February 6, 2025
Nationalism is what governments fall back on when things are bad. And this is what Justin Trudeau is now saying — “oh, we do have a country, it is Canada.” But having gutted and removed some of its essence over the years, we’re now in a bit of a pickle, David Polansky suggests.

How Canada gets its groove back: Advice from a friendly American

Political theorist David Polansky says Justin Trudeau has it wrong: Canada does have a core identity. ‘It’s a gorgeous country. It’s a stable country’

“Canada really is a fundamentally rich country that has chosen not to act like one for 10 years,” says political theorist David Polansky.

If you ask the average Canadian — “Are you ashamed that you’re an oil and gas giant and have all these incredible minerals?” — the answer is no. But it’s a sentiment that’s dominant among the governing class, David asserts, and “that governing class is not very representative.”

David, an American now living in Toronto, writes on geopolitics, international orders, nationalism and state-formation and is senior fellow at the Institute of Peace and Diplomacy. He studied at the University of Chicago and the University of Toronto to investigate the future of nation-states in an increasingly uncertain world. Turns out, figuring out the good and the bad of nationalism, patriotism and populism — in an era of Brexit, Russian ambition and Trump 2.0 — wasn’t an academic exercise.

“Canada is the third foreign country I’ve lived in,” David shares in a recent conversation; he’s also lived in China and Italy. That’s a fair amount of bouncing around for a 43-year-old, I think to myself, but he seems settled. His wife hails from Montreal and together they’ve decided Toronto is a good place to call home and raise their kids.

David’s been paying close attention to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s experiment with Canadian identity. Both of us wince recalling Trudeau’s infamous 2015 statement to the New York Times: “there is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada” and consequently that “makes us the first post-national state.” A few years later, when I questioned Trudeau’s heroic defence of a post-nation world (and consequential neglect of his own country) in a commentary for the CBC, the CBC itself and a whack of like-minded progressives cancelled me.

Read It All…

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments