Trump populism comes to Canada as Conservatives seek leader

Yahoo News ^ | 29 Dec 2016 | Andrea Hopkins

[mandaladon]

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's answer to Donald Trump is a pediatric surgeon and former cabinet minister who, like the U.S. president-elect, is railing against immigration and political elites.

Kellie Leitch, 46, has vaulted to the front of the race to lead the opposition Conservative Party by pushing a hard-right "Canadian values" platform that taps into discontent over the sluggish economy and Canada's acceptance of 37,000 Syrian refugees.

Leitch is ahead of about a dozen candidates in the most recent opinion polls on the Conservative leadership election, scheduled to be held on May 27, 2017. The candidate chosen by party members will be their flag bearer for the October 2019 general election, against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals.

"Elites pretend this isn't an issue, but Canadians want to talk about it (immigration)," Leitch said in an interview last week from her farmhouse in rural Ontario.

She has professed admiration for Trump's embrace of the ordinary voter, and acknowledged similarities in their agendas.

"I am talking about screening immigrants, I am talking about building pipelines, I am talking about making sure Canadians have jobs, so yeah, some of the ideas and language are the same," said Leitch, an energetic and plain-spoken former labor and women's affairs minister.

Just as Trump did not initially have the backing of mainstream Republicans, Leitch has alienated many in her party establishment who fear that she will struggle to win Canada's urban, mainly immigrant, voter base in the general election.

One of the reasons why the Conservatives had managed to hold power for almost a decade was their successful push into immigrant communities under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who had convinced the party that rising immigration made newcomers a must-win constituency. Canada takes in about 300,000 immigrants every year.

[mandaladon]

"There is absolutely room for a populist surprise in Canada," said pollster Frank Graves of EKOS Research. "The type of forces driving Brexit and Trump are very much at work in Canada, albeit somewhat more muted." Canada is waking up!

[mandaladon]

Like Trump, Leitch has been accused of being racist and targeting Muslims with her proposal to make every immigrant go through a face-to-face interview before letting them in. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Amazing how the liberals think the same way regardless of where they live...

[PGalt]

HOORAY Canada!!!

People all over the world can throw off the shackles of their elitists/criminals/socialists/scumbags/tyrants/totalitarians.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyT9jTW7MHc

HOORAY Mr. Donald Trump
HOORAY Deplorables

[AlaskaErik]

You know the liberal press hates her because they used a very unflattering photo in the article.

[captain_dave]

[Peter Libra]

You know the liberal press hates her because they used a very unflattering photo in the article.

I thought that much of the American liberal press were devious and lacking even basic integrity. The old admonition by those who like fair play is ignored. This being "give the man a chance". Surely a President elect deserves at least this? Then I took a good look at the Canadian press. This includes the two monoliths CTV and CBC. The number they did on former Prime Minister Stephen Harper was an incredible exercise in controlled propaganda.

Today, even they have exhausted their worship of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Not disillusioned, but tired of parroting the same old lines. Kellie Leitch one tough woman and she needs to be.