Canada's New Political Reality

It's easy to get caught up in a Sports Centre version of politics where we cheer for our team, but political theory helps us go deeper and understand the new reality of Canadian politics.

Here at the Red Ensign we are committed to getting past the ebb and flow of partisan politics, cheering for our guy, for our team, doing battle with the “lies” of the other team, to look deeper at the structural dynamics of political power. We want to understand how it’s accumulated, kept and wielded. We want to approach the political in Canada with a realistic understanding of what is going on and how we should best understand and react to these realities. Theory gives us a way to pierce through the surface level discourse and the propaganda to help us understand events as they are happening. This is important because without a good theoretical framework, it is difficult to make sense of the current political moment. Why was Justin Trudeau jettisoned as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada? Why now? Why are the Liberals pivoting away from their whole agenda during the Trudeau years? If your first instinct is to think that its just another round of Liberal “lies,” you are never going to go deeper, ask the right questions, or actually understand the changing realities of Canadian politics. The truth is that we as Canadians are going to have to come to grips with a new and emerging political landscape thrust upon us by mass immigration.

One of the arguments that we make here is that populism, while it can be a vehicle for electoral victory, does not create an adequate power base for true regime change. Regimes change when there is a circulation of elites. Put simply, an healthy elite class is permeable, in that it provides a mechanism for competent people to rise up into the elite class with the potential to wield real power. This constant infusion brings energy, ideas, resources and so forth into the governing group while also at the same time bleeding the energy away from opposition to the regime. When a regime decays, generally it will ossify and begin closing off these avenues for ascension. Thus pressure builds up and the people with elite capabilities who are being held out of the elite begin to organize to displace those currently in power. This can result in very sudden, sometimes violent, circulation between the elites and the near elites. In addition to coming from below, this pressure can also come from lateral groups with their own independent power source who are vying for the main stage, so to speak.

In Canada there are three main power groups: the Laurentians, the Albertans and the Quebec Nationalists. The latter group really does not want to control the main stage in Canada, but they do act to protect their own interests on their own turf, Quebec. The Albertans have a power based in resource extraction, primarily oil, but it has not been sufficient on its own to assert long term control of the country. The western power brokers have enjoyed brief periods of electoral success through populist victories at the ballot box, but have lacked the institutional power to unseat the Laurentian’s banking and manufacturing power in Toronto and English Montreal. The Laurentians maintain a tight control of positions of power in industry, banking, law and the senior civil service. These are people who are born into the same families who all go to the same private schools and are then spattered throughout all of the key institutions in the heart of Canada. They ensure their people are elected so that their interests are represented. The Albertans, while controlling the legislature from time to time, have never managed to sufficiently undermine the Laurentian power base and its institutional control.

In theory the two major national power blocks are all supposed to be looking out for the interests of the country first. Quebec nationalism is what it is. The front facing messaging from the two major power groups is that they are the best guardians of Canada’s future. But the reality of the situation is that all three are looking out for the interests of their own power base. The Laurentians, for almost the entirety of Canada’s history, have dominated this battle, working in concert to achieve a set of objectives around their own interests. Primarily this involves enriching themselves while maintaining or extending their power within Canada. They are pro-Canada in large part because they see the country as currently constituted as the best vehicle to achieve those goals. The Albertans have, with some regularity, talked about separating from Canada so as to find a better arrangement with the US. This threat ensures that the Laurentians do enough to not give the Albertans a real impetus to actually leave. In the end, the Laurentians are pro-Canada because they see Canada as the best vehicle through which to secure their interests. Canada as it is currently constituted is good for the Laurentians.

But there is now a new power base: the immigrant.

It is worth stopping for a second and asking ourselves the “Why?” of mass immigration. There is no denying that it happened under the auspices of the Laurentian’s turn towards the “politics of meaning.”

In hindsight, much of this agenda has been foolish. Whether it originated in globalist, World Economic Forum circles, or out of a desire to be seen as a player in European elite circles, or out of a need to curry favour with American progressives, it has led to a number of policies which have been disastrous for Canada. Climate change and green energy. Carbon taxes. Diversity, equity and inclusion, Covid lockdowns, and the alphabetism of the sexual revolution.

