Canada’s Right Is Moving Further Right—And Closer to the U.S.
In late January, Tucker Carlson visited Canada, meeting with influential Canadian politicians and political commentators. Speaking at an event hosted by Alberta premier Danielle Smith, he mocked Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in front of thousands of Canadian spectators. But why did a media personality known for courting the far right in the U.S. visit Canada to comment on its politics? And why did he have such a strong support base there?
Canada and the United States have different forms of government but close political ties. But for decades, U.S. commentators have struggled to parse out the ideological differences, for example, between Canadian Liberals and Conservatives, as they don’t align with the ideological differences between U.S. Democrats and Republicans.
Since the 1980s, though, the right in the United States and Canada has worked to strengthen its relationship. More recently, far-right groups in both countries have found common ideological ground that helps empower right-wing leaders and supporters in both countries.
In the mid-20th century, Canadian political leaders worked to create a national identity that was independent of Britain and the United States. Canadian conservativism had long defined itself in opposition to the United States and its imperialism, while the Liberal Party had traditionally encouraged economic integration and cooperation between the two countries.
That changed when nationalist movements in English Canada in the 1960s broke from this tradition, and Liberal leaders also worked to craft an identity in opposition to their southern neighbor. They criticized the imperialism and racism in the United States that they claimed did not exist in Canada and encouraged economic distancing between the two.
Just as Canadians were forging a new sense of national identity, Americans became more interested in Canada’s internal politics. Liberal Pierre Trudeau was elected as Canada’s Prime Minister in April 1968 and became the country’s first leader to reach a “celebrity” status outside the country.
But Trudeau encouraged distancing Canada from the United States, not just in ideology, but in economic ties. While the U.S. had an embargo against Cuba following the Cuban Revolution, for instance, Trudeau strengthened ties between the country and Canada, declaring “Long live Cuba and the Cuban people, long live Commander Fidel Castro.”
Yet it was not his socially progressive policies, economic partners, or even romantic partners (he briefly dated Barbra Streisand, 23 years his junior) that got the most U.S. attention. In October 1970, Trudeau made headlines across the world after he gave the federal government the power to suspend civil liberties under the War Measures Act for the first time in peacetime. Under this Act, Trudeau declared a state of “apprehended insurrection” in Quebec after Members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped the deputy premier of Quebec and a British diplomat, and after hundreds of bombings and robberies around the province that left six people dead.
