Trudeau, of Canada, pushes politics to the left amid the coveted pandemic

He is now shifting his agenda to a higher gear, marking one of the largest left-wing movements in Canadian federal politics since the mid-1960s, political analysts and historians say, when the then liberal government introduced the universal health care and a national pension plan.

“We can choose to adopt new and bold solutions to the challenges we face and refuse to be carried away by the old ways of thinking,” Trudeau said in August, when he began making promises about a safety net. wider social and a more aggressive political environment. “This is our chance to build a stronger Canada.”

He appointed a new finance minister, Chrystia Freeland – who led Canada’s negotiations with the Trump administration on a renewed US free trade pact – to oversee the development of this new political roadmap.

Polls indicate that there is a hunger among voters – also affected by the consequences of the pandemic – for an interventionist government with a large expenditure.

“Canadians feel very insecure right now,” said David Coletto, executive director of Abacus Data, an Ottawa-based voting company. “There was already a dominant view, both on the right and on the left, that those with access to resources were doing much better than those struggling to keep their heads above water. This has only been confirmed. during the last year “.

Other analysts say Mr. Trudeau’s impetus could gain momentum from the Biden administration, given the president’s similar agenda focused on the environment and social programs. Mr. Trudeau was the first world leader to call Biden when he moved into the oval office.

President Biden and Mr Trudeau “clearly have a shared vision,” said Stewart Perst, a professor of politics at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. “They can reinforce each other, especially on the world stage.” Of course, there will be differences and setbacks, such as President Biden’s move to stop construction of the Keystone XL pipeline extension.

The Trudeau administration spent aggressively to mitigate the success of the pandemic, with Canada’s budget balance in 2020 deteriorating further among major developed and emerging economies in a tight manner. The deficit will reach a record 18% of gross domestic product in the fiscal year ended March 31. Most of the cash went to households and businesses.

Trudeau said there are more government incentives, about 5 percent of gross domestic product, to start a recovery and rebuild and expand a social safety net geared toward additional daycare spaces, better care for the elderly, and a plan to help subsidize the costs of medicines.

“We don’t just intend to go back to where we were before Covid-19,” Ms. Freeland, who is also deputy prime minister, told reporters last week. “The pandemic has exposed critical gaps in our social security network. And the virus has affected some sectors, certain groups of people, harder than others: the elderly, women, low-wage workers, young people, people of color, indigenous people.

But the push also raises concerns. Robert Asselin, a former aide to the Trudeau government, notes that costs are pushing the budget deficit to half a trillion Canadian dollars, or the equivalent of $ 390 billion, and said the government has no focus on time to generate long-term economic growth. .

“It simply came to our notice then. It’s mostly about redistributing wealth, ”said Asselin, now senior vice president of the Business Council of Canada, a pressure group that represents the country’s top executives. In comparison, Biden’s incoming administration approach also it is moving the political agenda to the left, but it has detailed strategies aimed at fueling growth in certain sectors of the economy, he said.

Among the tasks Mr Trudeau has handed over to Finance Minister Freeland, according to a letter published by Mr Trudeau’s office describing his tenure, is to introduce new taxes aimed at “extreme wealth”. Before politics, Freeland was a journalist and wrote a book about the world’s rich elite and income inequality.

The measures of the Trudeau government come at a time of greater expectation that Mr. Trudeau will seek an election already in the spring, to capitalize on strong public support for his response to the pandemic and try to negotiate with his minority government for a mandate. majority.

Trudeau returned to power in the fall of 2019 with a minority mandate, punished in part by a scandal over his office’s role in trying to intervene in the pursuit of a Montreal-based engineering company. Although Canadian election laws state that the next vote is set for October 2023, the prime minister has the authority to dissolve parliament and activate an election at will.

Mr. Trudeau’s calculation that Canadians want more government seems to be bearing fruit. Polls conducted by Abacus Data and other public opinion firms indicate that Mr. Trudeau’s liberals maintain a stable leadership over his biggest rival, the Conservative Party, as most Canadians approve of his government’s response to the fight. the pandemic.

The Liberal Party of Canada has been the dominant force in Canadian politics in the country’s more than 150-year history, in part because of its ability to measure public mood and move the political agenda accordingly. political analysts. For example, the liberals of the 1990s ruled largely from the right, as they reduced spending on government programs to address budget problems and reduced taxes to defend conservative opponents.

Kathy Brock, a political scientist at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, said Mr. Trudeau’s shift to the left, which also includes more aggressive measures to combat climate change, such as a proposed sharp tax increase on carbon, it seeks to persuade progressive voters to park their votes with the left-wing New Democratic Party or anywhere else. In the last federal election, in 2019, about one-third of voters voted for progressive parties, while two-thirds voted for Liberals or the Conservative Party.

Trudeau has downplayed the discussion about the election, arguing that its focus is on the pandemic and overseeing the deployment of vaccination.

Ms Brock said signs point to a spring vote, but that it could be raised, especially if vaccination implementation in Canada faces delays and lags far behind the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries of the Group of Seven.

A poll released Friday by the Angus Reid Institute indicated that public approval of the government’s vaccine deployment plan dropped sharply in January to 45%, from 58% the previous month. Still, Shachi Kurl, president of the institute, said frustration over the vaccination has not yet weighed on Mr. Trudeau’s popularity.

Write to Paul Vieira to [email protected]