As governments across Europe and the United States have been taken over by far-right parties, it becomes increasingly clear that centrist and progressive politics have failed to address the expanding inequality of the last four decades. This inequality has been effectively documented by scholars, including Thomas Piketty and Mark Blyth.
Here in Canada, the centrist Liberals are struggling in the polls and voters are moving toward the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC). Polls have shown for some time now that the next government in Canada will likely be a Conservative majority.
The Liberal decline reached new levels recently with the resignation of key ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. Freeland stated that she and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were ‘at odds about the best path forward’ in relation to the United States President-elect Donald Trump’s ‘aggressive economic nationalism.’
This divide came to the fore after Trudeau quickly flew to Florida to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, after the President-elect threatened a 25 per cent tariff on all imports from Canada and Mexico. Commentators have suggested such tariffs would rip the Canadian economy apart.
The U.S. 2024 election demonstrated the extent to which centrist and progressive politicians have lost touch with how many and how much working-class voters are struggling. The financial crisis of 2008 was a key turning point for workers and many have never effectively recovered from it.
Here in Canada, the governing Liberals and New Democratic Party continue to tinker around the edges of inequality. This was alluded to by Freeland in her resignation letter. All the while, the Liberal brass fail to recognize what voters really need are new financial approaches that will stem the tide of the movement of wealth upward.
In times of expanding inequality, the impoverished will follow any politician offering change. We saw this coming out of the Great Depression. There was a strong desire to secure the world economy after both World Wars, in part because of the dangers of wealth moving upward.
During the last decade, however, centrists and progressives alike continually fail to grasp that many voters have reached the point of ‘anything must be better than this.’
Here in Canada, Liberals are now pointing to reduced Goods and Services Taxes, rebated cheques, and the Canada Dental Program as proof they understand people’s needs. However, access to publicly funded dental care should not be seen as something to brag about in a G20 country, in 2024.
During the last decade, centrists and progressives alike continually fail to grasp that many voters have reached the point of ‘anything must be better than this, writes Lori Lee Oates
That program is not saving money for the working class. It’s providing a service that they have been doing without for decades now. Having your teeth cleaned a couple of times a year will do little to address the rage that comes with decades of lost dreams and shrinking social mobility.
While rebate cheques can mean a lot to the working class, they do not come close to addressing the decline in the value of wages during the last four decades.
With all due respect to Trudeau and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, they have been fiddling while Rome burns. Canada is home to some of the worst corporate concentration in the world in the food sector. Little to nothing has been done to address this.
Housing costs have become untenable due to poorly planned immigration policies, designed to give the corporate world access to a cheap army of reserve labour. Voters of all stripes and demographics feel this in their pocketbooks and when they cannot sleep at night.
For almost a decade now, the governing Liberals have relied on identity politics to paint themselves as the true progressives. This ignores the fact that what disadvantaged groups really need is a living wage.
Pretending to care about the marginalized, while failing to address issues of class, is disingenuous at best, and voters sense that lack of authenticity. Despite what politicians may think, voters are not stupid. We know when there is less money in our wallets, and we know when there is not enough.
The far-right is happily engaging in populism. The closest thing we’ve seen to a real left-wing economic populism on the North American continent has been Bernie Sanders. Notably, the Vermont Senator’s candidacy was stamped out by the Democratic Party establishment in the United States.
In 2024, American Democrats actually ran on being the party of democracy while failing to hold a real presidential primary. Kamala Harris then proceeded to seek Republican endorsements, rather than address the concerns of the Democrats’ historical working-class base.
Here in Canada, both the Liberals and NDP are also failing to meet the moment. Where is the tax on wealth that has long been recommended by the best-selling economics text of this century? That would be Thomas Piketty’s Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century.
The NDP proposed a wealth tax in the House of Commons, while the Liberals worked with the CPC to vote it down.
Where is the windfall tax on oil companies and grocery retailers?
Where is Universal Basic Income? The Employment Insurance program is so problematic that the Canada Emergency Response Benefit program had to be developed on an emergency basis to keep people from losing their homes during a global pandemic.
Where is long-promised pharmacare?
Where is the serious plan to meet Canada’s commitments under the Paris Accord, as Canadian communities are destroyed by fire and flood?
Where is access to affordable post-secondary education?
It is no longer sufficient to blame these problems on global conditions. Frankly, to do so looks weak at a time when voters are looking for bold moves.
Getting there will require politicians who are willing to draw their power from working- and middle-class voters, rather than corporate donors.
It is no longer enough for Liberal politicians to just say they are for Canada’s middle class and those working hard to join it.
It’s time to actually prove it.
Lori Lee Oates is a teaching assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her research and teaching focus on social inequality, resource economics, and climate justice.
This post was originally published on here
