One of my projects this summer is to put together a new course for the fall. It’s an interdisciplinary course called ‘Questions for Our Time’ and I convinced the powers-that-be that ‘Is democracy in danger?’ would be a pretty timely question in the Fall of 2024.
A couple of weeks ago, as I was working on the syllabus, I started to worry that I was catastrophizing. How silly would I feel on November 6 if Biden was re-elected and there was a peaceful transition of power?
Today, I’ve got a long list of things I’m worried about, and that isn’t one of them!
Between last week’s presidential debate and today’s US Supreme Court ruling, it’s pretty clear that all that stands in the way of the US turning into some kind of authoritarian regime is one frail elderly man.
To help students in my course imagine how democracy might fail, I’m turning to fiction (or, better yet, series based on fiction). I’ve been re-watching The Plot Against America and The Handmaid’s Tale. I was struck by the role Canada played in both: the liberal haven offering an escape for people threatened by the regime.
I suppose there’s a symmetry that a country founded in part by the United Empire Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution should be seen as an escape route for Americans caught up in other revolutionary moments. The haven Canada offered draft dodgers in the 1960s and 70s is a more recent precedent, and likely the one that has Americans checking our immigration rules on election nights.
Are we the stable haven liberal Americans imagine us to be? We have avoided the grotesque assault on women’s reproductive freedom that various US states have unleashed once Roe v Wade was struck down. Our courts remain relatively non-political and the rule of law is in pretty good shape.
But it’s fantasy to imagine that we will be unchanged by an America governed by Trump. We weren’t immune to the erosion of norms in his first presidency, though our version has been more modest. His presidency and the transformation of the Republican party under his leadership have influenced Canadian conservatism, both in substance and style.
And the notion that Canada would have the capacity to defy the authoritarian giant next door is simply laughable. We would be Finland and they would be Russia. We could be a haven for those fleeing only if the United States wanted us to be.
So happy Canada day. Let’s appreciate what we have and hope we can hold on to it in turbulent times.
The USSC decision that Presidents are not subject to the law casts a shadow here in Alberta as our Premier has claimed she can ignore Federal Legislation she doesn't like. It's not the criminal law as the US Supreme Court addressed but, when the rule-of-law is ignored what is left but anarchy and rule of the strongest?
I am 83 and live in Victoria, BC. But I'd love to audit or attend this class you are preparing. It will lead to a fulsome discussion and debate about Canada's future. Reading this column I could not ignore what Pierre Trudeau said about Canada sleeping with an elephant. If that elephant rolls over, we're hooped. The subject of this class needs to generate detailed discussion about Canada and the USA. Too many of us have forgotten the warnings from Noam Chomsky back in the 60s and 70s. Apathy was a killer in Germany, 1932-33, it is a clear and ever present danger in Canada today.
Continuous sigh.
Cliff Boldt, Victoria