Extract from The Guardian
Exclusive: Canada’s
prime minister tells the Guardian why, in a world where populism,
divisiveness and fear are on the rise, he’s taking the opposite
approach
Ashifa
Kassam and Laurence
Mathieu-Léger in Ottawa
Thursday
15 December 2016 21.30 AEDT
Ordinary
people around the world have been failed by globalisation, Justin
Trudeau has told the Guardian, as he sought to explain a
turbulent year marked by the election of Donald Trump, the Brexit
vote and the rise of anti-establishment, nation-first parties around
the world.
“What
we’re facing right now – in terms of the rise of populism and
divisive and fearful narratives around the world – it’s based
around the fact that globalisation doesn’t seem to be working for
the middle class, for ordinary people,” the Canadian prime minister
said in an interview at his oak-panelled office in the country’s
parliament. “And this is something that we identified years ago and
built an entire platform and agenda for governing on.”
Last
year, at a time when Trump
was being described as a long shot for president and the
threat of Brexit seemed a distant possibility, Trudeau, 44, swept
to a majority government on an ambitious
platform that included addressing growing inequality and
creating real change for the country’s middle class.
If we can show you can have growth that works for everyone … that diffuses a lot of the uncertainty, the anger
Justin Trudeau
One
year on, what has emerged is a government that seems to go against
the political tide around the world; open
to trade, immigration and diversity and
led by a social media star whose views on feminism, Syrian
refugees and LGBT
rights have provoked delight among progressives.
But
as he enters his second year in power, Trudeau – a former high
school teacher and snowboarding instructor – is under pressure to
show the world that his government has found an alternative means of
tackling the concerns of those who feel they’ve been left behind.
He
cited the
signing of Ceta – the free trade deal between the EU and
Canada – and a hotly contested decision
to approve two pipelines as examples of this approach.
“We
were able to sign free trade agreement with Europe at a time when
people tend to be closing off,” he said. “We’re actually able
to approve pipelines at a time when everyone wants protection of the
environment. We’re being able to show that we get people’s fears
and there are constructive ways of allaying them – and not just
ways to lash out and give a big kick to the system.”
Canada
has not remained immune to such pressures, he said – despite what
the fresh wave
of interest in migrating to the country in the wake of
Trump’s victory and the Brexit vote would suggest. “I think
there’s a lot of people saying ‘oh well, Canada is a special
place,’ and we are,” said Trudeau. “But we are subject to the
same kinds of tensions and forces that so much of the world is facing
right now.”
Trudeau
said he is keenly aware that the world is watching. “I think it’s
always been understood that Canada is
not a country that’s going to stand up and beat its chest on the
world stage, but we can be very helpful in modelling solutions that
work,” he said. “Quite frankly if we can show – as we are
working very hard to demonstrate – that you can have engaged global
perspectives and growth that works for everyone … then that
diffuses a lot of the uncertainty, the anger, the populism that is
surfacing in different pockets of the world.”
In
January, Trudeau’s government will face off against its greatest
challenge to date: a Trump presidency. When it comes to US
relations, few
countries have as much at stake as Canada – last year saw
nearly three-quarters of Canada’s exports head to the US while some
400,000 people a day cross the shared border.
Justin
Trudeau: ‘We are subject to the same kinds of tensions and forces
that so much of the world is facing right now.’ Photograph: Chris
Wattie/ReutersTrudeau’s father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Canada’s
prime minister during the late 1960s, 70s and 80s, once
likened living next to the US to sleeping with an elephant.
“No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can
call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt,” he told
the Washington Press Club in 1969.
Nearly
five decades on, his son is poised to weather what will probably be
one of the toughest tests of this sentiment. The prime minister and
the president-elect seem to have little in common; Trudeau is a
self-described feminist who appointed his country’s first
gender-balanced cabinet, while Trump’s campaign saw more
than a dozen women come forward with allegations of sexual
misconduct. Trudeau has sought to champion trade deals such
as Ceta, while Trump has threatened to rip up Nafta and bury TPP.
The
contrast was captured last December after Trump and Trudeau
catapulted into global headlines within days of each other over their
response to the Syrian refugee crisis; Trump, who had called for
a temporary
ban on Muslims entering the US, suggested that families
fleeing war could be Isis infiltrators; Trudeau, in contrast was
at the Toronto airport to greet the first wave of the tens
of thousands of Syrian refugees airlifted to Canada in the
past year.
