With the recent election of Doug Ford as the leader of the PC party of Ontario, many are questioning if this means that populism has come to Canada and what this may mean for Canada. An article in Macleans from Mark Milke discusses why we may not have caught this earlier. His reasoning lies in the fact that Canadians are rarely able to express their preferences. He claims that the reason for this is because elections are not sufficient for people and referendums help people feel their voice is heard more often.
This lack of feeling they have a voice is what causes many people to flock to a candidate that they feel represents them. Often this results in populist candidates who appeal to the so called ‘silent majority’ of the population. This is what makes it so difficult to spot populist parties and candidates before they become popular. Because the people are underrepresented by establishment candidates, they are ignored until a candidate comes along that gives them a voice.
This creates an interesting take on Populism as a symptom of the political establishment not representing all of those within the country. This also creates interesting questions such as what does this mean for the future of populism? Will the establishment be able to adapt and better represent all of their people or is populism an invevitability as no one can represent everyone?
http://www.macleans.ca/opinion/why-people-never-see-populism-coming/
Democracy is Dead! Long Live Democracy! 