Trudeau, O’Toole and Singh are embracing left-wing populism

Now, in its final week, there has been no overarching theme characterizing this late-summer election campaign. Instead, the campaign has been dominated by a hodgepodge of disparate themes: pandemic management, vaccine passports, Afghanistan, child care, two-tier healthcare, affordability, climate change, abortion, and now gun control.

But if you dig a little further below the surface, the direction of this election campaign has been anchored in a prominent subtopic: left-wing populism. It has not only shaped party platforms, but it has also colored the partisan speeches of the three main party leaders in a way never seen in the modern era.

Progressive populism has long been the ideological terrain of the NDP in this country. Since its inception, the NDP has staunchly defended left-wing populist policies under a succession of leaders with limited political success. The late Jack Layton campaigned aggressively against the high cost of ATM fees and promised to limit credit card interest ratesBut these policies did not resonate beyond the party base and were almost universally derided by the Canadian establishment as superficial.

But in this election campaign, progressive populism enjoys widespread appeal among Canadians of all political persuasions. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has taken advantage of this new reality, recently promising to expand the “Health tax” to include thousands more Canadians with assets worth more than $ 10 million.

Taxing the rich is an all too familiar refrain for the NDP, but one that will have a particular resonance in this election campaign. Last month, Abacus facts conducted a national public opinion poll to explore attitudes and opinions about tax fairness in Canada. the poll found that 62 percent of Canadians believe the country’s tax system is unfair, while only 14 percent believe it is fair.

The poll also found strong support for raising taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations, with a huge 89 percent from the public that supports the introduction of a wealth tax paid by Canada’s wealthiest citizens each year.

The Abacus poll also found that fiscal equity has become a politically potent issue in this country, with 89 percent of Canadians responding that they would definitely or likely consider voting for a party that promised to take real and concrete action.

Interestingly, Abacus found that no leader or party enjoys a clear advantage when it comes to fiscal equity, inequality, and affordability. These findings are intriguing, as they demonstrate that parties seeking to meaningfully address fiscal equity and income inequality issues in the election campaign will attract strong support from across the political spectrum.

The fact that no party is seen as a leader on these critical issues has presented an opportunity for the party’s top three leaders to take up the mantle of advocating for left-wing populist policies this campaign.

Ironically, this new prominence of progressive populism could ultimately hurt the NDP, as the party’s main opponents unscrupulously seek to deflect traditional NDP votes on highly charged issues related to affordability and economic inequality exacerbated by the pandemic. of COVID-19.

The first out of the gate on this front has been conservative leader Erin O’Toole. Although he won the race for the leadership of his party by appealing to right-wing populists Among his party rank and file, O’Toole has increasingly swapped right-wing populism for a left-wing populism more palatable to mainstream voters. O’Toole now defends union rights and denounces “bad” trade deals with China that subjugate workers.

Opinion: In this election campaign, progressive populism enjoys widespread appeal among Canadians of all political persuasions, writes @andrewaperez. #cdnpoli # elxn44

The Conservative leader never misses an opportunity to remind voters He is the son of a General Motors worker who grew up in the manufacturing town of Bowmanville, Ontario.

O’Toole’s platform features a myriad of left-wing populist proposals, including a promise force large federally regulated companies to appoint at least one worker representative to their board of directors, and a promise to change the law so that when companies fail, workers do not lose their pension benefits.

These policies come after a year-long effort by O’Toole to attract unionized workers who have traditionally supported the NDP. Over Labor Day weekend, O’Toole launched a new video message directed explicitly at these workers, where he expanded on his party’s already impressive commitments to organized labor.

In the video, O’Toole promised that his government would modernize Canada’s Labor Code, introduce a new tax credit for construction workers to help offset the costs associated with relocating to work, and vowed to increase sick leave benefits. paid for workers battling serious illnesses. .

It’s a playbook taken directly from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who won a dominant majority government in 2019 by appealing to working class citizens who were previously reliable Labor voters, but who had become increasingly culturally conservative.

Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party, traditionally the Bay Street party and big business, has also embraced progressive populism in this election campaign. At the end of August, the Liberals promised intervening in the banking sector on behalf of consumers through a series of platform engagements that would focus on banks’ profits and commissions, and would aim to strengthen customer support.

Among the new proposals of the party is the promise to impose a three percent surcharge on earnings in excess of $ 1 billion earned by the largest Canadian banks and insurance companies. These financial institutions would also have to pay a special fee called “Canadian Recovery Dividend” over a four-year period starting in 2022. These measures are aimed directly at recovering some of the large profits Canada’s largest financial institutions have done so throughout the pandemic.

Liberals have also set their sights on the profitable real estate industry, announcing a policy set last month that would make homeownership more affordable for the middle class, including banning the controversial practice of “Bid blind.” The party has also announced a rent-to-own program that would put Canadian tenants on a solid path to homeownership, while total ban Foreign investors to buy residential properties in this country for the next two years.

These bold policies have already drawn the ire of influential industry groups that have long been heard by liberal governments. the Canadian Bankers Association and the Ontario Real Estate Association Both harshly criticized the party’s new corporate income tax and housing proposals, but their public statements drew little support beyond their members due to an electorate increasingly less receptive to the interests of big business.

So why the seemingly precipitous rise in left-wing populism in this year’s election campaign?

The rise of progressive populism

The lure of progressive populism in Canada is not so recent. In fact, it predated the pandemic, dating back to the 2015 elections, when Trudeau’s third-place Liberal Party chose to outflank Thomas Mulcair’s NDP in the center-left in its commit to modest deficits as a means of stimulating the economy and creating better opportunities for the middle and lower middle class.

Since then, the Trudeau liberals have run widening federal budget deficits with little or no political repercussions.

Another factor has been the speed rise of democratic socialism south of the border, played by the charismatic Bernie Sanders, a veteran senator from Vermont. The fact that Sanders secured a competitive second place in the Democratic presidential nomination races in 2016 and 2020 has had an indisputable impact on our political discourse and helped normalize the political appeal of left-wing populism.

The pandemic has only exacerbated economic inequalities in Canadian society, highlighting income and wealth inequality. These new economic realities point to the growing attraction of progressive populism among a broad cross-section of Canadians. The almost universal appeal of a wealth tax and other bold fiscal measures is confirmation of this relatively new economic and political reality.

The mostly fiscally conservative coalitions of voters who elected successful political leaders such as former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien, former Progressive Conservative Prime Minister of Ontario Mike Harris and former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper simply no longer exist in 2021. More than 40 years after his rise, the political appeal of Reagan-Thatcher small-government conservatism is nearly dead among mainstream Canadian voters.

It must be recognized that Trudeau, O’Toole and Singh understand this new political and economic reality. As a consequence, everyone is building up new coalitions of voters who recognize the primacy of progressive populism in our society.

As Canadians look to the Parliament they will elect on September 20, it seems increasingly likely that, regardless of its configuration, the next federal government will implement an economic agenda that is the most progressive and populist of the modern era. As our country struggles to emerge from the longest public health and economic crisis in generations, that prospect alone is promising if we are to engineer a lasting post-pandemic recovery.

Andrew Perez is a Toronto-based public affairs professional whose work includes government relations. Over the past decade, he has worked in a variety of public and private sector settings advising senior leaders on communication strategies in their interactions with governments and the media. Pérez has volunteered for various political campaigns over the years for the federal and Ontario Liberal parties and remains politically active.

You can follow him on Twitter @andrewaperez.



Reference-www.nationalobserver.com

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