Assessing Populism in Canada

Abstract

Populist rhetoric is understood as political language that is used to differentiate between the elites and the people, where this rhetoric calls for political power to be given back to the people. A key feature of modern Canadian populism has been its strong regional dimension, but what contemporary issues are of salience to which provincial parties has not been systematically studied in terms of populist rhetoric. Building on Pippa Norris’ international study, we unpack populist rhetoric in regions by surveying Canadian party politics experts on their perception of provincial parties’ use of this type of rhetoric. These experts perceive that half of the provincial parties use populist rhetoric in their messaging. We also break down perceptions of provincial political parties’ rhetoric on five salient policy dimensions: social and economic policies, racialized minority rights, immigration, women’s rights, and environmental protection. Our findings demonstrate how populist rhetoric in Canada has a distinctly regional variation and has been driven by the center-right and the right.