Populist approaches are popular with Canadians — but not populism itself

OTTAWA — Most Canadians with a view say they don’t like the populist wave washing over much of the world, a new poll has found, even though a healthy chunk of respondents also said they support some of the same movement’s key pillars.

The poll, conducted by Pollara Strategic Insights, found that 28 per cent of respondents described themselves as either “frustrated” (10 per cent) or “angry” (18 per cent) with the concept of populist politics, while a smaller group (22 per cent) opted for the positive descriptors “excited” (four per cent) or “”comfortable” (18 per cent).

But 22 per cent of respondents said they aren’t familiar with the term, while 28 per cent said none of those words described their feelings about populism.

Many Canadians, however, are sympathetic toward some of populism’s key pillars. For example, 80 per cent of respondents said they agree that “politicians in government need to follow the will of the people,” compared to just 11 per cent who disagreed. About two-thirds of respondents (66 per cent) said they agree that “politicians should listen more to the people and less to the experts,” while 23 per cent disagreed. And 59 per cent of respondents said “the people, and not politicians, should make our most important policy decisions.”

The results of the poll, an online survey of 2,702 adult Canadians conducted in mid-October, could be good news for parties on both the left and right, more than centrists, said André Lecours, a political science professor at the University of Ottawa, because it shows there’s dissatisfaction with the status quo.

The Conservative party and its leader, Pierre Poilievre, have in recent years been criticized by some analysts for being too populist for the Canadian electorate’s tastes, but Lecours said populism should be viewed more as “a way of doing politics,” such as suspicion of institutions and intellectuals, than a set of policies.

“It’s a style of politics,” said Lecours. “I’m not sure it has anything to do with policies.”

Most Canadians, however, are “excited” or “comfortable” with the non-populist descriptors “common sense” (62 per cent), “moderate” (54 per cent) and “progressive” (52 per cent), the poll found.

But respondents also showed a modest increase in support for the broader concept of conservatism than three years ago.

Compared to a similar poll conducted in 2022, Pollara found that the sentiment for “conservative” is up a net 19 percentage points (the gap between positive and negative responses), with “populist” gaining a net 13 points and “right wing” up 14 points.

In general, the poll found that younger Canadians are more open to many of the political labels, such as “socialist,” “woke” and “populist” than older generations, although only four per cent of respondents said they were “excited” by the term populism. Younger respondents, meanwhile, showed less support for terms such as “moderate,” “pragmatic” and “centrist.”

Those words associated with ideological positions on the left or right, however, still received more negative responses than positive.

Dan Arnold, Pollara’s chief strategy officer, said more young Canadians are looking for a “disruptor,” whether that person or movement would come from the left or right, compared with older generations.

“It really feels like the biggest fissure in Canadian politics is stability versus disruptor.”

Arnold said political terms such as “populist” and “socialist” often mean different things depending on the time and place. In recent days, he said, it has been difficult not to think of populism without connecting it to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Populism has been defined in a variety of ways but generally refers to a political approach that aims to appeal and listen to ordinary voters instead of experts, the rich and other elites.

Although the term “populism” can be traced back to the late 19th century, the notion went fully mainstream in 2016 with the election of Trump and the electorate’s decision in the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. Both votes were seen as the will of the average person, despite the widespread disapproval in both cases of the political and intellectual elite.

While Trump is often seen as the face of the movement, Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, and Argentina’s Javier Milei are among the populists who have gained power in recent years. While the specific brands of populism vary from country to country, most from this era have been viewed as right wing and have adopted platforms that included nationalism and skepticism toward immigration as key planks.

But Lecours said populists, such as some of the Prairie populist parties from the early and mid-20th century, can also come from the left. The better-known Prairie populists from that era included those from across the political spectrum. From the left, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) elected North America’s first socialist government under Tommy Douglas in 1944, and then transformed into the New Democratic Party (NDP). And from the right, the Social Credit Party rose to power in Alberta in 1935 under William Aberhart and dominated that province’s politics for decades.

There were also populists from that era that mixed policies from the left and right. The Progressive Party of Canada, for example, supported market-based policies such as free trade and lower tariffs, while also advocating for public control of railways.

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