications battle, every public opinion poll and every fundraising drive as though the election never stopped. </p>
<p>The media and pundits will constantly speculate about whether the government will fall, or if there will be a snap election. The Liberals will attempt to box in the opposition to call their bluff on political demands, and will pressure their own MPs into supporting bills and motions under the threat of everything being a matter of confidence.</p>
<p>Opposition parties will try to embarrass the government at every opportunity, and there will be a steady diet of drama and controversy for the media to report. The only thing that will truly unify the parties is fear of an election that could cost them seats and money.</p>
<p>Canadians may be in for a rough political ride, but sometimes good things happen when political parties are forced to collaborate. </p>
<h2>Pearson minorities</h2>
<p>Proponents of minority governments look fondly at the 1960s when Lester B. Pearson won back-to-back <a href="https://irpp.org/wp-content/uploads/assets/po/minority-government/kent.pdf">minorities</a> that forced deal-brokering with the New Democratic Party. That era was the bedrock of the Canadian social safety net, with the Pearson Liberals advancing national medicare, Canada student loans and the Canada Pension Program. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Lester B. Pearson points to a tourism poster." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422417/original/file-20210921-27-1xbs7fo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422417/original/file-20210921-27-1xbs7fo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422417/original/file-20210921-27-1xbs7fo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422417/original/file-20210921-27-1xbs7fo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422417/original/file-20210921-27-1xbs7fo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422417/original/file-20210921-27-1xbs7fo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422417/original/file-20210921-27-1xbs7fo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson admires a poster promoting Canadian tourism in 1964.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CP PHOTO)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People forget, or may not know, that opposition parties lobbed <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/minority-government/minority-government-from-productive-to-dysfunctional/">countless accusations</a> of political wrongdoing and mismanagement, or that the news was filled with stories of controversy and chaos. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/flag-debate">The debate over creating the Canadian Maple Leaf flag</a> was especially divisive. Yet half a century later, the disagreements are largely forgotten, and most Canadians are rightly proud of those programs and their flag.</p>
<p>There is one looming problem with minority governments: <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1754-7121.1976.tb01713.x">they tend to spend</a> lots of money. Worried about losing power, the governing party wants to curry favour — and doesn’t want to stoke political unrest. </p>
<p>Since 2019, the Liberals have found support from the NDP, and as a result, hundreds of billions of dollars has been spent to combat the pandemic, to support Canadians and to stabilize the economy. Anyone worried about the government avoiding running massive deficits and the legacy of mounting financial debt has reason to be concerned.</p>
<p>Prime ministers do not like minority governments, or limits on their power. As Canada works its way through the pandemic, we’re lucky there will be a greater role for Parliament and MPs in trying to figure out the way forward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Marland is a member of the board of directors of the Institute for Research on Public Policy.</span></em></p>Canada has elected another Liberal minority government. Here’s a look at the pros and cons of Canadian minority governments over the years.Alex Marland, Professor, Political Science, Memorial University of NewfoundlandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1681352021-09-17T15:31:13Z2021-09-17T15:31:13ZHow women voters could decide the Canadian federal election — again<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421839/original/file-20210917-48847-1vvx5t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3000%2C1868&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women look on as NDP leader Jagmeet Singh arrives for a morning campaign announcement in Essex, Ont.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward </span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/how-women-voters-could-decide-the-canadian-federal-election-—-again" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Heading into the federal election campaign’s final days, the Liberal and Conservative parties are in a <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8191108/canada-election-ipsos-poll-dead-heat/">dead heat nationally</a> in a race with an uncertain outcome. </p>
<p>In the scramble for votes, the parties have all made gender-based appeals, hoping to capitalize on known or assumed differences between men and women to reactivate past supporters or court new ones. </p>
<p>Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have concentrated on retaining their advantage among women, and Trudeau appears to be <a href="https://angusreid.org/federal-election-post-debate/">making inroads among young women voters</a> at the expense of the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh. For the Conservatives, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal-election/2021/09/12/otoole-promises-to-hike-benefits-for-parents-grieving-the-death-of-a-child.html">appealing to women has been vital</a>. </p>
<p>Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, after all, did not win a majority government until they eliminated the gender gap in the vote in 2011.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A graph shows the gender gap in Reform Party/Canadian Alliance/CPC voting from 1993-2019 the Conservative vote" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421745/original/file-20210917-15-53c7ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421745/original/file-20210917-15-53c7ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421745/original/file-20210917-15-53c7ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421745/original/file-20210917-15-53c7ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421745/original/file-20210917-15-53c7ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421745/original/file-20210917-15-53c7ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421745/original/file-20210917-15-53c7ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gender gap in Reform Party/Canadian Alliance/CPC voting, 1993-2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Compiled from Canadian Election Studies</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Women represent <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL.FE.ZS">more than 50 per cent</a> of the Canadian population, and there is no easy path to power without their support. <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/news/politics/why-the-conservatives-havent-closed-the-gender-gap/article718161/">Harper’s two minority governments in 2006 and 2008 were both elected with gender gaps</a> of five to six percentage points in party support. In the current campaign, the gap in CPC support looks much larger than this. </p>
<p>Throughout the 2021 campaign, some polls have shown sizeable — even unprecedented — gender gaps in voter intentions. <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/federal-election-2021/conservatives-surging-with-male-voters-nanos-data-1.5563675">A survey from Nanos Research in late August</a>, for example, reported a 14-point gap in CPC vote intentions — 27 per cent support from women versus 41 per cent from men. </p>
<p>Can we expect O'Toole and the CPC to narrow this gap and chart a path to power via a breakthrough among women? Looking at the sources of the gender-vote gap and the campaign itself, skepticism is truly warranted.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Trudeau pushes a stroller as he walks with families, including two women pushing strollers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421847/original/file-20210917-48420-166xlma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421847/original/file-20210917-48420-166xlma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421847/original/file-20210917-48420-166xlma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421847/original/file-20210917-48420-166xlma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421847/original/file-20210917-48420-166xlma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421847/original/file-20210917-48420-166xlma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421847/original/file-20210917-48420-166xlma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau walks with families along the shoreline of the Fraser River in Richmond, B.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Gender gaps are entrenched</h2>
<p>Gender gaps aren’t new. <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/the-biggest-divide-in-canadian-politics-men-vs-women/">A double-digit gender gap in CPC voter intention was reported for months</a> before the election call. Going back further, we see the same patterns in the 2015 and 2019 federal vote too, as my research with <a href="https://poli.ucalgary.ca/profiles/melanee-thomas">Melanee Thomas</a>, <a href="https://carleton.ca/polisci/people/erin-tolley/">Erin Tolley</a> and <a href="https://www.mun.ca/posc/People/bittner.php">Amanda Bittner</a> has established. </p>
<p>Our ongoing analysis of the 2019 vote shows support for the CPC was nine percentage points higher among men than women, the largest gender gap on the right since the <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/5-things/flashback-friday-on-this-day-in-2003-pcs-and-alliance-united-as-conservatives-1.2607589">Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties united in 2003</a> to form the CPC.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman walks into a church to vote" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421844/original/file-20210917-23-l5nyz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421844/original/file-20210917-23-l5nyz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421844/original/file-20210917-23-l5nyz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421844/original/file-20210917-23-l5nyz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421844/original/file-20210917-23-l5nyz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421844/original/file-20210917-23-l5nyz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421844/original/file-20210917-23-l5nyz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A woman walks into a church to vote in the 2019 federal election in Fredericton, N.B.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Stephen MacGillivray</span></span>
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<p>Gender-vote gaps are manifestations of enduring value differences and issue priorities between men and women. <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/electoral-behaviour">Women tend to lean to the left of men on three critical dimensions</a>: state intervention, the market and social issues. By nature, these orientations are resistant to short-term change. </p>
<p>However, parties can certainly increase their appeal to targeted segments of voters via platforms, rhetoric or campaign style. Voters are responsive to changing social and economic conditions, to different leaders and to differences in platforms. Have the CPC and its leader been successful on this front?</p>
<h2>CPC: Too little, too late</h2>
<p>The CPC’s attempts to appeal to women in this campaign may have been too little, too late. The party’s announcement of <a href="https://www.conservative.ca/conservative-leader-erin-otoole-announces-plan-to-support-grieving-parents/">miscarriage/stillbirth bereavement leave</a> and, a day later, its proposal to <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8186252/otoole-new-parents-promise-canada-election/">allow up to $1,000 in earnings for new parents on EI maternity or parental benefits</a> both came in the final week of the campaign. </p>
<p>These were a direct pitch to women, but likely not enough to mobilize votes. Feeling burnt out in the 19th month of a gruelling pandemic, the last thing many women likely want to hear about is hustling harder during their maternity leave. On the childcare front, the <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/septembe-2021/which-political-party-has-the-best-child-care-plan/">CPC proposals don’t directly create new spaces, and provide smaller economic benefit for parents compared to the Liberal plan</a>.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadian-election-2021-will-the-national-child-care-plan-survive-166084">Canadian election 2021: Will the national child-care plan survive?</a>
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<p>Other issues have not favoured the CPC among women either. <a href="https://theconversation.com/where-the-parties-stand-on-gun-control-in-the-2021-federal-election-166453">The debate about firearms regulations during this campaign</a>, and the CPC’s initial vow to strike down the assault rifle ban (a promise rescinded in the second half of the campaign), may have alienated women outside the CPC base. Women are far more anti-gun than men.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6893821/firearms-ban-ipsos-poll-canada/">2020 Ipsos poll</a> in nine major cities, 58 per cent of women and 44 per cent of men favoured a blanket gun ban. In another <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-ca/news-polls/Eight-in-Ten-Canadians-Support-Federal-Governments-Ban-on-Military-Style-Assault-Weapons">Ipsos poll</a>, 87 per cent of women supported a ban on military-style assault rifles (compared to 76 per cent of men). </p>
<p>Gender differences on gun control should come as no surprise given the link between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-12-00145">firearms and gender-based violence</a>.</p>
<h2>Pandemic hurts CPC among women</h2>
<p>Another prominent campaign issue is the COVID-19 pandemic. Women have moved even further away from the CPC <a href="https://www.hilltimes.com/2021/03/29/women-have-spurned-the-tories-during-covid-time-to-show-how-conservatives-can-help-say-politicos/290717">during the crisis</a>. </p>
<p>From the start, <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/may-2020/concern-about-pandemic-differs-across-gender-and-race-lines/">women were particularly concerned about the virus and its consequences</a> and have borne <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/45-28-0001/2020001/article/00091-eng.htm">unique challenges during the pandemic due to decreased access to childcare, greater responsibility for childcare and remote schooling</a>, their presence on the frontlines as nurses and long-term care workers, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/domestic-intimate-partner-violence-up-in-pandemic-1.5914344">heightened vulnerability to gender-based violence</a> and much more. </p>
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<img alt="O'Toole, wearing a mask, waves to a baby held by his mother, also wearing a mask." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421848/original/file-20210917-32193-p5h3n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421848/original/file-20210917-32193-p5h3n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421848/original/file-20210917-32193-p5h3n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421848/original/file-20210917-32193-p5h3n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421848/original/file-20210917-32193-p5h3n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421848/original/file-20210917-32193-p5h3n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421848/original/file-20210917-32193-p5h3n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole waves to a baby during a campaign stop in Truro, N.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
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<p>With the pandemic enduring, the CPC’s hesitance about vaccine mandates and vaccine passports and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/michelle-ferreri-peterborough-kawartha-vaccination-1.6172515">its refusal to ensure its candidates are vaccinated</a>, for example, may further hamper the party’s appeal among women voters. </p>
<p>Predicting the outcome of the election is challenging. This race has been tight from the start, and polls differ in their analysis of voter intentions. What’s more, the Liberals’ feminist rhetoric at times outstrips its record, which is to say that Trudeau isn’t the optimal choice for some women voters either.</p>
<p>Women are not a monolithic voting bloc, and like men, they have varied reasons for how they cast their ballots. All the same, the history of gender-based patterns of party support combined with the election campaign itself suggests that women voters are not a likely route to power for the CPC.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168135/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC)</span></em></p>There is no easy path to power for any political party without the support of women. Has the CPC narrowed the gender gap with Liberals this election? It’s unlikely.Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant, Professor, Political Studies; Director, Canadian Opinion Research Archive, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1666332021-08-29T10:53:18Z2021-08-29T10:53:18ZRhetoric Check: Is the election really key to Canada’s post-pandemic future?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418317/original/file-20210829-25-n3t8j5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C144%2C5644%2C3576&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau speaks to media near Brampton, Ont. while on the campaign trail.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Liberals claim that a federal election is needed <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/world/canada-snap-elections-coming-as-trudeau-seeks-post-pandemic-mandate">to allow Canadians to decide which party has the best plan to lead Canada in a post-pandemic environment</a>. The implicit assumption is that the state of affairs pre-pandemic was a state of normalcy and the disruptions caused by COVID-19 shook up the status quo.</p>
<p>However, as we and our colleagues demonstrate in our book, <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030706852"><em>Political Turmoil in a Tumultuous World</em></a>, pre-pandemic Canada was marked by considerable turmoil and disunity. This was reflected in the 2019 election. <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/politics/federal-election-2019-liberals-to-lead-a-minority-government/">The governing Liberals were reduced to a minority</a> while receiving fewer votes than the Conservative Party. The pandemic has amplified these tensions; it did not produce them.</p>
<p>For example, Justin Trudeau has struggled to promote reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, which has been undermined <a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/trudeau-just-broke-his-promise-canada-s-first-nations/">by his government’s support of pipelines while claiming to acknowledge Indigenous sovereignty and fight climate change</a>. </p>
<p>The Trudeau government’s aspiration to be a feminist one was <a href="https://theconversation.com/trudeaus-response-to-the-snc-lavalin-affair-shows-structural-misogyny-in-action-122012">challenged by issues like the SNC-Lavalin scandal</a> and continuing the sale of <a href="https://theconversation.com/trading-values-to-sell-weapons-the-canada-saudi-relationship-124961">military equipment to Saudi Arabia</a>. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-premiers-testy-exchange-call-1.5610502">Relations with some provinces were also tense</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/26/us/black-lives-matter-explainer-trnd/index.html">The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement</a>, along with the pandemic, yet again revealed the entrenched <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/april-2021/why-covid-19-is-an-inequality-virus/">racialized and gendered nature of Canadian socioeconomic inequality</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-racism-works-and-shifts-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-141440">How racism works and shifts during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
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<h2>Continued Stephen Harper policies</h2>
<p>Trudeau claimed that Canada was back on the world stage, and his government employed a rhetoric of liberal internationalism to distinguish it from the Harper Conservatives. However, we have argued that Canada under Trudeau has actually <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/view/9783631838396/html/ch09.xhtml">continued the trajectory of Harper’s foreign policy</a>. It adopted a <a href="https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2019/10/CARMENT/60461">hard power outlook</a>, marked by increasing subservience to the United States, to protect its dependent economic relationship, as seen in a renegotiated NAFTA.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-winners-and-losers-in-the-new-nafta-104215">The winners and losers in the new NAFTA</a>
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<p>Since 9/11, security trumps trade for the Americans. This explains <a href="https://www.hilltimes.com/2020/02/24/canadas-china-u-s-conundrum/235047">Canada’s China-U.S. conundrum</a>, highlighted by the American extradition case that led to the imprisonment of <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7923817/2-michaels-future-trudeau/">two Canadians in China known as “the two Michaels</a>.”</p>
<p>While Trudeau’s celebrity brand has been considerably <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/11926422.2018.1461665">informed by international affairs</a>, the follow-through has been less than overwhelming. Trudeau put Canada forward for a seat on the United Nations Security Council. It was hoped that Canada’s record on issues important for member countries, namely peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance, would help. However, the fact that they suffered under his leadership <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/united-nations-security-council-canada-1.5615488">led to an embarrassing defeat</a>.</p>
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<img alt="Trudeau delivers a speech and is seen on jumbo screens to the left and right of him in a ornate hall." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418071/original/file-20210826-27-1so8zzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418071/original/file-20210826-27-1so8zzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418071/original/file-20210826-27-1so8zzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418071/original/file-20210826-27-1so8zzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418071/original/file-20210826-27-1so8zzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418071/original/file-20210826-27-1so8zzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418071/original/file-20210826-27-1so8zzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Trudeau delivers a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
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<p>On the two Michaels, <a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2020/06/25/trudeau-says-meng-michaels-swap-would-jeopardize-safety-of-millions-of-canadians-abroad/">Trudeau has stated that Canada must respect the rule of law</a> when it comes to returning Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou to China. Assurances by <a href="https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/6956527/Letter-to-Prime-Minister.pdf">former ministers and diplomats</a> that the government would be well within its rights to end the extradition process and allow her to go back were ignored. Meanwhile, the Trudeau government was seemingly <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-snc-lavalin-revelations-if-true-show-we-are-not-a-country-bound/">less respectful of the rule of law in the SNC-Lavalin scandal</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/snc-lavalin-and-the-need-for-fresh-thinking-around-independence-and-interference-112831">SNC-Lavalin & the need for fresh thinking around independence and interference</a>
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<p>With the retirement of Germany’s Angela Merkel, many pundits note that Trudeau is <a href="https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/with-merkel-going-canada-s-trudeau-aspires-to-be-dean-of-g-7-1.1616476">positioning himself as the “dean” of the G7</a>. However, this move seems rooted in domestic political ambition more than any real leadership capability. </p>
<p>Now, with the turmoil in Afghanistan and in the heat of a tight election campaign, Trudeau has <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2021/08/17/taliban-are-not-the-legitimate-government-in-afghanistan-trudeau-says.html">undercut his foreign affairs minister</a> by adopting a hard line consistent with the American position. This seems aimed at avoiding criticism from his opponents on the campaign trail over his government’s handling of the evacuation of Canadians and Afghans who assisted Canada.</p>
<h2>Pulling votes from the NDP</h2>
<p>The Liberals have, over two successive elections, recast their brand to pull votes from the Conservatives, and especially the NDP. The Liberal election strategy of drawing attention to differences between the Conservatives and Liberals <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/federal-election-2021/liberals-attacks-on-conservatives-health-care-stance-might-be-working-nanos-1.5560638">on health care is an example</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadian-election-2021-do-strategic-voting-campaigns-actually-work-166782">Canadian election 2021: Do strategic voting campaigns actually work?</a>
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<p>But it also points to Liberal hypocrisy, given that the pandemic allowed the Liberals to drastically redraw and curtail Canada’s immigration and refugee initiatives, making health <a href="https://theconversation.com/whose-travel-is-essential-during-coronavirus-hockey-players-or-asylum-seekers-140239">not only a security issue but an immigration issue as well</a>.</p>
<p>Polls and pundits reveal increasing fatigue with <a href="https://theconversation.com/rhetoric-check-historically-how-important-is-the-2021-canadian-election-166312">Trudeau’s rhetoric-reality gaps</a>. His government seems long on rhetoric and short on action, providing new opportunities for the opposition. The NDP has captured this sentiment with its <a href="https://www.politico.com/video/2021/08/25/trudeau-all-talk-campaign-on-pharmacare-318336">“All Talk” attack ads</a> against Trudeau. But can the New Democrats or the Conservatives offer something significantly different? Not likely. </p>
<p>Rather, the battle is to control and redefine the centre of the political spectrum. The major parties seek to distinguish themselves by politically recalibrating Canada’s identity and its role in the world, as we argue in the conclusion to our book <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Canada-Nation-Branding-and-Domestic-Politics-1st-Edition/Nimijean-Carment/p/book/9780367143404"><em>Canada, Nation Branding and Domestic Politics</em></a>. This means that despite rhetorical flourishes and zigs and zags with respect to the charged global environment, <a href="https://iaffairscanada.com/2021/2021-trudeau-foreign-policy-report-card/">the broad trajectory of Canadian foreign policy is unlikely to change</a>, regardless of who wins on Sept. 20.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166633/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Carment receives funding from SSHRC.
