Canada a progressive exception to global Conservative trend?

[mileslunn]

I was wondering if anyone has any idea why Canada seems to be moving leftward while everywhere else is moving rightward.  I have a couple of thoughts but would have assumed a few others would follow but other than maybe Portugal, trend is murky or opposite everywhere else.

More urbanized than most, higher rates of post-secondary education, more diverse and built on immigration as well as weak class system are some I can think of.  I am not surprised nationalism hasn't taken off in Canada like elsewhere, but it does seem the whole class warfare thing has gained more traction in Canada than elsewhere despite the fact gap between rich and poor is pretty middle of the pack.  Likewise on social issues, it seems in Canada, we aren't just socially liberal, we expect everyone to be too and less tolerance for those who are not.  In the 90s, balanced budgets were popular while it seems things have flipped as many European countries have balanced budgets, but any talk of that in Canada is politically damaging.  Otherwise it seems a lot of Canadians want a big activist government like Northern Europe has, but countries with such government want to move away from it, while in US some want this, but not a majority like in Canada. 

Any thoughts on this or do others see the results elsewhere in a different light.  It was traditionally thought that US was more conservative, Canada similar to Australia and New Zealand, while Europe more left wing, but today I would place Canada is more left wing than all of those.  Even with Liberals being more a social democratic party than centrist unlike in 90s, Tories are stuck in 30s while combined right wing vote in almost all other Western democracies is usually in the 40-60% range, not low 30s.  Otherwise most are either split 50/50 or more on right than left while Canada is quite lopsided towards left with 2/3 left wing 1/3 right wing.  Off course you have exceptions in Canada like Alberta which votes more heavily right wing than just about every other Western country.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Canada also remember moved rightward when everyone else moved leftward in the late 2000s so maybe Canada is just the opposite

[mileslunn]

Canada also remember moved rightward when everyone else moved leftward in the late 2000s so maybe Canada is just the opposite

Certainly true in relation to US.  Since 2000 unlike last century, usually our prime-minister has been of opposite stripe of US president, but in Europe, its been mostly centre-right governments pretty much at all times this century.  True left wing win periodically, but last time left outnumbered right was 2000, mind you back then more traditional centre-right types not more populist right types.

[Hatman 🍁]

We're not that progressive; almost all the provincial governments are conservative right now. Canada is very much a centrist country. We don't do extremism.

[mileslunn]

We're not that progressive; almost all the provincial governments are conservative right now. Canada is very much a centrist country. We don't do extremism.

True enough although in most cases right gets in 30s when loses and 40s when wins, but unlike elsewhere only crosses the 50% mark frequently in the Prairies.

But that might explain why right wing populists like PPC haven't taken off here unlike elsewhere.  Still Liberals have under Trudeau moved left, but its true provincially a lot are right wing.

[DC Al Fine]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_ban_on_religious_symbols

Eh...

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

In some ways, Canada seems to be the last bastion of liberalism. It's relatively immune to populist surges from both the left and right.

[mileslunn]

In some ways, Canada seems to be the last bastion of liberalism. It's relatively immune to populist surges from both the left and right.

I would say true.  On the left, a lot of the rhetoric of taxing rich more is used by Trudeau and so you do see some of it, but Tories also give nods to right wing populist ideas, but you are right both are careful to not go too overboard.  At the same time no talk about massive expansion in the welfare state although NDP do but not Liberals and no party talks about nationalizing certain industries like Corbyn has or ripping up free trade agreements (which you see populist parties on both sides elsewhere talking about).

[Pericles]

New Zealand does have a left wing government also and Jacinda Ardern isn't as tainted as Trudeau, but perhaps overall canada is more left-wing. It's hard to tell.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

"global conservative trend"

First off, there is no such thing. There has been a fracturing of political parties in most countries, which has weakened a lot of traditional Soc Dem or Labour parties, but any "conservative trend" is an imagined one. Global trends in general are a ridiculous journalistic invention that are only designed to pad out op-eds (especially because when they invariably go awry, the hack never has to admit his dumb theory was wrong, just that Country X has "subverted the trend". I certainly cannot see some global rise of people demanding "smaller governments" (because austerity is generally extremely unpopular across the board and has to be at least masked with some electoral treats).

Second, Canada is not "trending left" (whatever that means).

Third, please explain how the existence of Doug Ford, Jason Kenney and Francois Legault fall within your hypothesis.

Essentially the Canadian Right (in terms of immigration) looks different than the European Right, because Canadians have a different concept of how ethnicity relates to citizenship than Europeans (a change which you can see reflected in how the official party of Canadian nationalism (the LIberals) conducts themselves vs the parties that have made up the postwar European order (the soc dems, the national liberals and the Christian democrats). It also is different from the United States because it lacks a giant border with a developing country. Furthermore it suffers from a deep regional, cultural and ideological linguistic split between the two biggest potential sources of a "populist right" movement.

[crals]

Aside from everything else that has been said conservatives have just won the Canadian popular vote...

[Hatman 🍁]

Aside from everything else that has been said conservatives have just won the Canadian popular vote...

Which means nothing in this discussion, because they still won a minority of the vote.

