Canada votes Liberal in response to Trump’s threats

The Canadian parliamentary election on Sunday witnessed the return of Liberals to power in the face of the threat posed by United States President Donald Trump, who has been trumpeting his intention and desire to make Canada the 51st state of the United States. It would be difficult to label President Trump as a conservative because he does not display the restraint and realism that one associates with conservatism. He is on an adventurous spree, a dangerous kind of political adventure.

Till a few months ago, the Liberals were set to lose the election because they had been in power for 15 years, and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau turned out to be a wimpy liberal unable to resist the pressures of rising divisive politics at home. And the economy was in a tail-spin of sorts.

Trudeau depended on Mark Carney, who served as the Governor of the Canadian central bank. He was earlier the Governor of the Bank of England. (It is to be noted that Canada is part of the British Commonwealth, and the British Crown appoints the Governor General of Canada.) When Trudeau had decided to step down as leader of the Liberal Party, Carney was his preferred choice. It turns out that Carney has been the right choice.

It is rarely the case that liberals can beat conservatives, either at home or abroad in the face of assertive and intrusive nationalism of the Trump kind. The Canadian Conservatives were in a better position to beat back the Trump threat. And the Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre struck the Trump note in his campaign when he raised the slogan of “Canada First” to counter Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA).

But the Canadians who were put off by the uncouth populism of Trump had decided to vote for a tough liberal like Carney. The Canadians were not happy with a weak liberal like Trudeau, and it seemed that a weak liberal meant weak liberalism. But Carney’s tough position on politics and free trade showed that people are looking for the right kind of liberal, and they were in no hurry to jettison liberalism per se.

Carney’s strong post-election victory statement was predictably triumphant when he reasserted the liberal credo. He said, “Canada is ready to take a leadership role in building a coalition of like-minded countries who share our values. We believe in international cooperation. We believe in the free and open exchange of goods, services and ideas. And if the United States no longer wants to lead, Canada will.”

Carney’s statement can be described as euphoric, over-optimistic. But it is a necessary gesture. Trump and his supporters believe that if the United States were to flex its muscles, the other democratic and liberal countries would shiver and cower.

Carney had made it clear that there are other claimants to the leadership of the democratic, liberal world. Canada may be too small in terms of its economy and population to be able to lead the liberal democracies. But Carney’s statement showed that if the United States vacates its liberal space, then there are others who are ready to step in. Surprisingly, Britain’s Labour Party and Prime Minister Keir Starmer is sounding much too diffident to stand up to Trump’s political arm-twisting.

Political observers are now looking to the Australian general election next week, and the Canadian poll result has given rise to the hope that the Labour Party will come back to power in Canberra. If the English-speaking democracies like Canada and Australia were to go the liberal way, then the Americans would have to reconsider their choice of Trump’s populist politics.