Trade war spurs nationalism in Canada
The Canadian response to US President Donald Trump’s trade war is a case study of how nationalism can deflect criticism from the local ruling classes and paper over some of society’s class tensions. The overall result is a more right-wing environment in which dissatisfaction with the cost of living has collapsed into support for Canadian nationalism.
Trump’s America First plan is to realign international economic and political relations to benefit the US. In the Canadian context, Trump is using the country’s reliance on the US economy to extract political and economic concessions.
The tit-for-tat tariff war began in late January with the announcement of 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Trump’s deceptive justification for the tariffs, laid out in a White House Press release, was to crack down on undocumented migration and fentanyl smuggling. In response, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau beefed up border security and used the situation to deflect anger at the cost-of-living crisis away from the government.
Trump’s moves have provoked a wave of nationalist sentiment.
Formerly despised politicians are now lauded as national heroes. Just before Trump took office, Trudeau, a major advocate for austerity, had an approval rating of just 20 percent, according to a Guardian poll—down from a high of 65 percent. Pierre Poilievre, leader of the re-branded far-right Conservative Party of Canada, who was often dubbed “Trump Lite”, was leading in the same poll with 45 percent support.
Now, their fortunes have reversed—the Conservatives are trailing in the polls after previously being considered shoo-ins to win the next election. And according to a new survey, published by Nanos in March, “dealing with US President Trump” is the most important issue for Canadian voters, ahead of the economy. That is also a shift—previously, the cost of living was front and centre as the most important issue.
Although Trudeau stepped down from the leadership of the Liberal Party shortly into the Trump presidency, his public perception has also turned around because of his vocal opposition to the tariffs. His successor, Mark Carney, a former investment banker, is capitalising on the shift in fortunes and has called a snap election.
Formerly pilloried corporations have received a similar public rehabilitation. The “Buy Canadian Instead” campaign, for instance, was launched and backed by the grocery store mega-conglomerate Loblaws, which until recently was most known for having to pay a $50 million fine for price fixing. The Buy Canada campaign has proved lucrative: in the first week of February, CEO Per Bank told analysts that there had been a 10 percent uplift in sales of Canadian products.
This hasn’t done anything to solve the cost-of-living crisis, of course. But it gave the bosses an opportunity to pull the unions into a joint campaign to protect the interests of Canadian capitalists.
A press release from the Business Council of Canada announced the newly formed Canada-US Trade Council, which brings together “industry, unions and experts” to “secure [a] competitive business environment for our future”.
Even the supposedly social democratic New Democratic Party couldn’t sit out the nationalistic festivities. Party leader Jagmeet Singh has announced a plan to re-shore the production of F-35 fighter jets and new investments in “arctic sovereignty and defence”.
Fourteen CEOs representing Canada’s largest oil, gas and pipeline companies have petitioned the government to scrap certain environmental protections. They cite the urgent need to expand the energy sector to protect Canadian national sovereignty.
In the global environment of increased economic and national competition, nationalism spins a narrative that workers and companies share common interests.
It’s a scam to distract people from domestic inequality and exploitation, and will do nothing to ease living costs. Consumer prices, already under significant inflationary pressures, will continue to rise for working-class people, and the new intensely competitive environment will put more pressure on the Canadian ruling class to hammer through austerity, ramp up military spending and destroy existing environmental and workplace regulations.
The trade war is not about defending the standards of working-class people in each country; it’s about which national group of bosses will come out on top. Socialists should build solidarity across borders and oppose all attempts to impose the costs of the trade war on workers.
