Trudeau overlooked the volcano of frustration, fear and, yes, hate that would erupt by thrusting the nation into weeks of campaign rhetoric and resurfaced wedge issues
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Whoever wins the election on Monday, they’re going to have a much tougher time uniting and leading the country than Justin Trudeau did a mere five weeks ago. Canada is now an angrier and more polarized place than when the Liberal leader made the call in mid-August. This tear in the country’s social and political fabric is the true tragedy of forcing an unnecessary vote during such a tumultuous time.
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Trudeau misread the public mood and that will have consequences. There has been much talk about of what this means for the Liberal party itself, which most likely won’t win a majority and may not even pull off a minority. But much more important is this election’s lasting effect on the country as a whole.
A Leger poll released Saturday showed that fully 71 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement “I feel this election has been more divisive and confrontational than past federal elections.” And when comparing the leaders of the two largest parties, 36 per cent agreed that Trudeau “appeared to dismiss or disrespect Canadians who held views that he disagreed with,” compared to 26 per cent for Conservative leader Erin O’Toole.
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By wrongly assuming Canadians were an overall happy bunch, elated by loosening restrictions and eager to reward him with another term in office, Trudeau overlooked the volcano of frustration, fear and, yes, hate that would erupt by thrusting the nation into weeks of campaign rhetoric, resurfaced wedge issues, and pressure to pick a side.
Polling by Ekos shows that, just four days before the election, no party was attracting more than 30 per cent of the national vote outside the margin of error. This is practically unheard of in Canadian politics and reflects a historic absence of consensus and unity. Whoever ultimately wins won’t have received votes from the vast majority of voters, and will lack a strong mandate just when it’s needed most to make tough decisions on everything from pandemic recovery to the housing crisis and foreign relations.
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Add to that the sudden surge of support for Maxime Bernier’s far-right People’s Party of Canada (PPC), now nearing 10 per cent nationally in some polls, and Canada increasingly looks like a nation that has no right to be smug about the level of political division we’ve seen to our south. Until two weeks ago, PPC support was so low that pollsters barely paid the party attention.
Bernier’s popularity rose quickly over the issue of vaccine mandates and certificates. New PPC supporters would’ve, of course, still been incensed by these policies, but they wouldn’t necessarily have been inspired to rally around a new leader and pledge allegiance to a new political party in the heat of the moment, if there wasn’t a campaign going on. Now, according to polls, PPC supporters are the most enthusiastic of all voters. They’re not returning to more centrist views or parties anytime soon, if ever.
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It’s true some of this polarization occurred throughout COVID-19, but instead of giving it a chance to cool and hopefully dissipate before becoming entrenched in the political landscape, the election lit a flame under it. While there’s blame to go around, it’s the Liberals who called the vote to begin with and then, when it wasn’t going their way, turned up the heat on schismatic wedge issues like abortion, assault weapons, and privatized health care. They also further politicized the pandemic. It was just days ago Trudeau taunted a heckler, shouting, “Isn’t there a hospital you should be going to bother right now?”
In a time when Canada needed empathy and unification, the Liberals instead chose to pursue their own goals. This early election was a bad idea for many reasons, but the worst will be the permanent scars it leaves on an already vulnerable nation.
National Post
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