Dial down the rhetoric and turn up the volume on conversation to bridge the seemingly deepening political and community divide, say pollsters, analysts, and politicos, even if some say a consensus on the issues of vaccine mandates and the trucker protest isn’t necessarily possible.

“We’ve seen for years now, declining trust in government,” said Brad Graham, vice-president at the Institute on Governance.

According to a Feb. 16 Edelman Trust Barometer report, trust in government currently sits at 53 per cent, a decline of six points from the year prior.

Since the 2008 financial crisis and with the growth of social media, “there’s been a polarization of political rhetoric that tends to create camps and bases,” Graham said.

Most recently, faith has been shaken by the trucker convoy protests, which started in Ottawa and spread to cities like Toronto and Windsor. A large-scale police operation cleared downtown Ottawa streets of a more than three-week occupation of protesters over the Family Day long weekend, after a public order emergency was declared under the never-before-enacted Emergencies Act on Feb. 15 by the Liberal government.

But according to a survey from Maru Public Opinion, the effects on the Canadian consciousness may be long lasting, with 71 per cent concerned that this is how protests will be run in the future, “with trucks and rigs for hire [there] to extract their demands,” and 62 per cent saying they’ve lost faith in the ability of the country to keep peace and a good government in place.

A Feb. 4 study from the Angus Reid Institute also found that 37 per cent of Canadians feel there is no longer room for political compromise.

Conservative MP  Chris d’Entremont, pictured, right, with Mel Arnold, left, on Oct. 5, 2021, says polarization in Canada is a late leftover from the U.S. The Hill Times photograph by Sam Garcia

“We need to do a better job in Ottawa from all sides, whether it’s the way government paints things or how the opposition tries to bring issues to the fore,” said Conservative MP Chris d’Entremont (West Nova, N.S.). “I’ve seen a lot of this polarization left over from the States—we’re sort of a year late.”

On Jan. 6, 2021, there was an insurrection in the U.S. with protesters attacking the nation’s Capitol Building.

However, Dan Horner, an associate professor at Ryerson University whose research focuses on activism and protests, warned that “Canada has to own up in some way to the fact that there’s always been a very organized political right in this country.”

“The danger is, could an event like [the trucker convoy], could this serve as a powerful recruitment tool” for the far-right, he asked.

To come back together, there needs to be a fight for “symbolic terrain,” said Carolyn Gallaher, professor and senior associate dean at the American University School of International Service in Washington, D.C. This, in her view, means controlling the narrative, making it clear what Canada stands for and not letting the convoy use “concepts of liberty to define themselves. They’re wrapping themselves in the kind of swag of ‘we’re oppressed.’”

“I’m not so naïve to ever think there’s going to be total peace in the political landscape,” Graham emphasized. “There’s always going to be heated political debate, but we have to find ways to talk about bigger issues and explore options and to listen to Canadians on all sides, as opposed to just jumping into divisive rhetoric or ideological posturing.”

This sea change comes from the top, said David Coletto, CEO and founding partner of Abacus Data.

“A lot of people take their cues from leadership … and so they have some responsibility in not antagonizing,” he said.

Degree of polarization not defined or concrete, says Environics director

“The Liberals and NDP are not going to negotiate with people who occupy towns and who want the government to be deposed,” said Stephen Saideman, Paterson Chair in International Affairs at Carleton University, referencing retracted calls from protest organizers to form a committee with the Governor General and Senate to repeal COVID-19 restrictions.

“It’s not clear to me that we’re as polarized as a number of commentators have said we are,” said Andrew Parkin, executive director of the Environics Institute for Survey Research. He pointed to the vaccination rate in Canada, which sits at 81 per cent as of Feb. 21, as indicative of people largely being in support of pandemic measures.

“I think one way to come together is to acknowledge that we’ve stuck together and not to let the events in Ottawa and the border crossings and so on, not to misunderstand what they represent, not to assume that they represent a fundamental cleavage in Canadian society,” Parkin said. “It represents a big problem, but not a schism where one half of Canadians are yelling at the other half.”

Abacus Data’s David Coletto, pictured in Ottawa in March 2020,says that by now, the voices of the protesters have been heard. Photograph courtesy of David Coletto

The protesters have also had a chance to voice their misgivings, Coletto said. He noted that democracy means you can voice your opinion and influence a policy decision, “but you don’t always win.”

“To believe [the protesters’] voice hasn’t been heard now is false … it’s hard to find compromise with a group that’s calling for the overthrow of a government and the complete removal of COVID restrictions.”

Conservatives, Liberals may both shoulder blame for division: partisans, pollsters

“What COVID has done in terms of disrupting people’s lives is it’s worn out and stressed social bonds,” Gallaher said.

While she said she doesn’t get the impression that most Canadians support this convoy—a feeling backed up by a Feb. 10 Global News Ipsos poll that indicates 54 per cent of the public don’t have any sympathy for the truckers—her main concern is that the Conservatives may feel pressure to address these “convoy people” in their constituencies, meaning a shift further to the right.

This shift’s already happened, Saideman said.

“[The Conservatives] are embracing a far-right nationalist movement that has appeared in town … the voices we’ve been hearing from lately are people … like Pierre Poilievre who is clearly further to the right.”

Conservatives like Ottawa MP Pierre Poilievre (Carleton, Ont.) have expressed support, while others like MP Jeremy Patzer (Cypress Hills–Grasslands, Sask.) have taken photos with organizers, or even in the case of interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen (Portage–Lisgar, Man.) and Marilyn Gladu (Sarnia–Lambton, Ont.) sat and ate pizza with protest participants. However, on Feb. 10, the federal Conservatives reversed position, with Bergen requesting in the House that truckers take down barricades and stop “the disruptive action.”

Most recently, caucus members like MP Mark Strahl (Chilliwack—Hope, B.C.) have debated fiercely over the use of the Emergencies Act, the confirmation of which was supported in a 185-151 vote on Feb. 21, with pointed comments towards Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) over who is to blame for the division in the country.

“The prime minister’s made a purposeful political choice to create the division we see in this country today,” Strahl said in the House Feb. 17. “He called them a ‘fringe minority with unacceptable views,’ as if being a prime minister or being a Liberal gave him a monopoly on what acceptable views are.”

This rhetoric started during the last election campaign, and came to a head on Sept. 6, 2021, when gravel was thrown at Trudeau during a campaign stop in London, Ont., said John Wright, executive vice-president of Maru Public Opinion.

“Rather than try and deal with that dynamic and understand the angst that these people are going through, the prime minister continues to wedge them into a corner,” Wright said. “I think the rhetoric has been to castigate a group of people who are then lumped in with the People’s Party of Canada, rather than seeing people who have lost their jobs, who can’t go to restaurants or other places.”

“He’s created an interconnected, funded ecosystem that did not exist a month ago,” he continued.

Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman says you can’t ‘other’ Canadians. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

“What you can’t do is drive a division by saying that everybody on either of this is a racist, a misogynist, an other, you can’t ‘other’ Canadians,” said Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman (Thornhill, Ont.).

Coletto did not blame either party, instead noting that it’s just how politics is played, and that everyone had some role in encouraging this polarization.

He said he also does not see the incentives for this polarization to end with upcoming Ontario provincial elections, a Conservative leadership race, and a minority Parliament that means at any point a federal election could be called.

“We’ve created a dynamic in this country that rather than come together and try to understand each other in a meaningful way [all that] has been tossed aside by cheap politics,” Wright said.

achen@hilltimes.com

The Hill Times