Trudeau
skirted past these differences, instead highlighting the links that
bridge both administrations. On Syrian refugees, for example, Trudeau
pointed to underlying concerns around security. “Certainly in a
world where terrorism is a daily reality in the news, it’s easy for
people to be afraid,” he said. “But the fact is that we laid out
very clearly – and Canadians get – that it’s actually not a
choice between either immigration or security, that of course they go
together.”
The
two governments are also keen to create policies that address those
who feel that globalisation and trade have failed to benefit the
middle class and those working to join it, said Trudeau. “There are
differences in the policies, the solutions for it, but I know that
when we talk about making sure there are good jobs for the middle
class, that is a place where we are going to be able to find
agreement and alignment on.”
A
silver lining for Trudeau may lie in Trump’s pledge to resurrect
plans for TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline. When the
Obama administration rejected the plan last year, Trudeau said in a
statement he was “disappointed” in the decision. When Trudeau
called Trump to congratulate him after the election, the two briefly
spoke about Keystone, said Trudeau, adding that it remains to be see
how the US will move forward with plans for the pipeline.
When people finally realise it’s a tremendous opportunity to lead on climate change, Canada will have a head start
Justin Trudeau
Any
reluctance to move forward on climate change south of the border
could be a boon for Canadian companies across various sectors, said
Trudeau. “I know Canada is well positioned to pick up some of the
slack and when people finally realise that it’s a tremendous
business opportunity to lead on climate change, Canada will already
have a head start.”
But
he also cast doubt on Trump’s ability to completely derail US
efforts towards combatting climate change. “You know quite frankly
at the subnational level in the United States, states, municipalities
are already showing that they understand that climate change is real
so that the potential for the federal government to ease off on
actions is not total,” he said.
Trudeau
has previously said he was ‘disappointed’ in Obama’s decision
to reject the plans for TransCanada’s Keystone XL
pipeline.Photograph: LM Otero/AP
Last
week’s announcement
of a national carbon price is a key part of Trudeau’s
environmental policy – one that has been derided by
environmentalists for enabling the expansion of fossil fuels,
compensated by initiatives that include investments in clean tech and
promises to phase out federal subsidies for oil and gas companies.
The policy saw Trudeau recently approve
a liquefied natural gas project in British Columbia as well
as two pipelines that will offer Alberta’s oil sands nearly a
million barrels a day in increased capacity.
The
approvals have sparked broad
opposition among environmentalists, some First Nations and
several of the communities affected by the planned infrastructure
projects. “There is a number of people out there who’ve always
[believed] if you stop pipeline, you stop the oil sands,” said
Trudeau. “Well, actually as we’ve seen, it doesn’t work that
way and what we end up with is much more oil by rail.”
The
discontent has chipped away at Trudeau’s unprecedented
political honeymoon, along
with revelations of fundraisers that offered
access to Trudeau and his ministers for a price,
a government decision to push forward with a C$15bn ($11bn) deal
to sell
weaponised military vehicles to Saudi Arabia amid
outcry by human rights organisations as well as speculation that his
government is moving away from a
promise to reform the country’s voting system. Still, recent
polls suggest that were
Canada to hold an election today, Trudeau’s team would earn an even
greater proportion of votes than they did last year.
The
government’s environmental policy takes a long view on the
transition to a carbon-free economy, said Trudeau. “It’s not
going to happen in a day, or in a week, but it will happen over years
and perhaps a decade or two,” he said. “I know there are people
out there extremely passionate about the environment, who don’t
think I made the right decision on approving a couple of pipelines.
But I think that everyone can see at least what it is we’re trying
to do and that we’re consistent with what I’ve always said which
is, you protect the environment and you build a strong economy at the
same time.”
The
double-barrelled approach, said Trudeau, echoes his government’s
broader effort to address the tensions currently wreaking havoc on
the political status quo around the world. “People get that we need
jobs, we need a protected environment,” he said. “On the other
hand, if people have no jobs, if they have no opportunity, they’re
not going to worry about protection of the air and water if they
can’t feed their kids.”
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