He is a Fellow of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Nimijean does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Liberals claim the election is critical to Canada’s post-pandemic future and suggest COVID-19 badly disrupted the status quo. But is that really the case?Richard Nimijean, Instructor III in the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies, Carleton UniversityDavid Carment, Professor, International Affairs, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1667822021-08-26T15:08:35Z2021-08-26T15:08:35ZCanadian election 2021: Do strategic voting campaigns actually work?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418047/original/file-20210826-15-clc4uf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C169%2C5405%2C3398&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">NDP leader Jagmeet Singh responds to a question during a news conference in Windsor, Ont., as he criticizes the Liberals. Strategic voting, when it's in play, often serves to hurt the NDP. But is it effective in preventing Conservative victories?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Labour unions and other progressive organizations in Canada have increasingly embraced strategic voting as a preferred strategy to defeat Conservative politicians. But as we approach the Sept. 20 federal election, it’s worth asking: Does the tactic really work?</p>
<p>Strategic voting occurs when a voter casts a ballot not for their preferred candidate, but for the candidate they think is best positioned to defeat their least desired candidate. </p>
<p>For many anti-Conservative voters with NDP sympathies, that has traditionally meant voting Liberal in districts where the Liberals and Conservatives are competitive, but New Democrats are weak. In the 2019 election, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poll-strategic-voting-1.5339692">polls suggested as many as a third of Canadian voters cast their ballots strategically.</a></p>
<p>While most unions continue to endorse New Democrats in districts where the party is competitive, the labour movement as a whole has gradually shifted its electoral priorities away from exclusive partnerships with the NDP towards anti-Conservative strategic voting. This shift has <a href="http://www.lltjournal.ca/index.php/llt/article/view/5874">primarily benefited</a> the Liberals. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ndp-turns-60-its-never-truly-been-the-political-arm-of-organized-labour-161964">The NDP turns 60: It's never truly been the political arm of organized labour</a>
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<h2>Impact of strategic voting overstated</h2>
<p>Despite all the resources and effort that go into strategic voting campaigns, the academic consensus is that the impact of anti-Conservative strategic voting on election outcomes <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jeanfrancois-daoust/beyond-conventional-wisdo_b_7996140.html">is overstated</a>. And in some cases, strategic voting efforts have backfired and helped to facilitate Conservative wins. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.cpsa-acsp.ca/papers-2006/Scotto.pdf">a study</a> of the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/2015-election-has-parallels-to-1999-ontario-vote-1.3258068">1999 Ontario provincial election</a>, researchers concluded that it was difficult to gauge whether the co-ordination of strategic voting successfully altered individual voter behaviour. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331661967_Organized_Labour_and_the_Politics_of_Strategic_Voting">In my own research</a>, evidence from union-backed strategic voting efforts revealed that the tactic has proven largely ineffective, if not counterproductive. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Canadian-Federal-Election-of-2008">In the 2008 federal election</a>, for example, the Canadian Autoworkers Union (CAW) targeted 40 “slim win” districts during the campaign where it believed strategic voting could help prevent a Conservative victory. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Ken Lewenza gestures while standing behind a dias that has the CAW logo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418044/original/file-20210826-4978-17m3nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418044/original/file-20210826-4978-17m3nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418044/original/file-20210826-4978-17m3nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418044/original/file-20210826-4978-17m3nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418044/original/file-20210826-4978-17m3nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418044/original/file-20210826-4978-17m3nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418044/original/file-20210826-4978-17m3nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Newly elected CAW president Ken Lewenza gestures while giving a speech in 2008. The union’s efforts in 2008 and 2011 to stop Conservative victory were unsuccessful.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The CAW directly endorsed 10 Liberal candidates, nine New Democrats and one Green. In the remaining 20 “slim win” districts, the union urged people to vote for the candidate with the best chance of defeating the Conservative. </p>
<p>In virtually every case, that meant voting Liberal. Despite the union’s effort, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canadians-voted-to-move-our-country-forward-harper-says-of-strong-minority-1.768873">Stephen Harper’s Conservatives were re-elected</a> with a strengthened minority government and the opposition parties managed very few “slim wins.” </p>
<p>The Conservatives were victorious in 32 of the 40 seats identified for strategic voting, the NDP won five contests and the Liberals carried just three. No Conservative incumbents were defeated and the party lost only one seat it previously held. All 10 of the Liberal candidates directly endorsed by the CAW were defeated.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Canadian-Federal-Election-of-2011">In the 2011 federal election</a>, the union pursued a very similar strategy with similarly poor results. In seven districts, the union’s strategically endorsed candidate actually finished in third place, undermining the entire logic of the campaign. </p>
<p>One of those seats was <a href="https://www.elections.ca/res/cir/maps/mapprov.asp?map=35006&lang=e">Bramelea-Gore-Malton</a>, where the CAW’s endorsement of a Liberal incumbent over an up-and-coming NDP candidate named Jagmeet Singh helped split the vote and allow the Conservatives to take the seat. Singh finished second, losing by just a few hundred votes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Stephen Harper smiles and waves amid pink and purple streamers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418050/original/file-20210826-6105-1mju6mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418050/original/file-20210826-6105-1mju6mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418050/original/file-20210826-6105-1mju6mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418050/original/file-20210826-6105-1mju6mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418050/original/file-20210826-6105-1mju6mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418050/original/file-20210826-6105-1mju6mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418050/original/file-20210826-6105-1mju6mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">So much for strategic voting — Stephen Harper celebrates his victory after winning a majority in May 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Limitations of strategic voting</h2>
<p>Despite union leaders <a href="https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2016/04/08/Strategic-Voting-Was-Right/">taking credit</a> for the defeat of the Harper Conservatives in the 2015 federal election, electoral analyst Bryan Breguet has <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/11/02/canada-election-2015-strategic-voting-lead-now_n_8452212.html">persuasively argued</a> that “anybody but the Conservative” campaigns weren’t a determining factor in districts targeted for strategic voting in that election.</p>
<p>Several factors undermine the effectiveness of strategic voting campaigns. </p>
<p>First, parties, unions and other progressive groups often don’t agree on which candidate is best positioned to defeat a Conservative. And in some cases, candidates will proclaim themselves as the strategic choice even when the evidence suggests otherwise. </p>
<p>Second, many voters interpret “strategic voting” to mean “vote Liberal” based on national polling or media reports. However, in districts <a href="https://www.elections.ca/res/cir/maps2/mapprov.asp?map=35074&lang=e">like Oshawa</a>, where Conservatives and New Democrats are traditionally the main contenders, such messages only sow the seeds of confusion and undermine efforts to co-ordinate strategic voting locally. </p>
<p>Third, strategic voting campaigns have proven ill-equipped at handling unexpected surges in party support mid-campaign that can change the dynamic in local races. </p>
<p>Take, for example, the 2015 <a href="http://www.votetogether.ca/report#introduction">strategic voting campaign</a> of an organization called Leadnow, aimed at defeating Harper. </p>
<p>In more than 10 per cent of the districts identified by Leadnow for strategic voting, the organization’s preferred candidate actually finished third, largely because Leadnow failed to appreciate how Justin Trudeau’s surge in popularity in the latter half of that campaign was playing out at the local level. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Trudeau waves as he steps off his campaign plane." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418051/original/file-20210826-6126-8fkw9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418051/original/file-20210826-6126-8fkw9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418051/original/file-20210826-6126-8fkw9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418051/original/file-20210826-6126-8fkw9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418051/original/file-20210826-6126-8fkw9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418051/original/file-20210826-6126-8fkw9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418051/original/file-20210826-6126-8fkw9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trudeau waves as he steps off his campaign plane on voting day in October 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In two B.C. Interior districts, Leadnow’s decision to back NDP candidates <a href="http://www.votetogether.ca/report#outcomes./2">splintered the anti-Conservative</a> vote in such a way that Conservative candidates retained both seats by relatively small margins over the second-place Liberal candidates. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, in districts where Liberal candidates were recommended by Leadnow, they <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/11/02/canada-election-2015-strategic-voting-lead-now_n_8452212.html">did not significantly outperform projections</a> based on forecasts using wider polling data.</p>
<h2>Does it makes sense to vote strategically?</h2>
<p>While calls for strategic voting will inevitably become louder as election day approaches, voters ought not be seduced or scared into substituting their sincere voting preferences, especially when the payout is so far from certain.</p>
<p>Despite the now widespread use of anti-Conservative strategic voting tactics, the effectiveness of co-ordinated campaigns <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/strategic-voting-election-harper-conservatives-leadnow-1.5307235">is suspect</a>. </p>
<p>In some cases, strategic voting efforts have not only failed to block the election of Conservative candidates, but counter-productively facilitated their election by confusing voters and further splintering anti-Conservative votes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166782/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Larry Savage does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Labour unions and other progressive organizations in Canada have increasingly embraced strategic voting as a preferred strategy to defeat Conservative politicians. But does the tactic really work?Larry Savage, Professor, Labour Studies, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1663122021-08-18T19:43:53Z2021-08-18T19:43:53ZRhetoric Check: Historically, how important is the 2021 Canadian election?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416856/original/file-20210818-15-117ab3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C13%2C4441%2C2278&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Justin Trudeau boards his campaign plane in Toronto on Aug. 17. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><strong>The claim</strong>: Justin Trudeau says that the 2021 Canadian federal election <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-otoole-singh-federal-election-pandemic-1.6141903">might be the most important election since 1945</a>. </p>
<p><strong>The verdict:</strong> This election is important for Trudeau’s political legacy.</p>
<p>All political leaders, particularly heads of government, seem to have a habit of proclaiming that any election they are contesting is the most important in recent memory. <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadian-election-2021-voters-head-to-the-polls-with-the-pandemic-climate-change-top-of-mind-166125">Moments after the governor general agreed with his request to dissolve Parliament</a>, Trudeau went even further, claiming that the 2021 election is “<a href="https://www.nanaimobulletin.com/news/trudeau-says-canadians-deserve-a-say-at-pivotal-moment-triggers-sept-20-election/">maybe the most important since 1945 and certainly in our lifetimes</a>.” Is he right?</p>
<p>The 2021 election is certainly important for Trudeau’s political career. Going to the polls two years earlier than the fixed-date election law required — and in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic — Trudeau is gambling that voters will give his Liberal party a majority government. Being returned with another minority would be interpreted as a failure, and could stir disgruntlement in the ranks.</p>
<h2>Change in leadership?</h2>
<p>Trudeau has been prime minister for nearly six years. If he is returned with another minority, his time in office will be comparable to notable Canadian prime ministers like Robert Borden, Louis St. Laurent and Brian Mulroney. However, frustrated Liberals might agitate for a change of leadership, and his grip on power will be constrained by Parliament. </p>
<p>If he wins a majority, he’ll serve at least as long as Stephen Harper and Jean Chrétien. He would oversee a potentially transformative period in government, and would increase his chances of leading the Liberals in future elections. </p>
<p>Choosing <a href="https://dbpedia.org/page/1945_Canadian_federal_election">the 1945 election</a> as a comparison to 2021 is curious. In 1945, <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/william-lyon-mackenzie-king">Prime Minister Mackenzie King</a> called for a stable Liberal majority government. Yet voters were nonplussed, reducing the Liberals to a minority; King even lost his own Saskatchewan seat. The Trudeau Liberals probably picked the 1945 campaign as a benchmark because it fits their narrative of rebuilding after a major global crisis.</p>
<p>Since 1945, there have been a smattering of elections of enormous consequence to public policy in Canada. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00344896308656441">The elections of 1963</a> <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/predicting-the-federal-election-of-1965">and 1965</a>, which saw <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/lester-bowles-pearson">Lester B. Pearson</a> preside over Liberal minority governments, marked a period of transformative change. </p>
<p><a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0140673618301818">Universal health care</a>, the <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canada-pension-plan">Canada Pension Plan</a>, <a href="https://www.k12academics.com/Education%20Worldwide/Education%20in%20Canada/Student%20Loans%20in%20Canada/history-student-loans-canada">student loans</a> and the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/flag-canada-history.html">Canadian flag</a> were ushered in. Minority government meant all of this was a result of bargaining with opposition parties. </p>
<p>The 1980 election was also pivotal, because if Pierre Trudeau hadn’t formed a government again after the Joe Clark interlude, the Canadian constitution <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/patriation-of-the-constitution">would not have been patriated in 1982</a> and we would not have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0261379489900334?via%3Dihub">The 1988 free-trade election stands out</a> for its singular-issue focus. That contest was dominated by whether Canada should enter into a trade agreement with the United States that was the precursor to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="John Turner and Brian Mulroney point fingers at one another during a debate." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416824/original/file-20210818-25-b7cxxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416824/original/file-20210818-25-b7cxxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416824/original/file-20210818-25-b7cxxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416824/original/file-20210818-25-b7cxxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416824/original/file-20210818-25-b7cxxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416824/original/file-20210818-25-b7cxxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416824/original/file-20210818-25-b7cxxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Liberal leader John Turner and Conservative leader Brian Mulroney square off during a debate in the 1988 federal election campaign that was dominated by a potential free-trade deal with the United States.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Election stunners</h2>
<p>There are also times that election results upend norms of party competition. <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/elections-of-1957-and-1958-feature">The 1957 election was a stunner</a>. The Progressive Conservatives led by John Diefenbaker knocked the Liberals out of office after 22 consecutive years, and the following year won one of the biggest landslides in Canadian history. </p>
<p>Political scientists routinely refer to the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0261379494900345?via%3Dihub">1993 election as an earthquake</a> because <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/1993-tories-trampled-in-liberal-landslide">two established national parties were displaced in favour of two regional parties</a>. The federal party system was shattered with the ascent of the Bloc Québecois to become the official opposition, closely followed by the popularity of the Reform Party in Western Canada, and combined with the thumping of the PCs and the New Democrats.</p>
<p>To some extent, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Canadian-Federal-Election-of-2008">the 2008 election</a> is a good comparison with the 2021 one. Stephen Harper ignored the fixed-date election by holding a snap election in the hope of obtaining a majority. <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/recession-of-200809-in-canada#:%7E:text=Although%20the%20effects%20on%20Canada,responses%20by%20Canadian%20policy%2Dmakers.">That campaign occurred in the midst of the global economic crisis</a> that saw housing prices collapse, the stock market plunge and American financial institutions teeter on bankruptcy. </p>
<p>Six weeks after being returned with a larger minority government, the Conservative government <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/inside-a-crisis-that-shook-the-nation/">nearly fell over a fiscal update that triggered a coalition crisis</a>, a political reckoning that set in motion massive government spending to stimulate the economy.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Stephen Harper stands at a podium with Canadian flags behind him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416832/original/file-20210818-21-1y1prph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416832/original/file-20210818-21-1y1prph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416832/original/file-20210818-21-1y1prph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416832/original/file-20210818-21-1y1prph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416832/original/file-20210818-21-1y1prph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416832/original/file-20210818-21-1y1prph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416832/original/file-20210818-21-1y1prph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stephen Harper takes questions during a media availability in Calgary in October 2008 after winning a minority in the federal election.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2019 election: Important in hindsight</h2>
<p>Yet the financial crisis did not affect all segments of society, emphasizing the fact that nothing has been seen on the scale of the pandemic since the Second World War. </p>
<p>As it turns out, the 2019 election was crucial.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/justin-trudeaus-political-setback-a-surprise-to-the-world-but-not-to-canada-125422">Justin Trudeau's political setback: A surprise to the world, but not to Canada</a>
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<p>Although COVID-19 had not yet emerged, the instalment of a Liberal minority government led to massive public policy initiatives in response to the pandemic, and put the prime minister at centre stage as the government’s main spokesperson during a formidable public crisis that has affected all Canadians.</p>
<p>It will take years before we can assess the validity of Trudeau’s rhetoric about the importance of the 2021 election. Nobody has a crystal ball to foresee what the government will do in the coming years. But one thing seems certain: this election is vitally important to Trudeau’s political legacy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166312/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Marland is a member of the board of directors of the Institute for Research on Public Policy.</span></em></p>Is Justin Trudeau correct about the importance of this election? Nobody has a crystal ball to foresee what the government will do in the future. But it’s certainly important to Trudeau’s legacy.Alex Marland, Professor, Political Science, Memorial University of NewfoundlandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1654242021-08-16T13:22:04Z2021-08-16T13:22:04ZCanadian election 2021: Risk-averse charities, civil society groups must show up<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416324/original/file-20210816-18-tajrho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4350%2C2871&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with Marco Lambertini, director general of World Wildlife Fund International and Megan Leslie, president and CEO of World Wildlife Fund Canada in Montréal in 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Election campaigns are one of the most important opportunities for civil society organizations — running the gamut from environmental groups to labour unions — to engage Canadians in debates on public policy issues. These critical issues include everything from health care to climate change and Indigenous rights. </p>
<p>Citizens who don’t normally think much about public policy pay more attention during election campaigns. Their votes can determine the contours of public policy for years to come. </p>
<p>Canadian civil society organizations — both non-profits and charities — represent a wealth of first-hand experience and research on wide-ranging public policy issues. It’s important for Canadians to hear their perspectives, especially during election campaigns. </p>
<h2>Disappearing act</h2>
<p>But data from Elections Canada indicates that civil society organizations largely <a href="https://johndcameron.com/data-on-ngo-advocacy-in-canada/">go silent during election campaigns</a>, especially those with charitable status. The <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/e-2.01/">federal Elections Act</a> requires all individuals and organizations that spend more than $500 to promote their public policy positions during election campaigns must register with Elections Canada and report on that spending.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-canadas-environmental-charities-are-afraid-to-talk-about-climate-change-during-the-election-122114">Why Canada’s environmental charities are afraid to talk about climate change during the election</a>
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<p>The act also stipulates spending limits and prohibits funding from outside Canada. </p>
<p>The purpose of these regulations is primarily to prevent the type of unlimited spending allowed in the United States via Political Action Committees (PACs). Since 2010, what are known as Super PACs have become major players in American elections, enabling wealthy individuals to exert enormous political influence, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/11/1-4-billion-and-counting-in-spending-by-super-pacs-dark-money-groups/">spending more than US$1.4 billion</a> in the 2016 election and over <a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/17036/outside-spending-super-pac-spending-in-us-elections/">US$2.7 billion</a> in the 2020 election. </p>
<p>By contrast, my analysis of Elections Canada data from the 2019 federal election shows that 127 third-party organizations reported spending a total of $11.1 million to promote their positions on public policy issues. Another 20 organizations registered with Elections Canada but did not report any spending. The third-party groups that reported spending included 31 labour unions, 26 private sector lobby groups, seven individuals, six charities and 57 non-profit groups, representing perspectives from across the political spectrum. </p>
<h2>Must remain non-partisan</h2>
<p>Viewed in the context of the <a href="http://sectorsource.ca/research-and-impact/sector-impact">170,000 registered non-profit groups</a> in Canada, including 85,000 with charitable status, these numbers should be concerning. Since 2019, <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/charities-giving/charities/policies-guidance/public-policy-dialogue-development-activities.html">Canadian regulations for charities</a> explicitly allow them to engage Canadians in public policy debates and to advocate for changes in public policies, as long as they remain non-partisan and stay focused on their organizational mandates. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A volunteer wearing a mask collects bags of donated food from the back of a vehicle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416184/original/file-20210815-17-1bqkfll.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416184/original/file-20210815-17-1bqkfll.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416184/original/file-20210815-17-1bqkfll.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416184/original/file-20210815-17-1bqkfll.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416184/original/file-20210815-17-1bqkfll.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416184/original/file-20210815-17-1bqkfll.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416184/original/file-20210815-17-1bqkfll.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Volunteers collect bags of donated food from vehicles at the Daily Bread Food Bank’s Spring Drive-Thru food drive in the Toronto area in April 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Non-profit organizations without charitable status are only required to <a href="https://lobbycanada.gc.ca/en/">report on government lobbying</a> and on any spending over $500 to boost their policy positions during election campaigns. </p>
<p>So why do so many Canadian non-profits and charities stay silent during election campaigns and give up key opportunities to engage Canadians on important public policy issues? </p>
