I had a phone conversation the other day with a friend I rarely see. A Canadian by birth, Jon has worked for many years outside of the country, first in Britain and then in United States, where he now resides. Whenever he calls, our conversation inevitably turns to his country of current residence; we both abhor what has happened, and agree that fascism has arrived there.
I told him that even though we have the Trumpian element here, (apparently, about 25% of Conservative supporters like Trump) political sentiments on the whole are far less extreme and far more sane than in his country. Unfortunately, I may have spoken too soon.
PP, or Trump lite, is sounding more and more like the fascist, echoing his language and aims in two key areas.
[T]he federal Conservative party ... has released a new petition taking aim at DEI and what it calls “bloated” bureaucracy and “identity checkboxes.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre sent the link out to his X followers on Thanksgiving Monday, imploring them to sign on to end DEI and “restore the merit principle.”
There’s even a new slogan from the party that brought you “axe the tax”: “DEI spending and government waste needs to DIE,” the petition reads.
As we know, Herr Trump has taken it upon himself to end DEI in his country, playing upon the popular, and essentially racist, assertion that such programs hire those who are less qualified than white people, thereby essentially discriminating against the 'beleaguered' white race. I won't bother explaining why this is a foul canard, but if you don't believe me, do your own research from reputable sources.
The second play from the Trump playbook is PP's stance on birthright citizenship.
Poilievre also endorsed what another Conservative MP, Michelle Rempel Garner, was preaching — an end to birthright citizenship. Or, as Poilievre called it in another post, “birth tourism.”
Again, there’s an echo from one of Trump’s first executive orders on taking office.
“The privilege of United States citizenship is a priceless and profound gift,” the order states, going on to explain that citizenship would not be conferred to any child born in that country to a mother or father not lawfully present in the U.S. or there on a temporary basis.
“Canadian citizenship is a honour and privilege, and it must always be treated as such,” Poilievre said in an Oct. 10 post on X, formerly Twitter.
The racists amongst us will refuse to believe that
[n]either of these seemingly Trump-inspired initiatives by the Conservatives are scourges in Canada. Fewer than 1,500 of the nearly 400,000 children born in Canada in 2024 were born to mothers whose residence was outside Canada. Railing against diversity, equity and inclusion may get some politicians votes, but it can also play into backlash against immigrants — which the Conservatives always hasten to point out, they’d never do.
There can also be consequences for stoking this ugliness:
... in the words of Greg Lyle, a much-respected pollster from Innovative Research, all these echoes of Trumpism from Conservatives in Canada amounts to “playing with fire.”
Lyle sent me a couple of slides from his big post-election survey, showing that nearly three quarters of voters who believed it was time for a change in Canada also agreed that Poilievre sounded and acted too much like Trump. That sentiment was actually shared by more than half the poll respondents, who included Conservative voters.
PP knows he is popular among young men. However, if his purpose is to stoke even more discontent with their lot in life, he should also reckon with the fact that older people tend to be the larger demographic in voting, and that younger people are less enthused about going to the polls. Canada's Mini-Me may find that there is a heavy price to be paid for his repugnant political calculus.
