With the inauguration of President Donald Trump and the launch of several Liberal leadership races all occurring in the span of a week, it’s hard not to notice the stark Canadian deficit in political energy.
Monday saw Trump sworn in with yet another speech heavy with populist and nationalist notes. The most dreadful Trumpisms to Canadian observers across the political spectrum — talk of 51st states and the potential absorption of Canada into the union — were thankfully omitted, a result of either happenstance or diligent work by certain Canadian premiers in smoothing down feathers that have been ruffled on both sides of the border.
The trade story is far from over. Trump renewed an announcement from last week that he will soon be bringing into existence an “External Revenue Service” to tariff and tax other counties, a foil to the reviled Internal Revenue Service that taxes Americans. And as far as Canada goes, he’ll begin by teeing off an investigation into trade and currency slights (also under the scope will be China and Mexico). That’s better news for us than the immediate slamming-down of 25 per cent tariffs.
But what stuck out to me, after watching three campaign launches by three Liberal candidates in quick succession, was Trump’s ability to centre average people without worshipping averageness. It’s something that our politicians seem to struggle with on the Canadian side.
Trump’s inauguration speech made for a good sampler. He made reference to Americans of all races, ages and creeds; of Americans past: “They were farmers and soldiers, cowboys and factory workers, steel workers and coal miners, police officers and pioneers who pushed onward, marched forward and let no obstacle defeat their spirit or their pride.”
And speaking of the past, it was a point of pride, not shame.
“Our American ancestors turned a small group of colonies or the edge of a vast continent into a mighty republic of the most extraordinary citizens on Earth,” he said.
“They crossed deserts, scaled mountains, braved untold dangers, won the Wild West, ended slavery, rescued millions from tyranny, lifted billions from poverty, harnessed electricity, split the atom, launched mankind into the heavens and put the universe of human knowledge into the palm of the human hand.”
But instead of leaving it at that, he was able to piece those vignettes of American middle-class life into a bigger, ambitious picture. He presented the United States of the next four years as one that will retake what it’s unfairly lost, at least according to him. On the strategic front, the Panama Canal (the canal was built by the U.S. and given up in 1977; China now owns two of its five terminals). On the common-sense values front, an ideology-free military, as well as merit, colourblindness and even the notion of biological sex.
On the symbolic front: Trump plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which isn’t all that out of the ordinary, considering that the Sea of Japan is simply the “East Sea” in South Korea; he also plans of reverting the name of Alaska’s Mount Denali (which only gained that name in 2015 at the wish of the Obama administration) to Mount McKinley, named for the turn-of-the-century president.
And finally, somewhere between strategic and symbolic, are Trump’s ambitions for space: “we will pursue our Manifest Destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”
Trump is sure to include the regular Americans as the foundation of his grander ambitions — the baseline to a rising melody. Contrast him with our prime-ministers-hopeful, who give us … just baseline.
On Thursday, Mark Carney talked — between hockey references signalling his ordinary Canadian origins — about the plight of regular people (under future Conservative rule), about “communities where people come together to face challenges in support of one another,” about threats to “livelihoods from Fort Mac to Fort Smith,” about that “change that works for people.”
On Sunday, during her campaign launch in Toronto, Chrystia Freeland made a point to thank the regular users of the venue, “my bosses, the kids and the teachers of the St. Albans Boys and Girls Club”; she praised Canadian neighbourly generosity in tough times.
Also on Sunday, Karina Gould extolled “Canadian values” and called herself a grassroots candidate. Her prior announcement video, taken in a pleasant-looking middle-class neighbourhood of single-family homes, took on a relatable tone with a script that, as usual, spoke of community hockey rinks and soccer pitches, maple-leaf backpacks, stereotypical Canadian foods and “helping your neighbours shovel their driveway after a snowstorm.”
Each person lining up to become prime minister — at least until the next election — had their own way of honouring regular Canadians (as they should). But what they lacked was a vision for anything more, for new achievement in the Dominion of Canada. Freeland and Carney both boasted this country is the best in the world. Gould focused more on potential. All of them spoke of improving the economy. But none of them can name any symbol they aim to restore or any strategic gain they hope to make.
Even Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre only gets part of the way there. Yes, he wants to “axe the (carbon) tax,” “build the homes” and repeal C-69; he’s also spoken favourably about opening the “Arctic gateway” through Manitoba’s Port of Churchill and reviving the dream of the Energy East pipeline. And he does it all while demonstrating a sombre awareness of economic struggle and the loss of morale it’s caused — and respect for the people feeling it.
But how about restoring symbols, like the recently renamed Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway in Ottawa, now “Kichi Zībī Mīkan”? And cutting out the anti-common-sense legislative machinery, like repealing the anti-merit Employment Equity Act and Canada’s identity-based rules in the Criminal Code?
A nation’s ambitions must extend beyond tax cuts, red tape reduction and recognizing the virtues of regular people, as important as these things are. The U.S. is figuring this out, and so should we.
National Post