<p>The reasons for this self-censorship are connected to interpretations of Canada’s Elections Act and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02255189.2019.1629885">a long history</a> of government efforts to discourage public policy engagement by civil society organizations, particularly charities. For many groups, <a href="https://www.fasken.com/en/knowledge/2018/08/political-activities-of-charities-a-new-world/">memories of the crackdown by the Stephen Harper government</a> on organizations that criticized its policies still serves as a vivid warning against involvement in public policy debates. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="The Canada Revenue Agency headquarters in Ottawa in 2011." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416185/original/file-20210815-19-h50q1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416185/original/file-20210815-19-h50q1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416185/original/file-20210815-19-h50q1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416185/original/file-20210815-19-h50q1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416185/original/file-20210815-19-h50q1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416185/original/file-20210815-19-h50q1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416185/original/file-20210815-19-h50q1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Canada Revenue Agency headquarters in Ottawa in 2011, when the Harper government provided it with extra funding to audit Canadian charities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Between 2009 and 2015, the Harper government <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/harper-government-stifling-dissent-civil-society-groups-say-in-report-1.3115362">cut funding</a> to organizations that spoke out against its policies and provided extra funding to the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/taxes/cra-charity-audits-creating-confusion-fear-at-tax-time-1.2952509">Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)</a> to audit the public policy activities of Canadian charities. </p>
<p>The result was a <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/silence-of-the-charities/article24025714/">climate of fear</a> and a self-silencing effect on many Canadian non-profit and charitable groups, particularly those focused on environmental issues, human rights and social justice. </p>
<h2>Liberals changed the rules</h2>
<p>The Liberal government radically changed the regulations for <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/charities-giving/charities/policies-guidance/public-policy-dialogue-development-activities.html">public policy engagement by charities in 2019</a>. However, the legacies of distrust and fear remain deep in many organizations. Attitudes of risk-aversion towards public policy engagement remain widespread, even among organizations with mandates to address issues like health care and climate change that are directly impacted by federal laws and policies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The Syncrude oil sands extraction facility is seen, reflected in a body of water in front of it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416186/original/file-20210815-23-p3fydn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416186/original/file-20210815-23-p3fydn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416186/original/file-20210815-23-p3fydn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416186/original/file-20210815-23-p3fydn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416186/original/file-20210815-23-p3fydn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416186/original/file-20210815-23-p3fydn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416186/original/file-20210815-23-p3fydn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Syncrude oil sands extraction facility is seen in June 2014. Environmental Defence and Stand Earth were among the civil society organizations that released a damning report on emissions from the oil and gas sector in Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=pol&dir=thi/ec20227&document=index&lang=e">Elections Canada regulations</a> for registration and reporting on third-party political advertising are straightforward. For small organizations with few paid staff members, the regulations may be more than they can cope with, so avoiding activities that could be perceived as political advertising during election campaigns is their only option. </p>
<p>But for larger non-profits and charities with paid, professional staff, the registration and reporting requirements are no excuse for staying silent. Some organizations do try to engage Canadians with public policy issues without spending any extra money (through social media, for example), thereby avoiding the requirements to register and report. </p>
<p>However, the opportunity to foster public debate on key public policy issues during election campaigns is too important for civil society organizations to stick to low-cost, low-impact strategies. </p>
<p>In this election campaign, charities and other non-profit organizaions that want to engage with Canadians in public policy debates need to quickly register with Elections Canada and get ready to report on their spending. At the same time, federal politicians, Elections Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency should reassure Canadian civil society organizations that engaging Canadians with public policy issues is not just tolerated, but encouraged.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165424/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John D. Cameron receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). </span></em></p>Charities and non-profit organizations must make their voices heard this election. At the same time, Elections Canada and the CRA should reassure them their involvement is encouraged.John D. Cameron, Associate Professor, Department of International Development Studies, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1573952021-03-28T13:39:13Z2021-03-28T13:39:13ZNot in the past: Colonialism is rooted in the present<p>At a press conference on March 9 after <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/07/world/meghan-harry-oprah-interview">Oprah Winfrey’s interview</a> with Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1871048771627/">asked about his commitment to the monarchy</a> and, in particular, whether it sat uncomfortably beside his stated desire to “dismantle colonialism in this country.” </p>
<p>In response, Trudeau acknowledged:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“There are many institutions that we have in this country, including that big building right across the street from us, Parliament, that has, and is, built around a system of colonialism, of discrimination, of systemic racism.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>During that same press conference however, when identifying solutions, Trudeau’s words changed. He began using the type of language we identify in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02722011.2020.1849329">recent paper as “reconciliation lite.”</a> </p>
<p>In analyzing statements made by past Canadian leaders to the world, we found that their language promotes a myth of Canada as a non-colonial power. We use reconciliation lite to describe a narrative that recognizes the need to correct past harms, but sees this as a problem solved by multiculturalism or legal rights. This narrative continues to centre settlers and their interests, and is not a move to return land or authority, or rebuild meaningful relationships between the Crown, Canadians and Indigenous peoples.</p>
<p>Trudeau’s response reflects this. Instead of continuing to acknowledge colonialism, his focus shifts to systemic discrimination. He said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The answer is not to suddenly toss out all the institutions and start over. The answer is to look very carefully at those systems and listen to Canadians who face discrimination every single day, and whenever they interact with those institutions, to understand the barriers, the inequities and the inequalities that exist within our institutions that need to be addressed, that many of us don’t see because we don’t live them. That’s what fighting systemic discrimination is all about. Listening, learning and improving, and transforming our institutions.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>By identifying the need to tackle systemic discrimination instead of colonialism, Trudeau is reinforcing an established idea in Canadian politics: that colonialism is history.</p>
<p>This idea is powerful. It offers some recognition of ongoing cultural harms today while shifting our attention away from colonialism’s structural nature, pointing instead to how we must end discrimination as racism and intolerance.</p>
<h2>You can’t put a time-stamp on colonialism</h2>
<p>As two settler scholars we are struck by the way colonialism is time-stamped as a historic phenomenon, effectively denying our <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137372468">settler colonial present</a>. This exemplifies what scholars Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang call “<a href="https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/18630">settler moves to innocence</a>.” These moves are an evasion of responsibility for the way settler colonialism today continues the project of Indigenous dispossession, whether that be of lands and waters, relationships, or as importantly, political authority.</p>
<p>Narratives that historicize colonialism are not new. Canadians and our leaders have a long history of identifying colonialism at home with <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/the-house-of-difference-1">British imperialism</a>.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/archives/government-apologizes-for-residential-schools-in-2008-1.4666041">former prime minister Stephen Harper’s apology for the residential school system</a> did not include references to colonialism when admitting the “failings” of this country. He would go on to say that Canada itself has “no history of colonialism” at a <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/uncategorized/what-he-was-talking-about-when-he-talked-about-colonialism/">2009 G20 meeting</a>. This narrative crosses parties, with Trudeau’s 2017 speech at the <a href="https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/speeches/2017/09/21/prime-minister-justin-trudeaus-address-72th-session-united-nations-general">United Nations</a> also identifying only “historical wrongs” and a “legacy of colonialism.”</p>
<p>Rather than following the lead of the <a href="http://trc.ca/assets/pdf/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf">Truth and Reconciliation Commission</a>, and more recently the <a href="https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/">National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Women and Girls</a>, leaders insist that today Canada is not a colonial power. With this they participate in “<a href="https://opencanada.org/accounting-histories-150-years-canadian-maple-washing/">maple washing</a>.” By promoting the myth that Canada is morally superior, they are washing their hands of negative historical and contemporary actions, using the language of reconciliation to insist that we are a human rights leader at home and abroad.</p>
<h2>Absolving responsibility</h2>
<p>This is an attractive self-image. And in some ways we’re starting to see movement; the gap between rhetoric and reality is narrowing.</p>
<p>Focusing on systemic discrimination can bring real benefits, as we are seeing in some <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/15/racism-public-health-crisis/">public health responses to the pandemic</a>: recognizing medical discrimination has meant <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/prioritizing-indigenous-knowledge-keepers-in-vaccination-effort-vital-elders-say-1.5357591">Indigenous communities have been among the first</a> to receive vaccine doses. This offers protection to communities that have been disproportionately affected and had to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2043820620934941">create their own solutions</a>.</p>
<p>By time-stamping colonialism however, Trudeau, and the many Canadian leaders before him, are absolving our governments of its responsibility for the structural nature of contemporary settler colonialism that continues through government policy and practice. They simultaneously refer to the need to advance reconciliation while reinforcing assumptions of settler sovereignty, and participate in the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous lands and waters. Discrimination and settler colonialism, while connected, <a href="https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/18630">are not the same thing</a>.</p>
<p>Not understanding ourselves as a colonial power means ongoing conflict between the government and Indigenous nations. </p>
<p>Before and during the pandemic we have been caught up by news of governments seeking to impose their authority over Indigenous nations practising their rights to self-determination. From Sipekne’katik First Nation standing up for their <a href="https://theconversation.com/conflict-over-mikmaw-lobster-fishery-reveals-confusion-over-who-makes-the-rules-148978">treaty rights to earn a moderate livelihood</a>, the Wet’suwet’en <a href="https://theconversation.com/wetsuweten-why-are-indigenous-rights-being-defined-by-an-energy-corporation-130833">defence of their lands and people</a> to <a href="http://1dish1mic.com/379/">1492 Land Back Lane</a> on Six Nations territory. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/conflict-over-mikmaw-lobster-fishery-reveals-confusion-over-who-makes-the-rules-148978">Conflict over Mi'kmaw lobster fishery reveals confusion over who makes the rules</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>It doesn’t stop there</h2>
<p>We have seen the continuation of the <a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/feds-argue-discrimination-not-ongoing-chrt/">government’s efforts to avoid paying compensation</a> or equal support for First Nations child and family welfare and their failure to fulfil commitments to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/auditor-general-reports-2021-1.5927572">end long-term boil water advisories in First Nations communities</a>. There is a common link between these cases: an unwillingness by the Canadian government to move past a colonial relationship with Indigenous nations. </p>
<p>This starts with acknowledging our colonial present.</p>
<p>Ultimately reinforcing a discursive move to reconciliation lite allows the government to maintain the <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/february-2021/will-the-gg-search-scrutinize-the-underlying-whiteness-of-the-role/">settler whiteness</a> of our colonial structures and relationships into the present day, while professing to be working to eliminate systemic racism and discrimination. </p>
<p>In doing that it undermines the opportunity to build a decolonized, nation-to-nation relationship between Indigenous nations and the government in the <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/the-sleeping-giant-awakens-4">type of conciliation</a> that is required.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157395/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Narratives that historicize colonialism are not new. Canadians and our leaders have a long history of denying our settler colonial present.Liam Midzain-Gobin, Assistant Professor, Political Science, Brock UniversityHeather Smith, Professor of Global and International Studies, University of Northern British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1448922020-08-21T21:29:31Z2020-08-21T21:29:31ZWhy Trudeau’s self-serving prorogation of Parliament should be Canada’s last<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354169/original/file-20200821-16-110kn1p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=137%2C234%2C5258%2C2896&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Stormy days ahead for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to shut down Parliament was a controversial one, since it shuttered <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/18/justin-trudeau-scandal-prorogue-parliament">committee inquiries into the WE Charity affair</a> that have already embarrassed the government. </p>
<p>The contentious move, which schedules the return of Parliament on Sept. 23 with a speech from the throne, will inevitably lead to calls to establish rules for prorogation. But a better question is why Canadian legislatures need prorogation at all. </p>
<p>Prorogation is <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/about/procedureandpractice3rdedition/ch_08_6-e.html#8-6-1">a longstanding feature of Canadian parliamentary government</a>. Often called a “reset” or “reboot” of Parliament, it shuts down all parliamentary business. Bills that aren’t passed die (though they can be resumed). Committee activities collapse. </p>
<p>Parliament then resumes, presumably refreshed from its hibernation. A new speech from the throne is delivered, laying out the government’s agenda, and everything starts anew. </p>
<p>Most Canadian federal and provincial governments prorogue at least once between elections. Trudeau was exceptional in not proroguing at all in his first term from 2015-19. </p>
<p>This time around, the prime minister has given a plausible explanation why he now wants a reset. He said that “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-government-trudeau-prorogue-government-1.5690515">the throne speech we delivered eight months ago made no mention of COVID-19</a>.… We need to reset the approach of this government for a recovery to build back better.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Justin Trudeau seen on a screen in a meeting room" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354175/original/file-20200821-18-1v0kpmp.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354175/original/file-20200821-18-1v0kpmp.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354175/original/file-20200821-18-1v0kpmp.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354175/original/file-20200821-18-1v0kpmp.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354175/original/file-20200821-18-1v0kpmp.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354175/original/file-20200821-18-1v0kpmp.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354175/original/file-20200821-18-1v0kpmp.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears as a witness via videoconference during a House of Commons finance committee on July 30, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But there is another reason governments turn to prorogation: to escape sticky situations. And indeed, Trudeau’s prorogation shuts down the parliamentary committee inquiries into the WE affair that have ruined his summer. </p>
<h2>A cover up?</h2>
<p>The opposition Conservatives have been quick <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/prorogue-parliament-trudeau-poilievre-barrett-1.5691764">to call this a “cover up.”</a> But the Conservatives cannot be too loud here. <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/inside-a-crisis-that-shook-the-nation/">The most famous prorogation in Canadian history</a> was in 2008 by their former leader Stephen Harper. </p>
<p>In that minority government situation, the three opposition parties publicly agreed to defeat Harper in an upcoming vote of non-confidence. But Harper went to the governor general of the day, Michaëlle Jean, and requested a prorogation. Jean granted it, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/world/americas/05canada.html">Harper escaped destruction</a>. A year later <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/pm-shuts-down-parliament-until-march-1.829800">Harper again asked for prorogation</a>, shutting down a committee inquiry on Afghan detainees. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Large crowd of people marching down a street carrying signs that say, 'Yes Democracy'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354172/original/file-20200821-14-58jfcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354172/original/file-20200821-14-58jfcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354172/original/file-20200821-14-58jfcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354172/original/file-20200821-14-58jfcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354172/original/file-20200821-14-58jfcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354172/original/file-20200821-14-58jfcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354172/original/file-20200821-14-58jfcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters demonstrate against Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament, in Toronto on Jan. 23, 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But using prorogation to escape inconveniences is not just a Conservative thing. In 2003, Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien suddenly prorogued Parliament as his government sank deep into the sponsorship scandal. </p>
<h2>A self-serving move</h2>
<p>Prorogation is also manipulated in Canada as a pre-election tactic. Provincial governments have prorogued the legislature shortly before an election. They then return with a throne speech that serves as the election platform, as happened in <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/politics/did-kathleen-wynne-abuse-the-power-of-prorogation">Ontario in 2018</a>.</p>
<p>Compared to the above cases, Trudeau’s move is not particularly egregious. But we should not leave him off the hook. This is clearly a self-serving move, by someone whose 2015 platform pledged to not “<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-trudeaus-cynical-prorogation-is-like-harpers-with-a-smile/">use prorogation to avoid difficult political circumstances</a>.” And it reminds us that prorogation is a tool regularly abused by Canadian governments.</p>
<p>The 2008 showdown led to <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/parliamentary-democracy-in-crisis-4">much discussion about prorogation</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/layton-calls-for-limits-on-powers-to-prorogue-1.954224">proposals for reform</a>, such as requiring a majority of MPs to give consent for prorogation. But nothing took hold. </p>
<p>A better question is whether we need prorogation in Canada at all. Other similar parliaments do not. <a href="https://ipanz.org.nz/Attachment?Action=Download&Attachment_id=150321">New Zealand hasn’t bothered with prorogation since 1991</a>. Australia <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/mar/21/how-the-pm-used-an-obscure-part-of-the-constitution-to-recall-parliament">has seen it once since 1977</a>, in 2016 as a pre-election move, to much kerfuffle.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-uk-supreme-court-ruling-on-suspending-parliament-is-a-warning-for-australian-politicians-124263">The UK Supreme Court ruling on suspending parliament is a warning for Australian politicians</a>
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<p>In the United Kingdom, prorogation is typically an annual and predictable event. Last September, the British Supreme Court blocked a request by Boris Johnson for a sudden prorogation amid the Brexit mess, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-49810261">ruling it “unlawful.”</a> But while outrageous by British norms, Johnson’s plan was not unfamiliar in Canada. </p>
<p>Furthermore, prorogation in Canada exclusively serves government interests. In contrast, <a href="https://www.pressreader.com/canada/ottawa-citizen/20131021/281762741992565">as political scientist Paul Thomas has pointed out</a>, in Britain prorogation works for the opposition too, allowing it to bargain with the government to save legislation. British prorogations are also short — <a href="https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/lln-2019-0111/">an average of eight days</a>. In Canada they typically last a month or more, leaving Parliament frozen.</p>
<h2>In need of a reset</h2>
<p>So does Canada need prorogation at all? There is no compelling reason why Parliament needs a full “reset.” </p>
<p>Even when it’s not abused, prorogation wreaks havoc with bills and committee inquiries. And its rampant self-serving use puts governors general in an awkward position, drawing them into the political rescue of governments with requests that they cannot constitutionally refuse without an even greater blowup. </p>
<p>The new speech from the throne does help consolidate and drive the government’s agenda. But other options are available, such as <a href="https://dpmc.govt.nz/our-business-units/cabinet-office/supporting-work-cabinet/cabinet-manual/7-executive-legislation-2">the annual prime minister’s statement in New Zealand</a>. </p>
<p>Most of all, unlike a wonky computer, the reboot often makes things worse, because the prorogation itself may be controversial. </p>
<p>Like the blowup of 2008, Trudeau’s controversial use of prorogation will again focus attention on how to regulate this familiar feature of Canadian legislative business. But an easier solution might be to discontinue its use entirely.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144892/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Malloy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Unlike a wonky computer, the reboot often makes things worse, because the prorogation itself may be controversial. An easier solution would be to discontinue its use entirely.Jonathan Malloy, Professor of Political Science, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1427082020-07-29T18:33:11Z2020-07-29T18:33:11ZHow to protect yourself from media manipulation on energy issues and other contentious matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350047/original/file-20200728-29-19anb64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=28%2C66%2C6190%2C4082&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pipe for the Trans Mountain pipeline is unloaded in Edson, Alta., in June 2019. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When my kids were little, we would play a game during the TV commercials. </p>
<p>What was the main message, I would ask. To whom was it targeted? Did you find it convincing? Why or why not? </p>
<p>I hoped this would encourage critical thinking, build some awareness of unscrupulous messaging and wrest them from the grips of a consumer culture. Without realizing it, I was teaching them about “media frames.”</p>
<p>Frames are selective storylines intended to sway decision-makers or public opinion, often with provocative words or images. The power of framing comes from defining the terms of a debate without the audience realizing it has occurred. </p>
<p>Being aware of frames reduces our vulnerability to them. Once we can recognize frames and framing techniques, they lose their power, and we can focus on the arguments, not the frame. </p>
<h2>Manipulative or responsible?</h2>
<p>“<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/06/us/what-is-defund-police-trnd/index.html">Defund the Police</a>” is a recent example of a frame that targets racially motivated police brutality and advocates for moving a portion of police budgets to other arenas, such as mental health care. The original premise of this frame was that some police tasks should be managed by social workers or through community-building initiatives in a new model of public safety. </p>
<p>The frame was co-opted by self-professed “law-and-order” advocates to suggest the “defunders” were violent anarchists who wanted to abolish the police, threatening public safety and leading to widespread unrest. Another group adopted the defund frame with an eye to removing policing altogether, weakening its original intent and fuelling the “law-and-order” counter-frame. </p>
<p>Frames work by activating or “priming” already held feelings, ideas and values. When they have broad appeal, we see them as common sense. The “law-and-order” counter-frame builds on a deeply rooted common-sense frame that sees <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-652-x/89-652-x2015007-eng.htm">police as protectors</a>. </p>
<p>People skilled in the art of shaping frames can define situations, set the terms of debates, strategically mobilize supporters, hobble opponents and ultimately determine outcomes. Framing can be manipulative and unethical, necessary and responsible, brilliant and dangerous. </p>
<h2>‘Anti-petroleum extremists’</h2>