But the biggest component of this was mass immigration. Perhaps it was do-goodism. Canada was going to help refugees and the displaced around the world. Perhaps they were going to solve the labour shortage and birth rate problems through smart immigration that would bring the best and brightest here to help drive innovation and productivity. Perhaps they thought that the immigrant populations would become a loyal client group, forever grateful to the Liberal Party of Canada for bringing them here and giving them a better, brighter future. It was probably a mix of all of these reasons and more.

But immigration hasn’t quite worked out that way. The productivity gains never came. In fact, Canada’s GDP has dropped on a per-capita basis. It has been a significant contributor to the housing crisis. It has undermined Canada’s two streams of post-secondary education, especially the vocational schools. And because of the number of single men who have arrived in the country to take advantage of these employment and educational opportunities, it has exacerbated Canada’s birth rate problem by increasing the number of eligible men in relation to the number of available women. The real kicker is that it is becoming clear that immigration has been promoted to the extent that the one time client group over which Canada’s historical political parties have fought, has now become large enough to form its own power base with its own political interests and its own in-group client base. Increasingly, they are driving political decisions.

So, Indians, the Chinese and to a lesser degree Middle Eastern Muslims have begun to work as groups to advance their own self-interest. Each group is beginning to work increasingly for the benefit of their own group, much in the way the Laurentians, the Albertans and the Quebecois work together for their own benefit. The Chinese work together as an arm of the Chinese state, which is troubling. The Indians are working together within their own clan and ethnic structures for their own benefit. Yes, there are political ties to India, but not to the same degree as the Chinese. Indians are working for their own self-interest primarily. The Middle Eastern Muslims do work together, but do not seem as tightly organized or as numerous as the Indians. Visibly, you see organization around the Palestinian issue, but not so much the kind of organized political and economic action that you see from the Indian ex-pats.

To be blunt here, Indians are not looking out for the best interests of Canada. They are trying to loot Canada and bleed the host dry. Yes, that is a harsh way to say it, but they are not looking to build things that benefit Canada and Canadians as a whole. They are not looking to make Canada as Canada strong. Generally, they are looking to work the system so as to accumulate wealth and power for themselves. They do not have a commitment to Canada as Canada, to build for the welfare for all as a vehicle for securing and extending their own interests over the long term. They are working for the welfare of their own. Full stop. This is the dynamic that is changing.

Perhaps this is the source of the recent pivot undertaken by the Liberal Party. Perhaps that is all just smoke and mirrors, the illusions of a propaganda campaign. But either way, whether the Laurentians and their political arm, the Liberal Party, understands fully what is happening, it must be understood that one of the downstream consequences of mass immigration is that instead of bringing in a client group forever loyal to the Liberal Party, a group to be exploited by the Laurentians, it appears that the immigrant groups, with Indians at the forefront, are now a new, emerging power player in their own right and they should be understood and approached this way.

As a non-Indian, a non-Chinese, a non-Middle Easterner in Canada, those of European stock including the heritage Canadians, one of the political calculations that now needs to be made is the question of containing or subverting the political influence of these groups. They represent a threat to all three of the original power bases and to the nation as a whole. If you are thinking that the goal of every Canadian should be the good of Canada as a whole, irrespective of the group to which you belong, you are going to lose this battle. If you argue that we shouldn’t think in terms of groups, but rather in terms of individuals, hiring the best person for the job, you are going to lose this battle. If you think in terms of a neutral public space where people set aside private interests for the good of all, you are going to lose this battle. If you think in terms of “diversity, equity and inclusion” or even the “meritocracy,” you are going to lose this battle. You cannot win this fight for power by emphasizing the individual or by seeking equity or by working for the good of all. All of these things will be used against you. It is like this image, but in all institutions and fields and markets.

You are seeing the good of the whole, or looking for the best individual or looking to create fairness and equity while immigrant groups, Indians in particular, are looking to place or hire their own. You are going to have do as they are doing or you will lose all of your institutions or markets to them. They are simply better at looking out for their own interests as an ethnic group. Attach whatever negative label you want to this, but you have been warned.

In industry after industry we are seeing Indians enter and they begin to hire their own. Often they are given special carve outs and subsidies. We see it now in fast food. We see it in the trucking industry where they have been able to exploit self-licensing to flood the industry with sub-standard drivers who work in near slave labour conditions at times. We see it in the motel industry. We are seeing it in real estate. Call centres. They often rely on the social caste system quietly imported from India to ensure compliance and loyalty. This creates an ever growing power base of loyal clients who are being given patronage within a clan and ethnic structure, thus providing a base of power from which the current power arrangements in Canada can be challenged. Is this from below or a lateral challenge? In the end, it may not matter. That it is happening is now undeniable.

