Democracy Is Under Siege Globally. Canada Is Being Tested
Democracy Is Under Siege Globally. Canada Is Being Tested
How the well-honed playbook for whipping up authoritarian populism is being employed here and around the world.
If the polls hold, Pierre Poilievre will be our prime minister and Donald Trump will be ruling the United States, which — according to the Orange One’s own words — will no longer be a democracy. Trump will act as a dictator on “Day 1,” he’s declared on Fox News. According to the world’s most indicted politician himself, a U.S. Trumpocracy will run along the lines of strongman Viktor Orbán’s increasingly undemocratic Hungary. Announcements, Events & more from Tyee and select partners Watch This Play about How a Fox Helped a Family Grieve Watch This Play about How a Fox Helped a Family Grieve
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Poilievre makes no such claims of course. But if he wins along with Trump, both countries will be part of the worldwide drift towards hard-right agendas tinged with authoritarian contempt for democratic institutions including a free and fair press.
The tactics for steering ships of state sharply starboard are similar around the globe, having changed dramatically in the last 30 years. Today’s political campaigners, particularly on the populist right, rely far more on attack ads and tearing down one’s opponent rather than presenting one’s own plans for the country. Brilliant polling is done to find out what issues people react to emotionally. And the internet is played like an algorithmic Wurlitzer to convert whipped-up fears into devotion to cult-like leaders.
That’s one of the reasons that outside influence on democracies has become such a burning issue around the world these days, including here in Canada.
Although the Conservative Party of Canada initially singled out and hyped Chinese foreign interference in Canadian politics, largely because it made the Liberals look bad, the CPC has been strangely quiet about China since the federal government granted Justice Marie-Josée Hogue a two-month extension for her inquiry into foreign interference in Canadian elections. The inquiry’s initial report is expected to be tabled on May 3.
That's an interesting bit of fear mongering.