<p><a href="https://viurrspace.ca/handle/10613/5402">My research on contentious energy conflicts on Canada’s West Coast</a> found no frame was more influential in advancing a conflict narrative than one I labelled “anti-petroleum extremists.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protesters hold signs and bang drums" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350043/original/file-20200728-19-e7wmdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350043/original/file-20200728-19-e7wmdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350043/original/file-20200728-19-e7wmdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350043/original/file-20200728-19-e7wmdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350043/original/file-20200728-19-e7wmdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350043/original/file-20200728-19-e7wmdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350043/original/file-20200728-19-e7wmdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A protester holds up a ‘Stop Harper’ sign during a rally to show opposition to the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline in Vancouver, B.C., in June 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It originated in a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/radicals-working-against-oilsands-ottawa-says-1.1148310">2012 media firestorm over the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline</a>, simmered its way through some seven years of conflict over the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/timeline-key-dates-history-trans-mountain-pipeline-1.4849370">Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion</a> and is still present in <a href="https://www.web24.news/u/2020/06/alberta-government-investigation-extended.html">news releases from the Alberta government</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-urgent-need-for-media-literacy-in-an-age-of-annihilation-117958">The urgent need for media literacy in an age of annihilation</a>
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</em>
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<p>Rather than raise awareness of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-pipeline-bombings-3-years-old-with-no-charges-laid-1.985126">bombings targeting B.C. gas pipelines</a> and other <a href="https://www.statewatch.org/media/documents/news/2015/feb/can-2014-01-24-rcmp-anti-petroleum-activists-report.pdf">violent events affecting and threatening people in Canada’s oil and gas industry</a>, former prime minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government advanced a frame that portrayed pipeline opponents as <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/radicals-working-against-oilsands-ottawa-says-1.1148310">foreign-funded radicals who were unfairly trying to stop major projects no matter what the cost to Canadian families</a>. </p>
<p>The frame was <a href="https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/monitor/government%E2%80%99s-anti-terror-laws-target-anti-pipeline-foes">amplified by anti-terrorism legislation suggesting pipeline protesters threatened national security</a>, documents such as <a href="https://www.statewatch.org/media/documents/news/2015/feb/can-2014-01-24-rcmp-anti-petroleum-activists-report.pdf">RCMP intelligence reports</a> that suggested protesters were under surveillance and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/academics-open-letter-calls-for-moratorium-on-political-tax-audits-1.2765967?cmp=rss">widespread audits of environmental organizations</a>. </p>
<h2>Framing techniques</h2>
<p>At least <a href="https://www.edx.org/course/framing-how-politicians-debate">five framing techniques</a> were used to create the “anti-petroleum extremists” frame. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Identity: “Us-versus-them” frames characterize a situation to be more about the players and less about the issues. Blame was squarely placed on a stereotypical <em>them</em> with moral indignation and an intent to legitimize action to end the perceived injustice. </p></li>
<li><p>Hot values: Like all contentious frames, “anti-petroleum extremists” was embedded in “<a href="https://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/article/appreciating-values-diversity-environment-versus-economy-conflicts/">hot values</a>” more than “cold” information such as industry statistics or even “warm” stories about resource-dependent families.</p>
<p>For example, fossil fuels may be valued as sources of great wealth and progress, or derided as threats to clean air and water and planetary stability. In a framing contest, frames attached to strong values will trounce ones that are technical or narrative.</p></li>
<li><p>Masculinity: Under this frame, leadership is about decisiveness, power and strength. In feminine frames, it’s about bridging differences, establishing relationships and questioning one’s own position. </p></li>
<li><p>Breaking the monopoly on emotion: By describing <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/radicals-working-against-oilsands-ottawa-says-1.1148310">environmentalists as “foreign-funded</a>,” the Harper government hijacked a common anti-oilsands frame, namely that foreign wealth had tremendous influence over Canadian energy and environmental policies. </p></li>
<li><p>Villain, victim and hero: The Harper government portrayed itself as heroic, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/radicals-working-against-oilsands-ottawa-says-1.1148310">protecting the Canadian public and important investors</a> from villanous extremists. Protesters had a similar frame, where the heroes were reasonable people with legitimate concerns safeguarding a sustainable future.</p></li>
</ol>
<h2>‘No choice’</h2>
<p>As the Harper government <a href="http://www.theharperdecade.com/blog/2015/4/18/the-erosion-of-environmental-protection-and-public-environmental-information">weakened environmental laws</a> and legal decisions failed to provide relief, many people began to feel like they were running out of options. This helped spur a “<a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/green-party-leader-elizabeth-may-arrested-in-anti-pipeline-protest-1.3856341">no choice</a>” frame.</p>
<p>Many “no choice” advocates <a href="https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/02/12/Toolkit-for-Change/">did not see themselves as extremist</a> and felt they — not only the environment — were under assault, transforming the frame into an identity frame. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of people carrying flags and a banner walk down a street" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350046/original/file-20200728-13-1e0s8mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350046/original/file-20200728-13-1e0s8mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350046/original/file-20200728-13-1e0s8mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350046/original/file-20200728-13-1e0s8mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350046/original/file-20200728-13-1e0s8mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350046/original/file-20200728-13-1e0s8mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350046/original/file-20200728-13-1e0s8mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People leave the site of a blockade in the Mohawk community of Kahnawake, Que., in March 2020, where they were to showing their support for Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs in British Columbia who are opposed to the construction of a liquid natural gas pipeline through their traditional territory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiroz</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>For Indigenous people opposed to the project, the “anti-petroleum extremists” frame was another intolerable affront to First Nations and territories overly consumed by development. </p>
<p>For some other research participants, there was a sense that <em>Canadianism</em> was under attack. </p>
<p>The “no choice” frame became linked to a hot values frame with villain, victim, hero properties called “restoring democracy” in the lead up to the 2015 federal election. In this frame, moral justice trumped legal justice, since legislators and regulators were seen as aligned with industry and not worthy of trust. </p>
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<p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-could-power-a-new-green-movement-by-talking-about-energy-change-132906">We could power a new green movement by talking about energy change</a>
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<p>“Restoring democracy” would become the most prominent frame in mainstream news, and it was this frame to which Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first responded, promising <a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2016/08/15/trudeau-government-unveils-environmental-assessment-review-panel/">extensive opportunities for public input</a>. </p>
<h2>Building frame literacy</h2>
<p>Powerful players in government and industry have ample resources and experience with media messaging. To help level the playing field, I challenge you to identify frames in media. </p>
<p>Are they being used to some political advantage? What values are evident? Are there counter-frames? What framing techniques are used? </p>
<p>Are the frames in non-profit, industry or government media? Are they in mainstream news? How frequently are you seeing them in each type of media? </p>
<p>Is there an emerging “no choice” frame, signalling a social tipping point? </p>
<p>As you build frame literacy, you will protect yourself from media manipulation — and likely have a little fun.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142708/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Holly Clermont received funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p>Villain, victim or hero? It all depends on who’s telling the story. When an audience is aware of how a story is framed, it can focus on the arguments, not the frame.Holly Clermont, Post-doctoral fellow, Environment, Community and Health Observatory, University of Northern British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1382742020-05-19T14:04:27Z2020-05-19T14:04:27ZCanada missing in action on Israel’s proposed annexation of the West Bank<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335763/original/file-20200518-83348-18x2o78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6720%2C4124&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People keep social distance amid concerns over the coronavirus outbreak during a protest against the coalition deal between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz and government corruption in Tel Aviv on May 2, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The leaders of the two of Israel’s largest political parties — Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz — <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/05/18/857728475/agreeing-on-almost-nothing-a-shaky-coalition-government-takes-office-in-israel">have formed a coalition government</a>. </p>
<p>In an initial six-month period, the coalition will address only two issues: <a href="https://www.voanews.com/middle-east/covid-19-concerns-were-behind-israel-power-sharing-deal">fighting COVID-19</a> and annexing significant parts of the West Bank.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52680096">The annexation agreement was met with swift condemnation</a> by an array of countries and institutions, as well as Israeli human rights activists. In contrast, Canada has developed a debilitating case of diplomatic laryngitis on this issue.</p>
<p>Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, <a href="https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/77856/israel-statement-high-representative-josep-borrell_en">stated on April 23 that:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>“… any annexation would constitute a serious violation of international law. The European Union will continue to monitor the situation and its broader implications, and will act accordingly.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At the UN Security Council, the French ambassador offered <a href="https://onu.delegfrance.org/The-two-state-solution-is-the-only-way-to-bring-a-sustainable-peace-to-the">a strong denunciation</a> on the same day: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It would constitute a blatant violation of international law, which strictly prohibits the acquisition by force of occupied territories. Such steps if implemented would not pass unchallenged and shall not be overlooked in our relationship with Israel.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The other four European members of the Security Council — the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prioritising-peace-and-cooperation-in-the-middle-east-in-the-midst-of-covid-19">United Kingdom</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/BelgiumUN/status/1253347689368104960">Belgium</a>, <a href="https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/77856/israel-statement-high-representative-josep-borrell_en">Germany</a> and <a href="https://un.mfa.ee/national-statement-at-the-un-security-council-on-middle-east/">Estonia</a> — also criticized the looming threat of annexation.</p>
<h2>Ireland, Norway speak up</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.dfa.ie/pmun/newyork/news-and-speeches/speeches/2019/un-security-council-debate-on-the-middle-east.html">Ireland</a> and <a href="https://www.norway.no/en/missions/UN/statements/security-council/2020/unsc-the-situation-in-the-middle-east-including-the-palestinian-question/">Norway</a>, the two countries Canada is competing against for two open United Nations Security Council seats in 2021-22, have both publicly opposed Israel’s annexation plans.</p>
<p>Leading Israeli human rights organizations, including <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-no-gantz-democracy-and-annexation-don-t-go-together-1.8798600">B’Tselem</a> and <a href="https://www.yesh-din.org/en/the-potential-impact-of-west-bank-annexation-by-israel-on-the-human-rights-of-palestinian-residents/">Yesh Din</a> — have spoken out against the proposed annexation. A <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/the-occupied-territories-bill-1.4246708">joint letter</a> by prominent liberal Israelis — including former ambassadors, the former speaker of the Israeli Knesset and prominent writers — said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“For too long the world has sufficed with issuing condemnations in response to the government of Israel’s ongoing breach of international law and its human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But where’s Canada? As a Special Rapporteur for the United Nations Human Rights Council on the situation in the Palestinian territory, I argue that Canada is missing in action. </p>
<p>No public statements against Israel’s annexation proposal have been issued. No planned accountability measures have been floated. No criticism, however mild, has been offered.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335767/original/file-20200518-83357-16n5l5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335767/original/file-20200518-83357-16n5l5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335767/original/file-20200518-83357-16n5l5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335767/original/file-20200518-83357-16n5l5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335767/original/file-20200518-83357-16n5l5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335767/original/file-20200518-83357-16n5l5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335767/original/file-20200518-83357-16n5l5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335767/original/file-20200518-83357-16n5l5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne speaks to reporters in Ethiopia in February 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In mid-March, Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne did, however, issue a statement related to illegal annexation. <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2020/03/statement-by-minister-of-foreign-affairs-on-sixth-anniversary-of-illegal-annexation-of-crimea.html">He marked</a> the sixth anniversary of the Russian annexation of Crimea by saying that: “Canada unequivocally condemns this violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and of international law.”</p>
<h2>Violation of international law</h2>
<p>The unilateral annexation of territory is <a href="https://undocs.org/A/73/447">strictly prohibited</a> in international law. This is a centrepiece of the 1945 Charter of the United Nations, and has been consolidated by treaties and resolutions, judicial rulings and scholarly writings ever since.</p>
<p>Indeed, this prohibition has acquired the status of a <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199796953/obo-9780199796953-0124.xml"><em>jus cogens</em></a> norm in international law, meaning that it is accepted as a fundamental principle of law by the international community and no exceptions are permitted. </p>
<p>Territorial conquest and annexation are now regarded as intolerable scourges from darker times because they invariably incite devastating wars, political instability, economic ruin, systematic discrimination and widespread human suffering.</p>
<p>Speaking specifically to the five-decade-long Israeli occupation, the UN Security Council has affirmed, on eight occasions since 1967, the principle of “the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory” by war or force. This principle was cited by the council to condemn as unlawful Israel’s two prior annexations of <a href="http://unscr.com/en/resolutions/478">East Jerusalem, in 1980,</a> and the <a href="https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/73D6B4C70D1A92B7852560DF0064F101">Syrian Golan Heights in 1981.</a></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335867/original/file-20200518-83348-6ewy1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335867/original/file-20200518-83348-6ewy1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335867/original/file-20200518-83348-6ewy1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335867/original/file-20200518-83348-6ewy1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335867/original/file-20200518-83348-6ewy1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335867/original/file-20200518-83348-6ewy1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335867/original/file-20200518-83348-6ewy1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The UN Security Council meets on the situation in Syria at UN headquarters in October 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Mary Altaffer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When Russia invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014, Canada, along with most of its western allies, swiftly followed their unreserved condemnations <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2019/03/canada-imposes-new-sanctions-in-response-to-russias-aggressive-actions.html">with substantive economic and political counter-measures.</a> </p>
<p>Russia was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2014/03/24/politics/obama-europe-trip/index.html">expelled from the G8</a>, import and export bans were imposed for goods manufactured in Crimea, an array of economic sanctions and restrictions were enforced and targeted individuals faced travel bans and asset freezes. </p>
<h2>Part of Trump’s ‘peace’ plan</h2>
<p>The Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank is a central feature of U.S. President Donald Trump’s so-called <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/peacetoprosperity/">Peace to Prosperity</a> Plan on the Middle East, announced in late January 2020.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-so-called-mideast-peace-plan-dispossesses-palestinians-132182">Trump’s so-called Mideast 'peace plan' dispossesses Palestinians</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In response, the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-eu/eu-rejects-trump-middle-east-peace-plan-annexation-idUSKBN1ZY1I9">European Union</a> stated that the plan broke with “internationally agreed parameters,” while <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/middle-east-north-africa/484260-pope-warns-of-inequitable-solutions-after">Pope Francis</a> warned about the “danger of inequitable solutions.” </p>
<p>According to an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/27/grave-concern-about-us-plan-to-resolve-israel-palestine-conflict">open letter</a> from 50 former European prime ministers and foreign ministers:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The plan envisages a formalization of the current reality in the occupied Palestinian territory, in which two peoples are living side by side without equal rights. Such an outcome has characteristics similar to apartheid — a term we don’t use lightly.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2020/01/statement-by-foreign-minister-on-the-release-of-us-middle-east-peace-plan.html">Canada’s official response</a> was a vanilla statement by Champagne that would have left no one in the White House unhappy. He said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Canada recognizes the urgent need to renew efforts toward a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and will carefully examine the details of the U.S. initiative for the Middle East peace process.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335771/original/file-20200518-83371-6qubf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335771/original/file-20200518-83371-6qubf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335771/original/file-20200518-83371-6qubf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335771/original/file-20200518-83371-6qubf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335771/original/file-20200518-83371-6qubf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335771/original/file-20200518-83371-6qubf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335771/original/file-20200518-83371-6qubf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335771/original/file-20200518-83371-6qubf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harper and Netanyahu talk following a joint news conference in Jerusalem in January 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2010, Canada <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/security-council-rejection-a-deep-embarrassment-for-harper/article1370239/">lost its prior bid</a> for a Security Council seat partly because of the Stephen Harper government’s supine embrace of Israel. </p>
<p>In 2015, newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that “Canada is back” on the world stage and <a href="https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/backgrounders/2018/06/10/building-more-peaceful-and-secure-world">promised to support</a> a rules-based international order.</p>
<h2>Same as it ever was under Trudeau</h2>
<p>Yet <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02722011.2018.1434552">under Trudeau</a>, Canada has maintained Harper’s consistent pro-Israel voting record at the UN General Assembly, and avoided even polite criticism of Israeli behaviour in the occupied Palestinian territory that most other middle powers routinely censure. </p>
<p>In 2018, Canada’s Parliament renewed its free-trade agreement with Israel, which continues to allow goods from the illegal Israeli settlements to enter the Canadian market tariff-free, notwithstanding <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-45.9/">domestic legislation</a> that designates civilian settlements in occupied territory to be war crimes.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-updated-trade-agreement-with-israel-violates-international-law-117547">Canada’s updated trade agreement with Israel violates international law</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In its current Security Council bid, Canada faces two serious challengers in Norway and Ireland that have solid international reputations, the built-in support of their European neighbours and a principled position on the protracted Israeli occupation of Palestine. </p>
<p>If Canada’s campaign for a council seat is once again unsuccessful, its taciturn approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will surely have been a contributing factor.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138274/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Lynk is Associate Professor of Law at Western University. He was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council in March 2016 as the Special Rapporteur for human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. </span></em></p>In 2015, Justin Trudeau announced that ‘Canada is back’ and promised to support a rules-based international order. Yet Canada has maintained the previous Conservative government’s pro-Israel stance.Michael Lynk, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1283572019-12-08T13:29:22Z2019-12-08T13:29:22ZHow minority governments can influence foreign policy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305452/original/file-20191205-39018-wa3mp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3601%2C2054&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canada's mission in Afghanistan under former prime minister Stephen Harper is an example of how a minority situation for a government can influence foreign policy. Harper is seen here in Kandahar in May 2011, shortly after winning a majority government. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Stephen Harper’s government was defeated in 2015, we tried to figure out what drove its thinking on foreign policy. We did so by comparing the government’s approach to a variety of international issues before and after the Conservatives won a majority of seats in the House of Commons in 2011. </p>
<p>What we determined in our book <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/the-harper-era-in-canadian-foreign-policy"><em>The Harper Era in Canadian Foreign Policy</em></a> is easy to capture in a soundbite, but takes more time to explain: Parliament matters when it comes to Canadian foreign policy, even though it doesn’t. </p>
<p>Here’s what we mean.</p>
<p>Constitutionally, foreign policy is a responsibility of the Canadian executive. Even though opposition parties in a minority Parliament can push foreign policy bills through the House, like the 2007 <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/k-9.5/20070622/P1TT3xt3.html">Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act</a> or the 2008 <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/O-2.8/FullText.html">Official Development Assistance Accountability Act</a>, Harper’s Conservatives proved that a minority government can ignore such legislation. </p>
<p>On the other hand, minority Parliaments often present incentives for governments to consult with the House of Commons more than they might when they hold a majority.</p>
<h2>The Tories and Afghanistan</h2>
<p>Consider the Conservatives’ approach to Afghanistan. One of the easiest ways to diffuse potential opposition criticism of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan was to hold a vote on extending it.</p>
<p>Once the Liberals voted in favour, it became significantly more difficult for them to criticize the mission as a whole. Philippe Lagassé, an international affairs expert at Carleton University, calls this tactic <a href="https://lagassep.com/2016/10/17/parliament-should-scrutinize-not-have-a-say-on-military-deployments/">laundering</a>.</p>
<p>During the Harper era, the government’s standing in the House of Commons also affected the pace of international negotiations. In a minority Parliament, ministerial travel is severely restricted. The government can’t risk having too many of its members unavailable for a surprise vote in the House of Commons. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305453/original/file-20191205-39032-ngxf6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305453/original/file-20191205-39032-ngxf6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305453/original/file-20191205-39032-ngxf6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305453/original/file-20191205-39032-ngxf6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305453/original/file-20191205-39032-ngxf6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305453/original/file-20191205-39032-ngxf6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305453/original/file-20191205-39032-ngxf6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305453/original/file-20191205-39032-ngxf6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Derek Burney, former chief of staff to prime minister Brian Mulroney, is seen in this March 2009 photo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There’s also reason to believe that the Conservatives’ standing in the House of Commons mattered when it came to the <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/protocol-protocole/policies-politiques/circular-note_note-circulaire_ftrn-001.aspx?lang=eng">amalgamation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade with the Canadian International Development Agency</a>.</p>