[parochial boy]

"global conservative trend"

First off, there is no such thing. There has been a fracturing of political parties in most countries, which has weakened a lot of traditional Soc Dem or Labour parties, but any "conservative trend" is an imagined one. Global trends in general are a ridiculous journalistic invention that are only designed to pad out op-eds (especially because when they invariably go awry, the hack never has to admit his dumb theory was wrong, just that Country X has "subverted the trend". I certainly cannot see some global rise of people demanding "smaller governments" (because austerity is generally extremely unpopular across the board and has to be at least masked with some electoral treats).

Shoot me, but I don't think it's entirely correct to just dismiss any "global trends" narrative. I mean, obviously not the simplified narrative peddled by the media; but there are certain tendencies that most western countries do tend to share - in particular the economic effects of globalisation, which are tending to lead to a network of succesful service-oriented (usually) major cities; with the parts of those countries that are outside of the "network" tending to struggle.

This obviously leads to differing reactions in different countries; but there are certain factors that probably are generalisable to a degree - such as the breakdown of traditional class and party loyalties; differing issue saliences between the "left behind" and the "globalised" areas and so on. The way these turn out in electoral politics obviously then still hugely relies on various underlying sociological, economic, ethnic whatever factors. But I don't think it is right to totally discount the fact that economic globalisation has led to a number of dynamics occuring across the west that resemble each other in certain ways that didn't used to be the case - and part of that has been electoral success for parties peddling a nativist/nationalist or even anti-elistist rhetoric.

But yeah, to talk out some great "right wing" trend is clearly wrong. The left may have self-destructed in the likes of Italy and France; but it is still pulling in 40-45% of the vote in Germany; is at broadly the same level it has been since the 1980s in the UK; and is winning electoral majorities in Spain and Portugal (and we just elected our most left wing parliament ever *ahem*). The main difference is that it split over a greater range of parties.

[crals]

Aside from everything else that has been said conservatives have just won the Canadian popular vote...

Which means nothing in this discussion, because they still won a minority of the vote.

There was a swing in their favour though, so Canada is hardly moving leftward

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Aside from everything else that has been said conservatives have just won the Canadian popular vote...

Which means nothing in this discussion, because they still won a minority of the vote.

There was a swing in their favour though, so Canada is hardly moving leftward

Given Trudeau's massive scandal shortly before the election and the populist-left party making a push against him, it seems hard to extrapolate too much from this cycle.

[Hatman 🍁]

Yeah, you can't make grand assumptions based on one electoral cycle.  If you want to know how the country is trending, it's best to look at how opinions shift over time rather than how individual parties do.

[Mr. Smith]

AMLO is, a few disappointments aside, definitively to the left of EPN.

Duterte is definitely no conservative, despite the same crass manner of speaking as Trump.

Italy is always shifting around.

And of course, there's NZ with Ardern too.

[Intell]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_ban_on_religious_symbols

Eh...

Quebec is basically French politics.

Also who the fyck is a legault-trudeau voter and how does that work?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Mexico has an actual left of center government. Argentina and Italy aren't to Canada's right.

[DC Al Fine]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_ban_on_religious_symbols

Eh...

Quebec is basically French politics.

Also who the fyck is a legault-trudeau voter and how does that work?

Hmm, good question. Might have something to do with the 'throw the bums out' tone of the last Quebec election. Maybe one of the other Canadian posters knows?

[mileslunn]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_ban_on_religious_symbols

Eh...

Quebec is basically French politics.

Also who the fyck is a legault-trudeau voter and how does that work?

There aren't many of them.  Reason Tories massively underperformed CAQ is a lot of CAQ voters went to the BQ so actually majority of Legault voters are Blanchet federally.  BQ is centre-left while CAQ centre-right but labels somewhat misleading as both depending on policy lean right on some issues, left on others so its less clear cut than in other provinces.

[Flyersfan232]

I mean they move to the right just  the Canadian tories got poor leadership a stronger leader could have won that electiob

[Del Tachi]

Canada also remember moved rightward when everyone else moved leftward in the late 2000s so maybe Canada is just the opposite

Certainly true in relation to US.  Since 2000 unlike last century, usually our prime-minister has been of opposite stripe of US president, but in Europe, its been mostly centre-right governments pretty much at all times this century.  True left wing win periodically, but last time left outnumbered right was 2000, mind you back then more traditional centre-right types not more populist right types.

Yes, because a surprisingly large part of Canadian national/political identity is derived from the contempt and insecurity of having so much in common with a country as powerful and controversial as the United States.  Canadians spend an ungodly amount of time trying to come out with reasons why they are not like Americans, or, just as often, why Americans are worse.  This is in spite of the fact that Canada and the United States are the world's two most similar countries; their residents speak the same language, eat the same foods, watch the same television shows, celebrate most of the same holidays, and share the same customs of daily life.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I'm inclined to say that Germany became much more polarized with the concurrent rises of the AfD and the Greens. If anything, western Germany is moving to the left, while eastern Germany is moving to the right.

[Kingpoleon]

Global political trends is a pseudoscientific phenomenon.

I'm inclined to say that Germany became much more polarized with the concurrent rises of the AfD and the Greens. If anything, western Germany is moving to the left, while eastern Germany is moving to the right.

What about south Germany? It may be that my study of German politics, being predominantly based in the 1871-1932 period, has given me an antiquated view of German political culture, but I seem to think of Germany as Northern, with the subsections or West/East, and Southern - Baden, Wurttemberg, and Bavaria.