Speculating, this might be the source of the recent pivot coming out of the Liberal Party. Justin Trudeau was shoved aside and all the current failures of the party have been put onto him as a scapegoat. Having been cleansed of their “sins,” the Laurentians are now able to begin to use the Liberal party to undermine this new threat so as to maintain their own power and position. Because of mass immigration there is now a new power player in Canadian society, the immigrant communities, with Indians in forefront. Currently they are working their way into the existing political party structure. But the threat is now real. They are no longer a client. They are power which must be accounted for.

Because of mass immigration, Canadian politics and society is going to have to become a lot more tribal in nature. It already is this way, but only one group is engaged in this way and it isn’t heritage Canadians. This will have to change and Canada will have to change as a result. It’s unfortunate, but baring a situation where these immigrant groups let go of their strong in-group identity and preferences and allow themselves to assimilate and become deracinated Canadians — I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for this because they are here now in significant enough numbers that they don’t have to assimilate — Canadians themselves will have to change. It’s not about hate. It is about prejudice. It is about bias. It’s about working for the kind of society we want to live in. Securing that will mean that we have to look out for, protect, and impose the society we want onto these immigrant communities.

None of us is going to like this change. The Albertans and the Laurentians are real power groups with real interests, but these were generally economic and political in nature. Even the French nationalist somehow never seemed to be tribal in nature, even though they are very much ethno-nationalists. It never seemed to undermine the basic character of our society as one that is fundamentally Western. This new challenge is something very much different. It really is much more familial and tribal in nature. Immigrant groups, especially Indians, will almost always place tribal and clan interests ahead of those of the larger society. Because their economic and political strength is built by means of this clan and tribal loyalty — there is no base of power beyond these tribal loyalties — limiting and quarantining their influence will mean that Canadians will have to actively work against Indians as community. Its the kind of thing no one wants to say.

And while the French have been allowed to have a strong ethnic identity, English Canada embraced a weak ethnic identity, substituting the idea of the nation of Canada in place of their ethnic heritage. Multiculturalism has been something of a weapon against French Canadians by trying to dilute the uniqueness of the strong French identity by creating a multi-ethnic Canada. The goal was to force everyone, the immigrant, the Anglos and the French together to let go of the particularity of their identity, replacing it with the idea of Canada. Instead, what has emerged is at least one, and likely three new strong ethnic identities, the Indian, the Chinese and the Middle Eastern Muslim. What this means is that Canada is emerging not as a multicultural unity, but rather as a multi-factional society based on ethnicity. Politics in this environment will, by necessity, become much more ethnic in character. This means that instead of the Albertans battling the Laurentians battling the Quebecois, all of these groups now will have to battle the Indians as well as the other ethnic communities. To do this effectively, English speaking Canada will once again have to develop a strong ethnic consciousness. This too has been muddled because of broader European immigration.

Politics is going to become much more tribal. Because Indian culture specifically is very much different than Western culture, that is, they place the success of the clan ahead of the good of the broader society, that if Canadians of Western cultural heritage are intent on being the guardians of that broader Canadian society, looking out for the good of Canada as a whole — even if this is a pretense that masks the power interests of a particular group like the Laurentians or the Albertans — they will have focus themselves not just on Canada as a whole, but actively limiting the influence of Indians and their ability to organize economically and politically as a tribe. Yes, this is discriminatory. But it is a necessity. Look back at the cartoon above. That is how it works for real. You have to have an answer for this reality. In our current way of doing things, our current attitudes, we have no answer. You have to be able to stand your ground, be organized and insist that this kind of takeover of businesses or industries or political power bases will not be allowed to happen. There is no way to avoid the reality that this is discrimination. But they build power by discriminating in favour of their own, and against outsiders. This is the heart of a strong in-group preference. We have to be able to think like that to protect our interests and the character of our nation. And if the current power brokers wish to keep their position and the country that has, until now, provided them with the best vehicle for their aspirations, then our current power groups will have see this threat for what it is and deal with it accordingly. This may explain why the Liberal pivot under Mark Carney could actually be a sign of an emerging new political reality. Or it could be all fake. But if the Laurentians are smart, it will be real.