<p>Derek Burney, who ran the Harper government’s initial transition team, has noted that the prime minister contemplated the merger in 2006, but concluded that <a href="https://www.timescolonist.com/news/harper-transition-team-wanted-to-merge-cida-with-foreign-affairs-in-2006-1.96384">it was a bridge too far for a new government</a>, particularly, we might suggest, because of its minority situation.</p>
<p>Once the Conservatives gained their majority, they pushed the merger through easily.</p>
<h2>More willing to court controversy</h2>
<p>The Harper government’s willingness to take controversial public positions on human rights issues also intensified as its numbers in Parliament increased. In both 2006 and 2009, for example, the Conservatives did not rule out signing the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture. In 2013, however, they stated bluntly that the government <a href="https://quakerservice.ca/news/5390/">had no intention of signing any outstanding human rights treaties</a>. </p>
<p>And while some might attribute the change to a government that became more experienced, or to <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/john-bairds-black-and-white-vision-made-him-an-effective-minister/article22774054/">a more outspoken foreign minister in John Baird</a>, the extent of the government’s willingness to risk isolating itself within the international community appears to have been influenced, at least in part, by the sense of political security that came with its 2011 majority.</p>
<p>On the other hand, a number of foreign policy issues from the Harper era were immune from the concerns of parliamentary politics.</p>
<p>Take national defence, for example. Historically, Ottawa’s commitments to a robust defence capability have been shaped primarily by the state of the Canadian economy.</p>
<p>The Harper era was no different. Funding for national defence surged during the early years of budgetary surpluses, and slumped during the recession and subsequent campaign for balanced budgets.</p>
<h2>Environmental progress</h2>
<p>Environmental reform had a different determinant: the United States. The Harper government seemed quite clear that it would make changes to its environmental policies as slowly as Washington would allow, and it maintained that position through the minority and majority years.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305454/original/file-20191205-38984-1nt9axc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305454/original/file-20191205-38984-1nt9axc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305454/original/file-20191205-38984-1nt9axc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305454/original/file-20191205-38984-1nt9axc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305454/original/file-20191205-38984-1nt9axc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305454/original/file-20191205-38984-1nt9axc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305454/original/file-20191205-38984-1nt9axc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305454/original/file-20191205-38984-1nt9axc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harper walks with U.S. President Barack Obama at the G7 meetings in Brussels in 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Discussions of foreign policy in parliamentary committees were different during the minority years, when the Conservatives could not control the committees’ agendas. But whether those debates actually caused the government to change its policy is less clear.</p>
<p>So what should we expect as Justin Trudeau’s government acclimatizes itself to its minority standing in the House of Commons, in addition to an unpredictable Senate?</p>
<p>If the Harper era is any guide, the makeup of Parliament will matter to Canadian conduct in world affairs, but there’s nothing official that forces a minority government to behave differently than a majority government on the international stage. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, minority Parliaments create a political environment that discourages cabinet from acting boldly.</p>
<p>We should therefore be prepared for an even more risk-averse and conservative foreign policy than the one we already have.</p>
<p>There is, of course, a different way that this could play out. Our political leadership could seize the opportunity to negotiate a non-partisan statement of Canada’s national interests.</p>
<p>Those interests could serve as a basis for any Canadian government, and thereby provide Global Affairs Canada with the stability and understanding that it needs to maximize Canada’s impact and effectiveness on the world stage.</p>
<p>This scenario is highly unlikely, but it doesn’t hurt to hope!</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128357/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Kukucha receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences Aid to Scholarly Publications Program, Fulbright Canada, and the University of Lethbridge. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Chapnick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Minority parliaments create a political environment that discourages cabinet from bold acts. That means Justin Trudeau’s foreign policy will like be more risk-averse that it was before.Adam Chapnick, Professor of Defence Studies, Royal Military College of CanadaChristopher Kukucha, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of LethbridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1254222019-10-22T02:48:28Z2019-10-22T02:48:28ZJustin Trudeau’s political setback: A surprise to the world, but not to Canada<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298117/original/file-20191022-117981-1rj69rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C36%2C3014%2C2215&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Justin Trudeau, appearing with with his wife Sophie on election night, saw his majority government reduced to a minority.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Canada’s federal election campaign highlighted a struggle that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal-election-foreign-embassies-1.5321960">caught the world</a> by surprise. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was on the ropes throughout the campaign, just four years after his meteoric rise to power and global fandom, even though he ultimately managed to win a minority government.</p>
<p>His struggles did not come as much of a surprise for Canadian progressives, however, who first helped propel him to those heights four years ago.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297725/original/file-20191018-56238-1o9e1di.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297725/original/file-20191018-56238-1o9e1di.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297725/original/file-20191018-56238-1o9e1di.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297725/original/file-20191018-56238-1o9e1di.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297725/original/file-20191018-56238-1o9e1di.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297725/original/file-20191018-56238-1o9e1di.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297725/original/file-20191018-56238-1o9e1di.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Justin Trudeau poses for selfies at Toronto Pearson Airport.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS</span></span>
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<p>Trudeau came to power with incredible fanfare after an election victory in October 2015 that saw Stephen Harper’s Conservatives voted out. </p>
<p>Trudeau returned his party to power with a majority government by appealing to an electorate that was <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-canada-election-strategic/canada-pm-faces-anyone-but-harper-strategic-voting-in-election-idUKKCN0RO2II20150924">more than weary</a> of almost a decade of right-wing Conservative rule. </p>
<p>The world sat up and took notice, in part because Trudeau’s famous father, Pierre, had been swept to power in a similar fashion in 1968 amid a wave of what was known as Trudeaumania.</p>
<p>Pierre Elliott Trudeau also had a progressive platform and, for a time, enjoyed a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38ccfU6ys7g">rock star-like</a> popularity among Canadians. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/38ccfU6ys7g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>That victory more than 50 years ago laid the foundation for 16 years of nearly uninterrupted Liberal rule under Pierre Trudeau, who was the architect of multiculturalism in Canada and further committed the country to peace-building and a rules-based international system.</p>
<p>It’s a vision many Canadians came to embrace, but one that Harper’s Conservatives, in power from 2006 to 2015, seemed determined to systematically replace. In this way, the election of Justin Trudeau seemed for many to be a repudiation of the Harper agenda and a return to the normalcy of Canada’s past. </p>
<h2>Canada is back</h2>
<p>At first, Trudeau seemed unable to disappoint. He could not have appeared a starker contrast from Harper, regarded by many Canadians as cold and uncharismatic. Youthful, charming and handsome, Trudeau’s progressive messaging immediately stood apart from Harper’s. His policies appeared to do so, too. </p>
<p>This included immediately opening Canada up to tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, which Harper <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-syria-refugee-canada-government-1.3221757">had initially appeared reluctant to do.</a> Trudeau even went to Toronto’s airport to welcome some of the first refugees, saying: “<a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mbnpnq/you-are-home-justin-trudeau-welcomes-syrian-refugees-to-canada">You are home</a>.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"807697127556206592"}"></div></p>
<p>Trudeau’s Liberals emphasized a multicultural Canada that would be open to refugees. This diversity would be represented in their government, too. In contrast to some Conservative leadership candidates’ embrace of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-niqab-bloc-1.3236837">Islamophobia</a> and a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-barbaric-cultural-practices-law-1.3254118">“barbaric cultural practices tip line,”</a> Trudeau’s government included a <a href="https://www.hilltimes.com/2015/11/13/highest-ever-number-of-muslim-canadian-mps-elected-in-new-house-2/34226">record number</a> of Muslim MPs. Trudeau also became the first Canadian prime minister to march in a <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/trudeau-was-first-sitting-prime-minister-to-march-in-pride-parade-1.2970978">Pride parade</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297767/original/file-20191019-56211-wpclg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297767/original/file-20191019-56211-wpclg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297767/original/file-20191019-56211-wpclg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297767/original/file-20191019-56211-wpclg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297767/original/file-20191019-56211-wpclg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297767/original/file-20191019-56211-wpclg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297767/original/file-20191019-56211-wpclg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trudeau promotes gender parity at Davos in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Trudeau ran in 2015 on a message of environmental protection, support for Indigenous nations in Canada and global feminism. This included instituting a <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/priorities-priorites/fiap_action_areas-paif_champs_action.aspx?lang=eng">feminist foreign policy agenda</a> and a reorientation of Canada’s development aid programming on a <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/priorities-priorites/policy-politique.aspx?lang=eng">Feminist International Assistance Policy</a>. When asked why he established gender parity for his first cabinet, he famously retorted: “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/04/canada-cabinet-gender-diversity-justin-trudeau">Because it’s 2015.</a>”</p>
<p>His government legalized cannabis sales and reversed Harper’s <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/08/16/news/how-trudeau-government-reversed-harpers-anti-science-agenda">anti-science</a> restrictions on research. It increased immigration quotas and reasserted Canadian support for multilateral institutions and international law. This seemed like a return to form for Canada on the international stage and Trudeau emphasized this by saying: “<a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/11/30/busy-day-for-trudeau-at-paris-climate-change-talks.html">Canada is back</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297910/original/file-20191021-56234-pw2smb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297910/original/file-20191021-56234-pw2smb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297910/original/file-20191021-56234-pw2smb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297910/original/file-20191021-56234-pw2smb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297910/original/file-20191021-56234-pw2smb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297910/original/file-20191021-56234-pw2smb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297910/original/file-20191021-56234-pw2smb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Justin Trudeau on the coverage of the Rolling Stone August 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rolling Stone</span></span>
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<p>Canadians largely seemed happy with his leadership and his government rode high in the polls. His popularity only seemed to skyrocket at home and abroad with the <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-made-justin-trudeau-a-global-superstar/">election of Donald Trump as president of the United States in 2016</a>. </p>
<p>For liberals around the world, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/justin-trudeau-the-north-star-194313/">Trudeau seemed</a> to represent everything the new president was not. Before long, Trudeau became a global symbol in the worldwide struggle against the rise of authoritarianism, populism and white nationalism. </p>
<h2>Foreign policy questions</h2>
<p>So what happened? Why did Trudeau have to fight for his political life this election against the Conservatives, the New Democratic Party and a resurgent Bloc Québécois, a separatist party that only runs candidates in Québec?</p>
<p>As often happens in Canada, questions about Trudeau’s progressive credentials arose in the Middle East. </p>
<p>Being progressive in Canada <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/palestine-looms-large-canadas-federal-election-campaign">often includes</a> support for Palestinian rights. This was in part a result of Harper’s very partisan pro-Israel approach to governance, which included <a href="http://voices-voix.ca/en/facts/profile/rights-democracy">a crackdown</a> on Canadian advocates for Palestinian rights. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298009/original/file-20191021-56228-12rqyad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298009/original/file-20191021-56228-12rqyad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298009/original/file-20191021-56228-12rqyad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298009/original/file-20191021-56228-12rqyad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298009/original/file-20191021-56228-12rqyad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298009/original/file-20191021-56228-12rqyad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298009/original/file-20191021-56228-12rqyad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the many surprises of the Canadian election was the personal popularity of Jagmeet Singh, leader of the left-wing New Democrats and the first racialized leader of a major Canadian political party.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Though Trudeau’s Liberals did reinvest funds that Harper’s Conservatives cut from Palestinian refugees, progressives quickly noticed how Trudeau and his government would go out of their way <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190901-canada-and-the-palestinians-out-of-balance/">to attack</a> Canadians who advocated for Palestinian rights. This was accompanied by robust diplomatic support for the policies of the right-wing Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, who was the antithesis of everything Trudeau was supposed to represent.</p>
<p>In region after region, Liberal foreign policy appeared to come out of the <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/trudeau-taking-foreign-policy-cue-from-tory-playbook/article34241539/">Harper playbook</a>. This included Canada’s participation in a campaign to force regime change in <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-misguided-venezuela-policy-and-the-inhumanity-of-sanctions-120319">oil-rich Venezuela</a> and approving record <a href="https://ploughshares.ca/pl_publications/open-letter-to-the-pm-re-arms-exports-to-saudi-arabia/">weapons sales</a> to a notorious human rights violator, Saudi Arabia, as it wages a brutal war in Yemen.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trading-values-to-sell-weapons-the-canada-saudi-relationship-124961">Trading values to sell weapons: The Canada-Saudi relationship</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Even Trudeau’s feminist foreign policy seemed hollow. </p>
<p>What good did it do for Yemeni women whose communities are being destroyed with Canadian weapons, Palestinian women shot for protesting the blockade on Gaza or Venezuelan women impoverished by a Canadian-backed economic blockade? </p>
<h2>The death of a brand</h2>
<p>From his rapid retreat from a campaign pledge for <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-electoral-reform-proportional-representation-1.5225616">proportional electoral</a> representation to his odd fascination with <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-43151115">fancy dress</a> and concerns about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/18/justin-trudeau-fake-progressive-canada-election">the sincerity</a> of his progressive credentials, cumulative questions arose about Trudeau domestically.</p>
<p>Two particular events, though, were critical to undoing his progressive brand.</p>
<p>First was his government’s <a href="https://business.financialpost.com/commodities/energy/trans-mountain-construction-to-restart-but-prospective-bidders-staying-on-the-sidelines-for-now">$4.5 billion purchase</a> of the Trans Mountain pipeline from U.S.-based corporation Kinder Morgan. This was highly unpopular with environmentalists and the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/trans-mountain-approval-frustrating-says-b-c-chief-with-unresolved-concerns-about-pipeline-project-1.5180271">First Nations</a> communities it would run through. This raised serious questions about Trudeau’s commitment to fighting climate change and helping Indigenous Peoples, too.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297845/original/file-20191021-56194-1yt4tny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297845/original/file-20191021-56194-1yt4tny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297845/original/file-20191021-56194-1yt4tny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297845/original/file-20191021-56194-1yt4tny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297845/original/file-20191021-56194-1yt4tny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297845/original/file-20191021-56194-1yt4tny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297845/original/file-20191021-56194-1yt4tny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pipeline protesters, including Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second was his government’s attempt to halt <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/trudeau-accepts-watchdogs-snc-lavalin-report-and-takes-responsibility-but-doesnt-agree-with-findings">criminal proceedings</a> into Québec-based engineering firm SNC-Lavalin for overseas corruption. This led to the resignation from cabinet of <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/vancouver-granville-jody-wilson-raybould_ca_5daa17c6e4b0f34e3a756a8b">Jody Wilson-Raybould</a>, Canada’s first Indigenous minister of justice.</p>
<p>She complained she was pressured into considering a deferred prosecution agreement for SNC-Lavalin, and was joined in solidarity in her departure from cabinet by another of Trudeau’s most prominent female ministers, Jane Philpott. </p>
<p>Both were then <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberals-wilson-raybould-philpott-caucus-1.5080880">pushed out</a> of the Liberal caucus, topping off a scandal that raised questions about Trudeau’s commitment to corporate good governance, women’s empowerment and Indigenous leadership. </p>
<p>The campaign trail emergence of images of a younger Trudeau in blackface was also shocking to progressive voters. The photos decidedly tarnished his image, both at home <a href="https://www.blogto.com/city/2019/09/justin-trudeau-blackface-scandal-leads-late-night-talk-shows/">and abroad</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trudeau-in-blackface-a-symptom-of-canadas-widespread-anti-black-racism-123889">Trudeau in blackface: A symptom of Canada's widespread anti-Black racism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Progressives looking elsewhere</h2>
<p>Canada is a diverse country with a diverse electorate. Many Canadian voters, and the core Liberal constituency, still supported Trudeau. This kept him relevant in the 2019 election campaign. A <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/16/obama-justin-trudeau-canada-election">late campaign endorsement</a> by former U.S. president Barack Obama also served as a reminder of what Trudeau still symbolizes to many liberals around the world.</p>
<p>Though Trudeau’s struggles may seem surprising, the inability of his government to truly address deep structural inequalities and income insecurity in Canada fits a pattern of the fracturing of the political landscape of nearly every other liberal democracy. This plagued Obama’s administration as well.</p>
<p>Having a family name and background that symbolizes privilege, in a world where wealth inequality <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/trump-kids-profit-presidency">and nepotism</a> have become such divisive topics, hasn’t helped Trudeau.</p>
<p>Dissatisfied with Trudeau, some of Canada’s large progressive electorate, as well as Québec voters, began to look elsewhere —to the New Democrats and the Greens, and in Québec, to the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/national/election-2019/election-2019-once-all-but-dead-bloc-quebecois-is-back-on-its-feet">resurgent</a> Bloc Québécois, which took particular advantage of Trudeau’s missteps on the environment. </p>
<p>Trudeau had problems this election because he lost part of the progressive base that put him over the top in 2015, and because the Bloc turned out to be a bigger force in vote-rich Québec than expected.</p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=thanksforreading">Thanks for reading! We can send you The Conversation’s stories every day in an informative email. Sign up today.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125422/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Wildeman is affiliated with the Rideau Institute and the Human Rights Research and Education Centre at the University of Ottawa.</span></em></p>For international observers, it may be stunning to see Justin Trudeau’s government reduced to a minority after his meteoric rise to power in 2015. It happened because he disappointed his progressive base.Jeremy Wildeman, Research Fellow, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1231282019-09-15T12:19:57Z2019-09-15T12:19:57ZWhat Harper’s legacy tells us about Scheer’s handling of hot-button social issues<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292097/original/file-20190911-190007-1diwtn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=744%2C0%2C2030%2C1223&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Andrew Scheer is seen here with former prime minister Stephen Harper in the House of Commons in 2011.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Andrew Scheer’s views on abortion and same-sex marriage have come under <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-votes-newsletter-issue21-andrew-scheer-abortion-lgbt-rights-1.5266068">considerable scrutiny</a> as the country heads towards October’s federal election.</p>
<p>Given his inconsistent messaging on the former and his open opposition to the latter, some have <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/elections/john-ivison-andrew-scheer-needs-to-be-more-frank-about-his-feelings-on-abortion-in-this-upcoming-election/ar-AAGUXCZ">expressed concern</a> about whether Scheer would reopen debate in the House of Commons should he be elected prime minister. </p>
<p>Others have <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2019/08/31/andrew-scheer-fails-to-satisfy-either-side-in-abortion-debate.html">dismissed this concern</a> on the grounds that the Conservative Party leader will likely follow in the footsteps of former prime minister Stephen Harper and refuse to do so.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292099/original/file-20190911-190061-19j83wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292099/original/file-20190911-190061-19j83wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292099/original/file-20190911-190061-19j83wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292099/original/file-20190911-190061-19j83wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292099/original/file-20190911-190061-19j83wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292099/original/file-20190911-190061-19j83wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292099/original/file-20190911-190061-19j83wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292099/original/file-20190911-190061-19j83wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scheer, then Speaker, and Harper watch as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signs a guestbook on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in March 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the question of whether Scheer would reopen these debates is an important one, it’s not the only one we should be asking. We should also be asking questions that help us to better understand how Scheer’s views on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage would affect how he governs the country, regardless of whether he revisits them in the House of Commons.</p>
<p>Scheer’s positions on a woman’s right to choose and a same-sex couple’s right to marry bear strong similarities to Harper’s. Often referred to as <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/andrew-scheer-conservatives-elect-stephen-harper-20-with-a-smile/article35138917/">“Stephen Harper 2.0” or “Stephen Harper with a smile”</a>, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/5835317/liberals-stephen-harper-andrew-scheer-video/">Scheer relies on Harper</a> for advice and help with campaign fundraising. </p>
<p>The two men are closely connected, both in terms of their ideological commitments and their approach to politics, and this connection is often leveraged by the Conservative Party to gain traction with potential voters. </p>
<p>So if we want to get a sense of how Scheer would make policy, then we would do well to remember how Harper did so.</p>
<h2>Harper and maternal health</h2>
