The “freedom” convoy has faded into the background. The war in Ukraine, inflation, and warmer weather are top of mind. But the convoy provoked a decisive change in Canadian society and politics that will not go away.
The right wing is pumped as they successfully spurred a section of society to the right. Tory MPs supported the convoy, kicked out their “moderate” leader O’Toole and chose right-wing Candice Bergen as interim leader.
A few thousand protesters stuck a chord with millions of desperate Canadians. Deep anger and alienation existed before the convoy. For more than two years Canadians have been battered by COVID, climate disasters, economic insecurity and now inflation and a brutal war in Ukraine. The world feels very insecure and, for many, frightening.
The start of pandemic saw a mood of unity and solidarity, but millions of Canadians were worn down by governments’ COVID failures and flip-flops. Years of cuts and privatization left hospitals and seniors’ care over-stretched and breaking.
The rich and corporations got richer during the pandemic; Canada’s billionaires gained $78 billion in one year. Governments pandered to big businesses, letting them stay open without adequate protection for the workers, while workers and small businesses got hit hard. A third of workers, and half of young people, feel burnt out.
The reality is skyrocketing inflation, unaffordable housing, stagnant wages and soaring inequality. People are torn, wanting a return to normal, but also recognizing there is no normal. Increasingly Canadians, especially young people, feel dissatisfied and two-thirds fear for the future of Canada.
Grave Mistake
It is a grave mistake for the NDP and union leaders to assume that everything is back to normal since the convoy ended. All the factors behind the convoy’s support and the shift to the right still exist.
Most Canadians smugly believed that Trump and strident right-wing populism wouldn’t happen here. Socialist Alternative warned in 2019: “While compared to other countries, Canada seems quiet; yet the anger and tensions continue to grow. Like a tightly-wound spring, at some point the potential energy becomes a reality. Right populism feeds on despair and frustrations, … it is rising in Canada.”
Canada’s growing polarization has erupted with the right taking the initiative. As society polarizes, people move to both the left and the right. Unfortunately, in Canada there is no strong left-wing pole, as the union and NDP leaders fail to put forward bold policies to answer the widespread anger and alienation. Instead, the NDP is supporting the Liberal government for the next three years.
When smaller left-wing parties support larger, more centrist parties it usually results in the smaller one losing support as it gets the blame, and the bigger party claims the benefits. After the NDP’s past deals with minority Liberal governments, in 1974 and 2006, the NDP lost support. More importantly, the current deal means there is no left voice to counter the rising right-wing shouts.
The Centre Cannot Hold
Yeats, in 1919 at the start of the Irish Civil War and during the flu pandemic, wrote a poem with the line: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” The world today is in turmoil and the centre cannot hold.
Many centrist parties have lost support and even disappeared such as in Italy, Scotland and Greece. In France, the leftish Socialists and rightish Republicans dominated for decades. Yet, in the first round of the 2022 Presidential elections, their combined vote was only 6.5 percent. French society is splitting to the right and left. Far-right Le Pen won 23 percent. Left-wing Mélenchon won 22 percent. If the small far-left parties had supported him he would have beat Le Pen. The centrist Macron only got 28 percent.
Faced with a disintegrating “centre” due to mounting pressures and crises, a new right-wing populism has emerged almost everywhere. The newly vibrant and energized far right puts forward a strange brew of anti-elite pro-ordinary people rhetoric and actions that attack various “others” who allegedly are threatening a fictional normality — feminists, migrants, environmentalists, people of different religions, languages or ethnicities, or some other scapegoat. This mix, in its beguiling simplicity, is intoxicating for some, while toxic to many.
The liberals on the other hand cling to the disappearing centre, despairing of the circumstances, bewailing the loss of the past “stability” and “normality,” and looking to the future with dread. The mainstream left, leaders of political parties and most unions, prop up the failing liberals.
When the left has bold politics such as around Corbyn, Sanders and Mélenchon, it generates widespread energy and enthusiasm and demonstrates the huge potential of a radical program.
The mainstream left claims it needs to support liberals to stop the right. The idea of “lesser evilism” often does not work. In 2016 Sanders and others said they had to support Clinton to stop Trump — it failed. Even when the right is stopped such as by the Democrats in 2021, their failure to deliver real change is paving the way to a new right-wing Republican victory.
Polarization Comes to Canada
Canada has avoided the degree of polarization seen in Europe and the US, but this is changing as Canadians seek radical solutions.
The Liberals can still win elections. Most Canadians are not right-wing and were critical of the convoy. The Tories’ shift to a more strident right wing may help the Liberals in the short-term. The Liberals and the NDP will most likely win the most seats in the next federal election and proclaim their moderate politics are working. This is short-term and dangerous as society’s anger has not gone away — it will reemerge.
The weakness of the left makes the right seem strong and popular. If there is only one voice, that voice can seem strong. The right populists are filling the space with no counter from the left. Powerful unions and a party that put forward socialist policies would fill that space and gain support.
Eventually, as the Liberals run out of steam and their failures multiply, their voters will stay at home. Trudeau won in 2015 promising change, but wages are still stagnant, and rents and house prices have soared. The Liberals are the party of the status quo at a time when young and working-class people are increasingly frustrated. The populist right has simplistic answers that can have a powerful appeal. There is a real danger that without bold leadership on the left the centrist Liberals, supported by the NDP, will open the door to a right-populist government.
Face Reality
The capitalists will become more desperate as they thrash around trying to solve the multiple contradictions of their system and the fundamental contradiction between capitalism and the needs of humanity and nature. The world economy has stumbled from one recession to the next, is awash with speculative bubbles and cannot use technology to benefit humanity. War is an outcome of capitalism’s tensions and contradictions. After 200 years of capitalism’s robbing of nature, multiple ecologic systems are in danger of collapse and the world faces a climate disaster.
Capitalism is the root cause of these contradictions so solving them within capitalism is impossible. The contradictions must be overcome by humans interacting with each other and nature in a new way, based on cooperation among people and stewardship of the earth —socialism.
Workers need unions that fight for real pay raises and safe working conditions. The NDP should stop propping up the Liberals federally, and in BC enact bold working-class policies.
If the highly profitable banks, energy companies and utilities were taken into public ownership, alongside steep increases on taxes on the rich and corporations, it would unleash the wealth to provide good jobs, affordable housing and childcare, real action on the environment with a Just Transition, and decent public services. Workplace democracy would ensure safe conditions and more effective use of resources.
Building a strong working-class movement with policies that address ordinary people’s worsening conditions would cut across support for the populist right.
The first responsibility of Marxists is to face reality honestly. The world can seem a scary place. But if we can break free of the cage of capital, a safe future with rewarding work and good living standards without oppression would be available for all and society would live in harmony with nature.
If you agree with these ideas join Socialist Alternative.