<p>Take Harper’s international maternal health policy. Launched in 2010, Harper’s policy <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/andrew-scheer-abortion-justin-trudeau-harper-1.5146509">was harshly criticized</a> because it did not include <a href="https://www.therecord.com/news-story/6381488-un-agency-slams-canada-s-maternal-health-policy/">funding for abortion in developing countries</a> and failed to make good on its promise to contribute to the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) <a href="https://www.therecord.com/news-story/6381488-un-agency-slams-canada-s-maternal-health-policy/">contraceptive distribution program</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292100/original/file-20190911-190012-6pjifu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292100/original/file-20190911-190012-6pjifu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292100/original/file-20190911-190012-6pjifu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292100/original/file-20190911-190012-6pjifu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292100/original/file-20190911-190012-6pjifu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292100/original/file-20190911-190012-6pjifu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292100/original/file-20190911-190012-6pjifu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292100/original/file-20190911-190012-6pjifu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harper speaks to the media during the closing news conference after attending the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Summit in Toronto in May 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Speaking at an event in Ottawa in 2016, the executive director of UNFPA said the policy treated women “as bodies that deliver babies” rather than as <a href="https://www.therecord.com/news-story/6381488-un-agency-slams-canada-s-maternal-health-policy/">“human beings with rights and dignity.”</a> </p>
<p>Similarly, the executive director of Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights contended that the policy <a href="https://www.therecord.com/news-story/6381488-un-agency-slams-canada-s-maternal-health-policy/">“instrumentalized women as child bearers”</a> while ignoring widespread evidence that points to the urgent need for family planning.</p>
<p>It is difficult not to draw a straight line between Harper’s views on reproductive rights and his policy decisions with respect to maternal health. The former prime minister made a number of decisions over the course of his time in office that made it harder for women to control both their reproductive capacities and their family realities.</p>
<p>His decision to dismantle a <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2010/02/03/paul_martin_laments_loss_of_childcare_program_he_built.html">national child-care plan</a> that had been signed by all 10 provinces and replace it with a taxable $100 per month payout is perhaps the most striking.</p>
<p>But there were other decisions that often went unnoticed, such as cutting a question from the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2010/08/06/census_change_devalues_womens_unpaid_work.html">long-form census</a> that allowed the government to collect data on unpaid household chores, caregiving responsibilities and elder care. </p>
<p>In place since Canada participated in the 1995 UN World Conference on Women, this question allowed the disproportionately high amount of non-remunerated work performed by women in the home to be more fully considered in the context of employment-related policy-making.</p>
<h2>No protections for LGBTQ people</h2>
<p>As with the abortion debate, Harper chose not to reopen the same-sex marriage debate. But that doesn’t mean he protected the rights of those in the LGBTQ community. Not only did he cancel what was known as the <a href="https://www.dailyxtra.com/why-lgbt-activists-should-care-about-restoring-canadas-court-challenges-program-72075">Court Challenges Program</a> that helped LGBTQ individuals fight for their constitutional rights, he also surrounded himself with polarizing figures.</p>
<p>Chief among them was <a href="https://thewalrus.ca/stephen-harper-and-the-theo-cons/">Charles McVety</a>, the evangelical Christian leader and anti-LGBTQ activist.</p>
<p>During Harper’s time in office, McVety became widely known across the country for his efforts to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/world/americas/gay-marriage-galvanizes-canadas-right.html">repeal the law legalizing same-sex marriage</a> and his role in crafting <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080306061053/http:/www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/02/29/christians_influence_canadian_film_funding/5240/">legislation</a> that sought to deny tax credits to Canadian filmmakers whose films “promoted homosexuality.”</p>
<p>In the end, both initiatives failed.</p>
<p>While McVety’s anti-LGBTQ activism did not amount to much under Harper, it has amounted to rather a lot under Ontario Premier Doug Ford. McVety played a key role in supporting <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-doug-ford-makes-everything-worse-for-ontario-pc-party-elites">Ford’s bid for the Conservative Party leadership</a> and continues to be one of his most <a href="https://pressprogress.ca/pastors-who-preached-homophobic-and-anti-semitic-views-endorse-doug-ford-for-ontario-pc-leader/">important allies</a>.</p>
<h2>Policies aligned</h2>
<p>Both Ford’s <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/12/10/doug-ford-touts-curriculum-changes-alongside-charles-mcvety-anti-lgbtq-christian-figure_a_23614546/">initial rollback of the province’s sex education curriculum</a> and his creation of a <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2018/08/22/educators-slam-fords-snitch-line-for-teachers-who-defy-sex-ed-rollback.html">“snitch line”</a> designed to prohibit teachers from discussing LGBTQ issues align with McVety’s politics.</p>
<p>Scheer is not Harper; nor is he Ford. But what both the Harper and Ford governments teach us is that politicians who espouse views like those held by Scheer tend to be closely connected to one another, not only because they make similar policy decisions but also because they surround themselves with similar people.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/doug-fords-reboot-of-sex-education-in-ontario-same-as-it-ever-was-122299">Doug Ford's reboot of sex education in Ontario: Same as it ever was</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Much more than the Ford government, the Harper government shows us that a leader can promise not to reopen the abortion and same-sex marriage debates while still making policy decisions that undermine the rights of women and LGBTQ individuals.</p>
<p>So those who claim that Scheer’s positions on a woman’s right to choose and a same-sex couple’s right to marry are irrelevant so long as he refuses to reopen debate are missing the point.</p>
<p>Scheer’s views do not exist in a vacuum and will likely have an effect on how the country is governed if he wins on Oct. 21.</p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123128/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc Lafrance does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Those who claim that Scheer’s positions on a woman’s right to choose and a same-sex couple’s right to marry are irrelevant so long as he refuses to reopen debate are missing the point.Marc Lafrance, Associate Professor of Sociology, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1157542019-04-22T17:54:32Z2019-04-22T17:54:32ZTrudeau’s libel threat against Scheer: A great Canadian political tradition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270090/original/file-20190418-28100-157t0om.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's threat of a defamation suit against Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is just the latest example of a political fight that's turned litigious.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-threatens-scheer-with-lawsuit-over-snc-lavalin-comments-1.5088175">threatened defamation suit</a> against Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer over the SNC-Lavalin affair is just the latest in a rapidly growing list of Canadian political mud-slinging matches that have taken a litigious turn.</p>
<p>Scheer had already employed some overheated rhetoric at earlier stages of the controversy, <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/andrew-scheers-full-statement-calling-for-justin-trudeaus-resignation-over-snc-lavalin-scandal">accusing Trudeau of exerting “frankly illegal pressure”</a> on former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould over the prosecution of the Québec-based company on bribery and corruption charges.</p>
<p>But in late March, the Tory leader’s vague smears morphed into a more specific and unsubstantiated charge of criminality, the most severe kind of malfeasance in the political arena.</p>
<p>A statement by Scheer — circulated via Twitter and Facebook, beyond the robust legal protections afforded by Parliamentary privilege — said <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewScheer/status/1111760838606512128">Trudeau’s actions in the affair amounted to “corruption on top of corruption.</a>”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-threatens-scheer-with-lawsuit-over-snc-lavalin-comments-1.5088175">A letter from Trudeau’s lawyer highlighted the “corruption” claim</a> against the prime minister as particularly egregious because it painted him as the perpetrator of “the worst political conduct possible, being corruption, which is deserving of a criminal penalty of up to 14 years’ incarceration.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1116044103282774016"}"></div></p>
<h2>Following the playbook</h2>
<p>In serving that notice of libel, Trudeau was following the playbook of modern Canadian political leaders. In fact, each of the country’s three previous prime ministers got lawyers involved when their main political rivals stepped over the rhetorical line between vigorous debate and alleged slander.</p>
<p>In March 1998, then-prime minister Jean Chrétien threatened to sue Preston Manning and other Reform MPs if they repeated — outside of the House of Commons — an accusation that newly appointed B.C. Senator Ross Fitzpatrick was the beneficiary of a Senate “seat sale” after Chrétien had benefited financially years earlier from a Fitzpatrick stock tip. Manning moderated his attacks and the threatened lawsuit never materialized.</p>
<p>In November 2005, former Liberal PM Paul Martin’s legal team issued a libel warning to Stephen Harper after the then-opposition leader (under the protection of Parliament) accused Martin of heading a party that broke “every conceivable law in the province of Québec with the help of organized crime.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270091/original/file-20190418-28090-1tl6gq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270091/original/file-20190418-28090-1tl6gq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270091/original/file-20190418-28090-1tl6gq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270091/original/file-20190418-28090-1tl6gq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270091/original/file-20190418-28090-1tl6gq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270091/original/file-20190418-28090-1tl6gq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270091/original/file-20190418-28090-1tl6gq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stephen Harper (left) was threatened with a lawsuit by then prime minister Paul Martin (right) in 2005. A few months later, the threatened lawsuit was seemingly forgotten and Harper was elected prime minister.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tom Hanson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Laws were broken and perpetrators were eventually jailed in the post-1995 referendum sponsorship scandal, but there was never any evidence that organized crime was involved.</p>
<h2>Forgotten threats</h2>
<p>In media statements and a shot-across-the-bow lawyer’s letter to Harper demanding an apology, the Liberals warned the Conservative leader that if he uttered the same “false smear” outside the Commons, he’d be facing a defamation suit. But a few months later, with no apology offered and the threatened lawsuit seemingly forgotten, Harper was elected prime minister.</p>
<p>While Conservatives had dismissed Martin’s lawsuit threat as pure bluster and an attempt to gag critics, Harper as PM <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/harper-sues-liberal-party-over-cadman-allegations/article958237/">took the same legal route in March 2008</a> after then-Liberal leader Stéphane Dion accused the prime minister of knowing about an alleged 2005 “Conservative bribery” attempt to manipulate independent MP Chuck Cadman, dying of cancer at the time, in a crucial House of Commons vote.</p>
<p>There was no proof that Harper knew about the nature of the dealings with Cadman. He said the suit was necessary to safeguard his honour: “I have every right, as does my family, to defend our reputation.”</p>
<h2>Suit against Harper fizzled</h2>
<p>To Dion, Harper was wielding the defamation threat to “bully” his Liberal opponents into silence on the matter. The lawsuit fizzled and was dismissed without costs in 2009.</p>
<p>Trudeau — like Martin in 2005 and Harper in 2008 — was just months away from a federal election when he threatened his chief opponent with court action.</p>
<p>It’s no wonder critics see such libel notices as primarily aimed at slapping a lid on damaging accusations at a time when voters are about to pass judgment on a government. But it’s no surprise, either, that opposition rhetoric gets amped up to legally risky levels when all parties are girding for an election.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-sir-john-a-macdonald-to-blame-for-the-wilson-raybould-affair-112594">Is Sir John A. Macdonald to blame for the Wilson-Raybould affair?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Accusations of defamation have become almost routine in Canadian politics in recent years.</p>
<p>Former Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne, for example, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/kathleen-wynne-suing-patrick-brown-defamation-1.4443500">filed lawsuits</a> against successive provincial Progressive Conservative leaders Tim Hudak and Patrick Brown over their inflammatory attacks, respectively, that she “oversaw and possibly ordered the criminal destruction of documents” (no such evidence) and was “on trial” in a case of alleged bribery (she was, in fact, called to court as a witness).</p>
<h2>Extracted apology</h2>
<p>The Hudak suit was settled or withdrawn in 2015; the Brown suit appears to have been dropped. In September 2017, Wynne did extract an immediate apology from Conservative MPP Bill Walker after threatening to sue him for falsely saying she was under investigation for bribery.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270092/original/file-20190418-28084-moustp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270092/original/file-20190418-28084-moustp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270092/original/file-20190418-28084-moustp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270092/original/file-20190418-28084-moustp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270092/original/file-20190418-28084-moustp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=659&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270092/original/file-20190418-28084-moustp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=659&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270092/original/file-20190418-28084-moustp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=659&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former Ontario Conservative leader Patrick Brown was sued by then premier Kathleen Wynne, but the case never made it to court. Brown was also later sued by a former caucus colleague.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Power</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Brown, in turn, was <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ont-fedeli-brown-1.5053262">recently sued</a> by his ex-ally — Ontario Finance Minister Vic Fedeli — over statements in Brown’s new book alleging scurrilous behaviour by Fedeli before and during the 2018 upheaval among Ontario Tories that put Doug Ford on the path to becoming premier (and Brown en route to the mayoralty of Brampton.)</p>
<p>University of Guelph political scientist Byron Sheldrick argued last year in a <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/politics/politicians-need-to-stop-suing-each-other-its-bad-for-democracy/"><em>Maclean’s</em> article</a> that the sharp rise in politically motivated defamation battles could lead to the stifling of constructive political debate in Canada. He has urged a <a href="https://ccla.org/focus-areas/fundamental-freedoms/freedom-of-expression-2/public-participation-anti-slapp/">SLAPP-type testing of defamation claims in the political arena </a>to weed out strategic lawsuits launched to smother harsh criticism from those cases in which genuine reputational harm seems to have been inflicted by a partisan rival’s reckless words.</p>
<h2>Not a new idea</h2>
<p>If the idea gains traction, the recent upward trend in political defamation claims could be curbed. But it’s unlikely to end a phenomenon as old as Canadian politics itself.</p>
<p>In 1878, during Sir John A. Macdonald’s years in the opposition wilderness, the notoriously heavy drinker was spotted passed out in the House of Commons and being discreetly carried to an antechamber by fellow Tories. Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie described the scene in a note to fellow Liberal titan George Brown — a Grit senator, publisher of the staunchly partisan <em>Globe</em> newspaper and for decades Macdonald’s arch nemesis — who printed an editorial condemning Sir John A.’s behaviour.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270093/original/file-20190418-28113-182h0fa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270093/original/file-20190418-28113-182h0fa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270093/original/file-20190418-28113-182h0fa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270093/original/file-20190418-28113-182h0fa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270093/original/file-20190418-28113-182h0fa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270093/original/file-20190418-28113-182h0fa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270093/original/file-20190418-28113-182h0fa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, threatened several lawsuits in 1878 after his political opponents accused him of being drunk in the House of Commons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“To say that Sir John Macdonald was on Friday night somewhat under the influence of liquor would be a grossly inadequate representation of fact,” the <em>Globe</em> stated. “He was simply drunk in the plain ordinary sense of the word.”</p>
<p>The accusation was widely republished in the Liberal press, and a flurry of threatened lawsuits from Macdonald followed, none of which was acted upon — perhaps because truth is an absolute defence against a charge of libel.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Macdonald reclaimed the prime ministership in the 1878 election and — occasional bouts of drunkenness and defamation notwithstanding — kept it until his death in 1891.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115754/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Randy Boswell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Politicians threatening to sue each other is not unusual in Canada, but the lawsuits seldom make it to court.Randy Boswell, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1047922018-10-12T22:51:48Z2018-10-12T22:51:48ZWhat the Supreme Court ruling means for Indigenous consultation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240425/original/file-20181012-109210-s879gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Steve Courtoreille, chief of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, is seen on Parliament Hill in January 2013 after speaking about legal action against the federal government. The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled against the First Nation. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Must governments in Canada consult with Indigenous communities prior to adopting legislation that could affect their rights? </p>
<p>The Supreme Court of Canada’s <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/2251/index.do">decision in the Mikisew Cree case</a> is a perfect example of a situation where the headlines and the trend lines differ in important ways.</p>
<p>The headlines suggest <a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/mikisew-cree-leaders-disappointed-in-consultation-court-ruling">the Mikisew Cree lost</a> and that the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that there is no obligation by governments to carry out the formal legal duty to consult with Indigenous communities before passing a law. </p>
<p>The duty to consult has been in the news a lot in recent years. </p>
<p>While there are some complexities, the rules basically require governments to consult with Indigenous communities proactively before making administrative decisions that could affect their rights. In one sense, the recent Supreme Court ruling indicates that the court will not extend rules on the duty to consult to the development of legislation itself. </p>
<p>The court ruled against the Mikisew Cree claim that Stephen Harper’s Conservative government should have consulted on its 2012 omnibus <a href="https://www.envirolawsmatter.ca/the_rollbacks">bills C-38 and C-45</a> that altered federal environmental legislation. Those omnibus bills were the political trigger for <a href="http://www.idlenomore.ca/">Idle No More</a>, a nationwide Indigenous protest movement. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240427/original/file-20181012-109239-2bvbl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240427/original/file-20181012-109239-2bvbl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240427/original/file-20181012-109239-2bvbl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240427/original/file-20181012-109239-2bvbl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240427/original/file-20181012-109239-2bvbl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240427/original/file-20181012-109239-2bvbl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240427/original/file-20181012-109239-2bvbl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Harper government’s wide-ranging bill removed federal environmental oversight on most of the lakes, streams and rivers in the Mikisew Cree traditional territory in northeastern Alberta. Fort Chipewyan, Alta., is seen in this September 2011 photo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But they were also the trigger for a course of litigation that has now been brought to a thudding halt. After initial <a href="http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Ottawa+should+have+consulted+First+Nation+over+omnibus+bills+sweeping+legal+changes/10674431/story.html">success in the Federal Court,</a> the Mikisew Cree were unsuccessful in the Federal Court of Appeal, and have now lost in the Supreme Court of Canada.</p>
<h2>Judges differed dramatically</h2>
<p>But we need to get into the legal weeds. When we do that, we see some trend lines that are quite different from the headlines. </p>
<p>The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision is actually immensely complex, as the court split into four groups of judges who wrote separate reasons. </p>
<p>While they are all unanimous in the result, their reasons for getting there differ dramatically. All are in agreement on a technical jurisdictional point about which cases should go to the federal court system, and that leads to agreement on the result even when there are major differences in reasoning.</p>
<p>Seven of the nine judges agree that the technical rules known as the <em>duty to consult</em> doctrine do not apply to this context, with only Justices Rosalie Abella and Sheilah Martin suggesting that it should.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240434/original/file-20181012-109216-qzkma8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240434/original/file-20181012-109216-qzkma8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240434/original/file-20181012-109216-qzkma8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240434/original/file-20181012-109216-qzkma8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240434/original/file-20181012-109216-qzkma8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240434/original/file-20181012-109216-qzkma8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240434/original/file-20181012-109216-qzkma8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former prime minister Stephen Harper gestures as he is introduced at a luncheon in Stand Off, Alberta in February 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Larry MacDougal</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But three of the seven who ruled against this main claim have signed on to a judgment in which they effectively invite new litigation in future cases. </p>
<p>The judgment of Justice Andromache Karakatsanis, supported by Chief Justice Richard Wagner and Justice Clément Gascon, includes suggestions that different arguments about how a particular principle underlying the duty to consult — a principle called “honour of the Crown” — might still affect the legislation-making process in some other ways. </p>
<p>So a majority of five judges has actually indicated that they are still open to future arguments on these issues.</p>
<h2>Crafting future arguments?</h2>
<p>The other four judges object in strong terms. </p>
<p>In a solo judgment also supported by three other judges in yet another opinion, Justice Russell Brown says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“By raising this quixotic argument about the honour of the Crown — which neither the appellant nor any of the intervenors even thought to raise — my colleague (Justice) Karakatsanis … would cast the law into considerable uncertainty.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this comment, Justice Brown points out that the majority judges are not only inviting new litigation, but actually crafting potential arguments for litigants to use.</p>
<p>What’s it all mean?</p>
<p>It signifies that the trend lines of the Supreme Court decision diverge from the headlines. While it’s accurate for the media to report that the Mikisew Cree lost on their claim, the underlying developments in the case suggest that these issues are far from resolved. </p>
<p>Complex questions remain regarding whether the traditional parliamentary legislative process needs to change in order to honour Canada’s commitments to Indigenous rights.</p>
<p>Some of those commitments — the ones the Court ruled on — are the Constitutional requirements found in <a href="https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/section-35-of-the-constitution-act-1982">Section 35 of the Constitution Act of 1982.</a></p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240432/original/file-20181012-109239-crfk9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240432/original/file-20181012-109239-crfk9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240432/original/file-20181012-109239-crfk9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240432/original/file-20181012-109239-crfk9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240432/original/file-20181012-109239-crfk9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240432/original/file-20181012-109239-crfk9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240432/original/file-20181012-109239-crfk9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a news conference at United Nations headquarters in September 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Justin Trudeau government has also made additional policy commitments and is in the process of adhering to provisions in <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html">the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).</a></p>
<p>Article 19 of UNDRIP sets out an expectation of consultation with Indigenous peoples “in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.” </p>
<p>But even with its purported commitments to UNDRIP, the Trudeau government has not been carrying out the consultation that Article 19 would require before passing legislation.</p>
<p>There may yet be further developments ahead. </p>
<p>The adaptation of governance structures to achieve better respect for Indigenous rights is a complex process, and the Mikisew Cree decision has answered some questions — while raising many more.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104792/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dwight Newman receives funding from SSHRC and the Canada Research Chairs program.
He is a Munk Senior Fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and has also written for a variety of other think tanks and is on the advisory council of some other non-profit groups. He is also on the Board of Directors of Advocates for the Rule of Law, which filed an intervention in the case.</span></em></p>The headlines suggest the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled against Indigenous consultation. But its recent ruling is much more nuanced and complex than that.Dwight Newman, Professor of Law and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Rights in Constitutional and International Law, University of SaskatchewanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/965202018-05-16T22:34:18Z2018-05-16T22:34:18ZMaple-glazed Trump? Doug Ford’s populism is Canadian-made<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219082/original/file-20180515-195308-14n90yv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canadian and American flags fly as Doug Ford speaks during a campaign stop in Niagara Falls, Ont., on May 14, 2018. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tara Walton</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the wake of Donald Trump’s election to the U.S. presidency in November 2016, Canadian exceptionalism has enjoyed a healthy renaissance. </p>
<p>Trump’s nativist, misogynistic, xenophobic rhetoric leading up to his election, and the turbulence that has characterized his administration since, have served as the perfect opportunity for Canadians to reassert themselves as a progressive beacon of human rights, tolerance and diversity in the world. </p>
<p>But a lingering question has lurked in the background: Could a right-wing populist in Trump’s mould succeed nationally in Canada?</p>
<p>The candidacy of Doug Ford for premier of Ontario appears to represent in the eyes of many Canadians their very own “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/30/doug-ford-ontario-conservative-trump-comparison-canada">Trump moment</a>.” </p>
<p>Ford has been accused of being a vulgar, self-interested, dangerous populist by both <a href="http://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-doug-ford-and-donald-trump-are-both-dangerous-tricksters-who-will-do-more-harm-than-good">media pundits</a> and <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ontario-election-2018/ontario-premier-wynne-calls-ford-a-bully-says-he-s-just-like-trump-1.3890743">political opponents</a> alike. </p>
<p>Ford is the brother of the late Rob Ford, the equally populist onetime mayor of Toronto who infamously struggled with substance abuse issues. Ford family drama has shown no signs of dissipating as <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/06/04/rob-fords-widow-sues-doug-ford-alleging-he-has-deprived-them-of-millions.html">Rob Ford’s widow, Renata, recently launched a lawsuit</a> accusing her brother-in-law of cheating her and her children out of millions since the former mayor’s death.</p>
<p>Doug Ford’s style and rhetoric have drawn direct comparisons to the 45th American president as he’s been branded a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/opinion/doug-ford-populism-canada-trump.html">Northern tinpot Trump</a>. Implicit in these comparisons is the idea that Ford, like Conservatives Kellie Leitch and Kevin O’Leary before him, is merely mimicking Trump’s divisive style of politics in an effort to stir up the same type of populist resentment that swept across the United States in 2016 and propelled him to the Oval Office.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219084/original/file-20180515-195311-lsa83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219084/original/file-20180515-195311-lsa83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219084/original/file-20180515-195311-lsa83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219084/original/file-20180515-195311-lsa83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219084/original/file-20180515-195311-lsa83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219084/original/file-20180515-195311-lsa83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219084/original/file-20180515-195311-lsa83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kellie Leitch is seen at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., in March 2017 as she ran unsuccessfully for the Conservative leadership.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many have dismissed the comparison, downplaying Ford’s <a href="http://nationalpost.com/opinion/andrew-coyne-neither-a-conservative-nor-quite-a-populist-doug-ford-isnt-what-many-think">populist credentials</a> and <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2018/04/21/doug-ford-is-brash-but-hes-no-donald-trump.html">similarities to Trump</a>. But for those Canadians who have watched Trump in horror, and perhaps with a bit of schadenfreude, Ford represents a threat that has swept up from the south to infiltrate their peaceful, progressive, multicultural utopia.</p>
<p>While it’s convenient and comforting to position Ford as a cheap imitation of Trump’s political ideology and rhetoric, historical trends and recent developments in Canada reveal this isn’t really the case.</p>
<p>Populism, on both the left and right sides of the political spectrum, has played a formative role in electoral politics at municipal, provincial and federal levels throughout Canadian history. </p>
<p>Furthermore, while many commentators and analysts have concluded that <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/review-michael-adamss-could-it-happen-here-explores-whether-canada-is-safe-from-toxic-populism/article36431266/">Canadian values simply won’t allow for the rise of the types of right-wing populism observed elsewhere</a>, this only captures one piece of the populism puzzle that is troubling other countries around the world.</p>
<h2>Historical roots of Canadian populism</h2>
<p>At the heart of populism’s lure for politicians and citizens alike are appeals to a pure, mythic people against a corrupt, unresponsive political establishment. </p>
<p>Virtually all populist leaders seek to mobilize public disaffection with the political status quo by making visible some type of crisis that requires drastic, decisive action that only a populist leader can bring about. </p>
<p>The rhetoric of these appeals will vary from one context to the next based on the political, social and cultural milieu in which populism unfurls. </p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Populism_and_Democratic_Thought_in_the_C.html?id=IDQlAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">Canada’s experiences with populism date back to the period between the First and Second World Wars</a>, when a large, well-organized agrarian populist movement sprung up across the Prairies. Opposed to the centralizing tendencies of the Ontario-based Liberal-Conservative coalition government, this movement eventually led to the formation of a number of highly successful political parties. </p>
<p>On the right, the socially conservative <a href="http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/social-credit/">Alberta Social Credit Party</a> would govern Alberta from 1935 to 1971, appealing to supporters with its opposition to the centralizing tendencies of the federal government and the creation of a federally administered welfare state. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219196/original/file-20180516-155579-1nna1vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219196/original/file-20180516-155579-1nna1vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219196/original/file-20180516-155579-1nna1vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219196/original/file-20180516-155579-1nna1vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219196/original/file-20180516-155579-1nna1vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219196/original/file-20180516-155579-1nna1vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219196/original/file-20180516-155579-1nna1vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former NDP leader Tommy Douglas poses in Ottawa in this October 1983 photo. Douglas, considered the father of Canadian medicare, was first elected to Parliament in 1935 as a member of the CCF.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Schwarz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Populism also played an important historical role in the development of leftist parties. The <a href="http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/co-operative-commonwealth-federation/">Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF)</a>, eventually succeeded by the New Democratic Party, united labour activists, farmers and socialists to influence the trajectory of federal politics in Canada. </p>
<p>It led the movement for the development of a relatively strong and stable welfare state and socialist policies and programs. </p>
<h2>Right-wing populism in Canada</h2>
<p>While the left has drifted away from its populist roots, right-wing populism has continued to emerge periodically in recent Canadian political history. </p>
<p>A growing sense of western alienation and frustration with the Quebec sovereignty debate helped fuel the rise of the <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/The_New_Right_and_Democracy_in_Canada.html?id=iaOIAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">Reform Party</a> in the late 1980s and early 1990s. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219085/original/file-20180515-195315-1h638rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219085/original/file-20180515-195315-1h638rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219085/original/file-20180515-195315-1h638rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219085/original/file-20180515-195315-1h638rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219085/original/file-20180515-195315-1h638rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219085/original/file-20180515-195315-1h638rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219085/original/file-20180515-195315-1h638rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reform leader Preston Manning holds a copy of his party’s alternative federal budget in Ottawa on February 1995.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Canadian Press/Tom Hanson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Led by Preston Manning, Reform aimed to foster a divide between common, hard-working people and out-of-touch elites — in an effort to forge support for libertarian policy proposals designed to shrink the welfare state, oppose Quebec sovereignty, challenge multiculturalism, strengthen the jurisdiction of provinces and introduce greater direct democracy measures into political institutions. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news2/background/conservativeparty/uniteright_timeline.html">amalgamation of right-wing parties into the Conservative Party of Canada in 2003</a> has tempered the expression of populism as Conservative politicians have adopted the brokerage style of politics perfected by the Liberal Party.</p>
<p>But even under the leadership of Stephen Harper — a politician not considered particularly populist — the Conservatives regularly used populist rhetoric and appeals to help pass key pieces of legislation. From the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/canadian-journal-of-law-and-society-la-revue-canadienne-droit-et-societe/article/criminal-justice-policy-during-the-harper-era-private-members-bills-penal-populism-and-the-criminal-code-of-canada/1A808DE27A54302968B7E1E21495DE9F">introduction of mandatory minimum sentences</a> and the <a href="https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/cjs/index.php/cjs/article/viewFile/18222/14325">scrapping of the long-form census</a>, the Harper Conservatives framed many of their most controversial policy proposals as “common sense” and supported by the majority of Canadians. </p>
<h2>What’s it all say about Doug Ford?</h2>
<p>Examining Doug Ford’s campaign in light of the history of populism in Canada ought to provoke a rethinking of the labelling of Ford as “Trump Lite.” The brand of populism being practised by Ford in the Ontario provincial election campaign does not represent the importation of an American style of politics.</p>
<p>Instead, it’s better understood as an extension of populist strategies that have proven successful for Canadian right-wing politicians in the past. </p>
<p>Ford’s appeal to the common people based in promises to protect the hard-earned money of taxpayers, to clean up corruption and shrink government spending are more in line with the tradition of Canadian populism than they are with Donald Trump. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-doug-fords-campaign-defends-take-care-of-our-own-comment-on/">For the most part</a>, Ford has stayed away from the nativist rhetoric of Trump, avoiding the topic of immigration and cultural integration altogether, preferring instead to base his appeal on economic resentment as opposed to cultural.</p>
<p>None of this is to say that Canadians concerned with the possibility of extremist political ideologies reaching the political mainstream should not oppose Ford or be concerned. </p>
<p>But to dismiss or criticize Ford as merely a Trump imitator is to ignore the evidence of racial and cultural resentment in Canada and the connection between <a href="http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/alexandre-bissonnette-inside-the-life-of-a-mass-murderer">recent hate crimes and acts of violence and right-wing extremist movements</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dear-white-people-wake-up-canada-is-racist-83124">Dear white people, wake up: Canada is racist</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If recent examples from Canadian politics have told us anything, it’s that mimicking populists from other parts of the world — particularly the U.S. — will not translate into electoral success. </p>
<p>The reason that Doug Ford may succeed where others like Leitch and O’Leary failed is because he represents a homegrown style of populism that connects with the cultural and political values of some Canadians.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96520/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Doctoral Fellowship)</span></em></p>Branding Doug Ford as a Donald Trump impersonator obscures the history of populism in Canada.Brian Budd, Ph.D Candidate, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/907962018-02-04T20:37:48Z2018-02-04T20:37:48ZWhy Justin Trudeau is not the leader many believe he is<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204614/original/file-20180202-162066-1mcidl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walks past Ivanka Trump at the Women and Development event at the G20 summit in July 2017 in Germany. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Stephen Harper, Canada’s former prime minister, might well have been less colourful and pleasing to eye and ear than the current Canadian leader. </p>
<p>But Harper focused on what he believed Canada needed to get ahead in the world, not on his image and on making Canadians feel good about themselves. This contrasts markedly with the approach under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. </p>
<p>How much longer will Canada have to pay the price so Trudeau can remind us that he is a human rights activist? </p>
<p>Take, for example, the inquiry into violence against Indigenous women and girls, and the flow of refugees and asylum seekers coming to Canada. </p>
<p>One of the most sensitive issues during Canada’s 2015 federal election was the debate about creating an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. <a href="https://news.vice.com/article/harper-again-rejects-call-for-inquiry-into-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-in-canada">Harper resisted creating one</a>, despite years of urging by Indigenous communities, the United Nations and human rights groups. <a href="https://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCAKBN0TR2BY20151208">Trudeau committed to launching a national inquiry</a> during the political campaign.</p>
<p>Canadians finally believed this issue would be addressed, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/justin-trudeau-afn-indigenous-aboriginal-people-1.3354747">and there was new hope for reconciliation</a>. Trudeau promised a “<a href="http://nationalpost.com/news/politics/trudeau-says-canada-will-forge-ahead-with-a-total-renewal-of-relationship-with-first-nations">total renewal</a>” of Canada’s relationship with Indigenous communities. Carolyn Bennett was named Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, and assigned to the <a href="http://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/">National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls</a>.</p>
<p>But Bennett, the <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/reconciliation-steps-forward-and-the-importance-of-animals-in-modern-indigenous-life-1.3612605/5-questions-with-carolyn-bennett-minister-of-indigenous-affairs-1.3613711">so-called minister of reconciliation</a>, has proven unable to make much progress on the inquiry. </p>
<p>It <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/globe-editorial-inquiry-into-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-can-still-make-a-difference/article36827702/">languishes</a> to this day, money wasted, mired in recrimination and hostility. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/30/canada-first-nations-indigenous-women-inquiry">Expectations dashed</a>, some from Indigenous communities say they have been <a href="http://aptnnews.ca/2017/10/17/this-is-not-what-i-walked-across-canada-for-tensions-rise-at-national-inquiry/">failed once again</a>.</p>
<p>In a recent cabinet shuffle, Trudeau split Bennett’s ministerial portfolio, a reflection of her performance in a hard job, but she <a href="https://pm.gc.ca/eng/minister-crown-indigenous-relations-and-northern-affairs-mandate-letter">remains lead minister</a> for the inquiry. <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/trudeaus-shuffle-reveals-two-truths-about-liberal-cabinet/article36101146/">Expectations remain low</a>.</p>
<h2>Polished, poised</h2>
<p>Harper lost the 2015 election for several reasons – he’d spent a long time in power, there was a <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/10/20/justin-trudeau-canadas-new-leader-profile/74256118/">charismatic new opposition leader</a> on the scene, and he seemed to lack patience any longer to provide the morally superior rhetoric that Canadians love. This nationalistic self-praise, proclaiming Canadians’ virtue over and above all other countries, is what Canadian scholar <a href="http://www.queensu.ca/politics/people/faculty/kim-richard-nossal">Kim Richard Nossal</a> aptly termed “<a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/002070200506000408?journalCode=ijxa">ear candy</a>.”</p>
<p>Not Trudeau. Polished and poised, he always says the “right” thing. If Trudeau’s Canada is famous for anything in the world, it is for setting a good example to other countries. </p>
<p>Trudeau implemented his <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-syria-refugees-settlement-groups-1.3291959">election campaign promise to allow 25,000 Syrian refugees</a> expedited entry to Canada. And when U.S. President Donald Trump moved in January 2017 to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/06/new-trump-travel-ban-muslim-majority-countries-refugees">ban travellers from targeted Muslim-majority</a> countries, Trudeau sent a tweet depicting Canada as a tolerant haven, and emphasized its welcoming, open borders.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"825438460265762816"}"></div></p>
<p>Trudeau’s approach to the Syria crisis and to immigration generally is in stark contrast to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/08/canada-stephen-harper-processing-syrian-refugees">Harper government’s.</a> His viral tweet last year was spun into a widespread media assertion that Canada <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/25/justin-trudeau-forced-to-backtrack-on-open-invitation-to-refugees">would accept everyone who came</a>. Perhaps this was exactly what he wanted: To showcase his human rights credentials and Canada’s friendliness and compassionate attitude compared to Trump’s.</p>
<p>However, Trudeau’s tweet created a huge problem.</p>
<p>When thousands of Haitian asylum-seekers, afraid <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-announcement-asylum-seekers-1.4240038">Trump might end their temporary protected</a> status that allows them to remain in the U.S., illegally crossed the border into Québec, the Trudeau government started singing a different tune. In July and August 2017, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/01/10/canada-is-sending-a-politician-to-california-to-dissuade-salvadorans-from-crossing-the-border-illegally/?utm_term=.556d3a99c30f">250 people a day crossed</a> the border, many of them Haitians. Ministers rushed to explain there was no open invitation: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/25/justin-trudeau-forced-to-backtrack-on-open-invitation-to-refugees">There are rules</a> that must be adhered to, and <a href="http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/multimedia/misleading-false-information-refugee-status-canada.asp">claiming asylum is not a free ticket into Canada</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/08/10/542589246/canadas-army-builds-tent-camp-for-haitian-asylum-seekers-arriving-from-u-s">Tent camps</a> for the initial refugee processing have been set up along the Canada-U.S. border. And more people may come. Canadian <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/world/canada/quebec-immigrants-haitians.html">officials are gearing up for an influx</a> of migrants heading north in the coming months. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-to-end-provisional-residency-for-200000-salvadorans/2018/01/08/badfde90-f481-11e7-beb6-c8d48830c54d_story.html?utm_term=.932b10e020f8">Cancellation of protected status for the 50,000 Haitians</a> in the U.S. has been confirmed by the Trump administration, effective July 2019. It’s also announced that protected status for the nearly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/world/canada/quebec-immigrants-haitians.html">200,000 Salvadorians</a> living in the U.S. won’t be renewed either.</p>
<p>There’s little doubt those migrants are eyeing Canada.</p>
<p>But Canada is not prepared to accept everyone, despite Trudeau’s tweet. It ushered in the 25,000 Syrians shortly after his election, but after that it was back to business as usual, regardless that the <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/11/world/syria-refugee-crisis-when-war-displaces-half-a-country/">scale of need was in the millions.</a></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204611/original/file-20180202-162082-17e240o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204611/original/file-20180202-162082-17e240o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204611/original/file-20180202-162082-17e240o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204611/original/file-20180202-162082-17e240o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204611/original/file-20180202-162082-17e240o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204611/original/file-20180202-162082-17e240o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204611/original/file-20180202-162082-17e240o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau coaches a youth soccer team formed by migrants and refugees at the Roma Soccer Club Stadium in Rome in May 2017 while he was in Italy for a G7 summit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Far away from the world’s war zones, Canada has always been able to roll out the welcome mat when it wanted. That’s why closer to home, the asylum issue with the U.S. is causing serious concerns for the Trudeau government — it exposes the difference between the nationalist self-congratulation that the prime minister trades in, and what Canadians are willing to accept in practice. </p>
<p>Many countries aren’t so lucky. Consider, by comparison, the refugee situation for Germany as it existed in 2015. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/germany-grapples-integration-after-its-opening-borders-n810361">Some days, more than 10,000 Syrian refugees arrived</a> in Germany. Almost <a href="https://www.thelocal.de/20150907/over-10000-refugees-arrive-in-one-weekend">20,000 arrived</a> in one weekend, 10,000 in Munich alone. </p>
<p>Canada has not had to cope with such numbers. What’s more, Canada is tough on those lucky enough to arrive here. Since 2000, at least <a href="https://theconversation.com/migrants-are-dying-in-detention-centres-when-will-canada-act-87237">16 people have died</a> in Canada’s system of immigration detention centres.</p>
<p>And yet Trudeau continues to burnish his personal political image and to poke Canada’s greatest ally in the eye — most recently in Davos. </p>
<h2>A Trump snub?</h2>
<p>France’s <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/16/macron-my-charm-offensive-may-soften-trumps-climate-stance.html">Emmanuel Macron</a> and China’s Xi Jinping have mounted apparently successful charm offensives to advance key priorities with Trump. Not Canada’s leader. Trudeau <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2087518/10-minutes-xi-jinping-changed-donald-trumps-mind-north">did not bother to meet Trump</a> at the recent <a href="https://www.weforum.org/focus/davos-2018">Davos World Economic Forum</a> so that, he said, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/trudeau-defends-decision-to-not-seek-meeting-with-trump-in-davos/article37731758/">other leaders could have a chance</a>. </p>
<p>Some have pointed to Trudeau’s apparent charm offensive with Ivanka Trump as clever and strategic. In addition to <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/canada-us-women-s-group-created-by-trudeau-ivanka-trump-issues-first-proposals-1.3763474">working with the president’s daughter</a> on issues facing women in the workplace, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/pm-justin-trudeau-1.4026218">he attended the Canadian Broadway</a> play, <em>Come From Away</em>, with her in March 2017. But the play itself was about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/theater/justin-trudeau-ivanka-trump-broadway-come-from-away.html">Canadian inclusiveness and support for foreigners in need</a>, not-so-subtly underscoring Trudeau’s criticism of Trump’s public policy. Is this a winning strategy?</p>
<p>For Trudeau, everything seems to be about glorifying Canada, and himself by extension. That’s not always in the best interests of Canada, but it is what Canada gets in abundance from its current prime minister. Harper, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/obama-harper-dont-like-each-other-and-only-a-new-leader-can-thaw-relations/article21691812/">despite his private reservations about former president Barack Obama</a>, never publicly threw shade at his fellow leader.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204618/original/file-20180202-162082-1hi8gsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204618/original/file-20180202-162082-1hi8gsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204618/original/file-20180202-162082-1hi8gsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204618/original/file-20180202-162082-1hi8gsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204618/original/file-20180202-162082-1hi8gsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204618/original/file-20180202-162082-1hi8gsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204618/original/file-20180202-162082-1hi8gsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former prime minister Stephen Harper speaks at a barbecue in Calgary in July 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Larry MacDougal</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Harper was less popular than Trudeau, but Canadians could count on him for one thing — not making his personal image on the global stage a top priority. What Trudeau says obviously appeals to Canadians. But do his actions back up his words? On Indigenous issues, on immigration, on welcoming refugees, the answer is no. Whether Canadians agreed or disagreed with Harper, his actions matched his words.</p>
<p>Trudeau almost has it all. He’s got that famous name. He’s got the central casting looks. He’s got the top job in Canada. The one thing he needs is for Canada and the world to regard him as human rights activist, because even when it disadvantages the national interest, that’s seemingly less important than his own personal interests — a far cry from Canada’s previous prime minister.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90796/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grant Dawson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is making a political career out of burnishing his self-image and convincing the world he’s a human rights leader. Do his actions match his words?Grant Dawson, Assistant Professor of Social Science and International Politics, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/900832018-01-16T22:41:52Z2018-01-16T22:41:52ZThe cruel trade-off at your local produce aisle<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201820/original/file-20180112-101514-1r0lfpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C29%2C4943%2C2975&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A migrant worker picks peaches in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., in the summer of 2015.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When we decide what fresh produce to buy, we check our fruits and vegetables for colour and blemishes, and we make sure the price seems fair.</p>
<p>We’re looking after our families.</p>
<p>But there’s a problem that is not necessarily apparent, even under the bright lights of the produce aisle — one that harms a set of people who are vital to getting Canada’s crops to our tables but get almost no public support.</p>
<p>We’re not looking after their families.</p>
<p>Very often, the farm workers who harvest Canadian apples, tomatoes, onions and other crops are from countries such as Mexico <a href="http://jis.gov.jm/300-farmworkers-leave-week-canada/">and Jamaica.</a> Countries where work is scarce and the standard of living is far lower than it is here.</p>
<p>Farm work is hard. It is heavy, it can be dangerous, and it often demands six or seven days a week. It pays poorly by Canadian standards — typically minimum wage.</p>
<h2>Work Canadians won’t do</h2>
<p>That’s not necessarily attractive to Canadians, who prefer other jobs.</p>
<p>But it does offer a chance for migrant workers to help their families back home.</p>
<p>Some consumers feel that it’s a fair bargain. Farmers get dependable, flexible and affordable labour while migrant workers make money to send home. On the surface, it might seem like everybody wins.</p>
<p>In fact, there is a hidden cost to those workers and to their families.</p>
<p>Most of them come here under the auspices of the federal <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/foreign-workers/agricultural/seasonal-agricultural.html">Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program</a>, which allows farmers to bring labourers to Canada. About 53,000 temporary foreign agricultural worker positions were approved in Canada in 2015, of which 42,000 were through the SAWP.</p>
<p>The main goal of the program is to import labour, not people, creating a system that is flexible and sustainable. Instead, it is unbalanced and harmful to the people who do the labour we need them to do.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201821/original/file-20180112-101508-1jdta8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201821/original/file-20180112-101508-1jdta8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201821/original/file-20180112-101508-1jdta8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201821/original/file-20180112-101508-1jdta8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201821/original/file-20180112-101508-1jdta8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201821/original/file-20180112-101508-1jdta8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201821/original/file-20180112-101508-1jdta8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Mexican migrant worker trims the vines of a vineyard in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., in March 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Seasonal agricultural workers can only be here for eight months each year. They cannot stay on when they are finished. Their years and sometimes decades of hard work — and their contributions to feeding Canadians —do not earn them any extra right to settle here in Canada.</p>
<p>All the while, they are producing and collecting our food for us, and Canada is deducting taxes and Employment Insurance premiums from their pay without permitting them to access the insurance benefits or rights associated with citizenship.</p>
<h2>Cannot collect the EI they pay into</h2>
<p>The workers are forced to leave the country after eight months. No one can collect EI from outside the country, so it’s impossible for them to be eligible. </p>
<p>They used to be able to collect parental and maternity benefits through EI, but the Stephen Harper government <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2012/12/11/seasonal_migrant_workers_stripped_of_parental_benefits.html">removed this right in 2012</a>. The Trudeau government has yet to restore it, despite <a href="http://www.ufcw.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3915:ufcw-canada-and-official-opposition-call-on-government-to-end-great-canadian-rip-off-of-sawp-workers&catid=513&Itemid=6&lang=en">repeated calls</a> from advocates to do so.</p>
<p>The federal government collects mandatory Canada Pension Plan payments, too, but offers only meagre payback when those workers retire in their home countries after giving their bodies to working on our behalf.</p>
<p>The invisible costs, as we have recently described in a paper for the journal <a href="https://www.riir.ulaval.ca/en">Industrial Relations</a>, include the high price that families pay when husbands and fathers leave for months at a time to work. Almost all migrant agricultural labourers — 97 per cent —are men and the vast majority have spouses and children back home.</p>
<p>No one forces them to come to Canada, but lacking viable options at home, they don’t have much of a choice if they want to support their families. This leaves their children without fathers for months each year. And it forces their spouses to shoulder the entire burden of managing their households. </p>
<p>It’s a cruel trade-off. To help their families, these workers have to hurt them.</p>
<h2>Hardships for family back home</h2>
<p>Ultimately, these hardships can be measured in tangible terms. There are higher rates of illness among these migrant workers’ families back home. Their kids have more mental illness, behavioural problems and trouble in school. Spouses report high levels of stress. Families sometimes fall apart.</p>
<p>Any parent can imagine what it would be like to leave home for eight months, without any chance to return for major family events, including weddings, funerals and graduations. That has a tremendous impact on relationships.</p>
<p>It deeply undermines families.</p>
<p>Yet it’s all perfectly legal and fully sanctioned by our federal government. In theory, it’s all voluntary, but in reality, it’s clear these workers have little choice to take the jobs Canadians won’t do — at least not for the pay and working conditions being offered.</p>
<p>Agriculture is a big business, and certainly everyone who has a hand in providing safe, fresh produce to Canadians deserves to make a living. Farmers face the weather and <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3865664/more-okanagan-fruit-growers-to-be-blocked-from-hiring-mexican-workers/">other challenges</a>, including sub-standard living conditions in some cases, for uncertain rewards. Wholesalers and distributors — who are invisible to most consumers — make a significant portion of the retail price. Retailers make almost all the rest.</p>
<h2>Cannot unionize</h2>
<p>The hands that pluck the fruits and vegetables — typically brown or black hands, which matters in the racialized calculus of food pricing where folks with darker skins often have to work harder for less — receive only a small fraction of the retail price. Some provinces, including Ontario —where over half the SAWP workers are employed — <a href="http://www.focal.ca/es/publications/focalpoint/457-june-2011-kerry-preibisch">will not allow agricultural workers to unionize</a>, either.</p>
<p>Fairer access to rights, benefits and job protections, including employment insurance and open work permits, would not make much difference to the retail price, if any.</p>
<p>This brings us back to the question of the true sustainability of our food. Is it a fair exchange when the fresh fruits and vegetables that we feed to our kids come at such a cost to other families and their kids?</p>
<p>Does it matter less to us because we can’t see those kids and their mothers? Or because we delude ourselves into believing their fathers and husbands are satisfied coming here, paying into benefit systems they can never access, leaving their families year after year, with no chance to ever immigrate and build a future together?</p>
<p>Does that apple still taste as sweet when we know that a poor person’s hardships subsidized it for us?</p>
<p>It’s worth thinking about. It shouldn’t be this way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90083/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donald MacLean Wells receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). This research was funded by SSHRC as part of The Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario (PEPSO) <<a href="https://pepso.ca/">https://pepso.ca/</a>> research project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) as part of The Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario (PEPSO) <<a href="https://pepso.ca/">https://pepso.ca/</a>> research project.</span></em></p>Every year, migrant workers come to Canada to pick the fruits and vegetables we take for granted. They aren’t paid well and get none of the benefits they pay into. It’s time to treat them fairly.Donald MacLean Wells, Professor Emeritus, Labour Studies and Political Science, McMaster UniversityJanet McLaughlin, Associate Professor of Health Studies, Research Associate, International Migration Research Centre, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/849632017-10-02T01:58:13Z2017-10-02T01:58:13ZWhat Jagmeet Singh’s historic NDP leadership win means for Canada<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188615/original/file-20171003-12146-nntfvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=91%2C80%2C2387%2C2311&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jagmeet Singh won 53.6 per cent of the first-ballot votes on Sunday to become the new leader of Canada's New Democratic Party.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(The Canadian Press/Chris Young)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a landslide victory, Jagmeet Singh has become the new leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party. </p>
<p>Despite predictions that voting could go into multiple rounds and ostensibly drag on until mid-October, Singh won 53.6 per cent of the first-ballot votes on Sunday. He easily beat out his closest rival, Charlie Angus, who garnered only 19.3 per cent.</p>
<p>Singh’s victory is historic. </p>
<p>He is the first person of colour to be elected leader of a major Canadian political party. He is a proud Sikh; he wears a turban, and carries a kirpan — a ceremonial knife. He openly talks about his experiences with racism, and has fought for policies that would combat racism. </p>
<p>As a member of provincial parliament in Ontario, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/06/15/mpp-jagmeet-singh-wants-province-to-end-carding-entirely.html">he worked to pass legislation that banned so-called carding</a> — a practice whereby police officers stop individuals “randomly” and ask for their identification and used to disproportionately target people of colour. </p>
<p>One of the best known moments of Singh’s campaign was when a heckler accused him of being <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAdb6uGTSfQ">“in bed with the Muslim Brotherhood.”</a> He responded to her by leading the audience in a chant of “love and courage.” The video of the encounter went viral — and he was praised for his response by commentators all over the world.</p>
<h2>‘Love and courage’</h2>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-ndp-leader-jagmeet-singh-battles-racism-in-canadian-politics-with-love-83857">“love and courage” seem to have won the day</a>. Singh’s message clearly resonated with NDP members. Even more than that, his campaign has claimed to have signed up 47,000 new members for the party, although <a href="http://nationalpost.com/news/politics/jagmeet-singh-accused-of-inflating-party-membership-signups">this claim has been disputed</a>.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Singh has his work cut out for him before Canada’s 2019 federal election. It remains to be seen if Singh will be embraced by the rest of Canada in the same way he has been embraced by the NDP. In particular, it’s unclear whether Singh can win over Quebec, and if he can expand the NDP’s base to Canadians who traditionally vote Liberal or Conservative.</p>
<p>The Quebec question looms over the new NDP leader. Quebec has been seen as essential to the party’s success. The 2011 “orange wave” that swept the NDP to their biggest victory was strongest in Quebec.</p>
<p>In reflecting on his legacy, former NDP leader Tom Mulcair noted that he was <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tom-mulcair-ndp-leadership-exit-1.4307981">most proud of his efforts in Quebec</a>. He added that the party’s future in Quebec was the thing he worried most about <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tom-mulcair-ndp-leadership-exit-1.4307981">going forward</a>. </p>
<p>Conventional wisdom suggests that Singh will face significant hurdles in the province. Religious headgear and symbols are frequently at the centre of heated debate in Quebec. </p>
<p>In 2013, the Quebec Charter of Values was proposed. If passed, the bill would have banned the wearing of “conspicuous” religious symbols for government personnel and mandated that, in order to receive government services, one’s face must be uncovered. </p>
<p>The Charter had the support of <a href="http://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/dan-delmar-its-wrong-to-link-mosque-shooting-quebec-charter-of-values">roughly 50 per cent of the province.</a> Currently, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bill-62-identity-politics-muslim-burqa-1.4250417">Bill-62</a> is being debated in Quebec. The bill would not allow women wearing burkas or niqabs to provide or receive public services. </p>
<h2>Quebecers ‘open-minded’</h2>
<p>Martine Ouellet, the leader of the Bloc Québécois, has condemned Singh for not respecting the separation of church and state. She stated that Singh’s <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/09/18/bloc-leader-martine-ouellet-suggests-jagmeet-singh-is-too-religious-for-quebec_a_23214013/">“primary values are related to his religion”</a> and has argued that’s a problem for those in public office.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188286/original/file-20171002-28521-1wssw0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188286/original/file-20171002-28521-1wssw0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188286/original/file-20171002-28521-1wssw0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188286/original/file-20171002-28521-1wssw0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188286/original/file-20171002-28521-1wssw0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188286/original/file-20171002-28521-1wssw0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188286/original/file-20171002-28521-1wssw0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bloc Quebecois leader Martine Ouellet has been critical of Jagmeet Singh.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Singh has addressed such concerns frequently during his campaign. Quebecers are more <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/09/16/jagmeet-singh-defends-open-minded-quebec-after-mp-s-turban-comment_a_23212022/">“open-minded and open-hearted”</a> than his critics were giving them credit for, he insisted.</p>
<p>During his victory speech, Singh addressed Quebecers directly. He stated that he knew what it is like to have your culture and language marginalized. He said he learned French “in solidarity” and promised to “be an ally in the defence and promotion of” their language and culture. </p>
<p>Perhaps this promise of kinship will be enough to make gains in Quebec, or at least maintain the current NDP base. But it will definitely continue to be a challenge for Singh as 2019 approaches.</p>
<h2>Winning over the rest of Canada</h2>
<p>Another major question is whether Singh can expand the NDP’s base, and win over voters who cast their ballots for either Liberals or Conservatives in the last election. </p>
<p>In 2015, <a href="http://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/jagmeet-singh-and-the-newest-new-ndp/">Trudeau won over many voters who traditionally voted NDP</a>. And he appealed to and attracted young and new Canadians. Trudeau ran the 2015 campaign as the young, fresh, optimistic candidate, in contrast to former prime minister Stephen Harper and Mulcair. </p>
<p>He was 43 years old and taking on much older and more experienced politicians. He utilized social media and connected with young people better than either of his opponents. He championed diversity better, and more fully too. “A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian” and “Canada is strong, not in spite of our differences, but because of them” were campaign slogans that resonated. </p>
<p>But much of what Trudeau used to differentiate himself is no longer in play with Singh in the picture. At 45, Trudeau is now the oldest candidate of a competitive Canadian party — both Singh and Andrew Scheer, the new Conservative leader, are 38.</p>
<p>Singh is the new outsider to federal politics, as he’s never held federal office. And given Singh’s history of working on issues related to racial justice on the provincial level, and his personal identity and the challenges he’s faced, he seems much better-suited to be the champion of people of colour and new Canadians. </p>
<h2>‘Sunny ways’</h2>
<p>In 2015, Trudeau’s “sunny ways” won over more traditionally NDP supporters than Conservative supporters. Can Singh’s “love and courage” win them back? </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188271/original/file-20171001-10771-10rmnp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188271/original/file-20171001-10771-10rmnp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188271/original/file-20171001-10771-10rmnp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188271/original/file-20171001-10771-10rmnp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188271/original/file-20171001-10771-10rmnp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188271/original/file-20171001-10771-10rmnp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188271/original/file-20171001-10771-10rmnp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Can Jagmeet Singh’s love and courage trump Justin Trudeau’s sunny ways?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And if Singh does win them back, will that simply serve to split the left, and allow the Conservatives to regain government? </p>
<p>Singh could actually win over voters that the Conservatives will be counting on. The Conservatives’ biggest gains under Harper were in the suburbs, and with new Canadians. The Conservatives lost much of those voters in 2015, but Scheer will try to win them back. </p>
<p>The Conservatives could benefit from Singh if he simply splits the left and steals votes from the Liberals. But he could also make the NDP more <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/jagmeet-singh-could-transform-ndp-from-party-of-labour-to-party-of-the-suburbs/article36339853/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&">competitive in the suburbs, and with new Canadians</a>. </p>
<p>Singh has strong ties to the suburbs of Toronto, and to new Canadians and people of colour. If the Conservatives were planning on courting these voters, Singh’s presence could throw a wrench in their plans. And Singh might be able to expand the NDP’s base beyond its traditional demographics of labour groups, and people in urban areas. </p>
<p>The NDP and all Canadians have much to celebrate today. A country that prides itself on multiculturalism finally has a major political party that is led by a person of colour, and one who has spent his career working to address issues of racial injustice and inequality. This is historic, and is a major step for equality and representation in Canada.</p>
<p>But many questions remain between now and the 2019 election. It’s clear that Singh offers a new direction for his party — and perhaps the country. How Canadians will respond to it remains uncertain.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84963/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan Dias does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Jagmeet Singh has become the first ethnic minority to become leader of a federal political party. Will his message of “love and courage” best Justin Trudeau’s “sunny ways” in the next federal election?Megan Dias, Research Assistant, Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.