When middle-class families see little hope for their futures, the allure of âangry populismâ can take root and quickly snowball into dangerous threats against global democracy, says Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Freeland delivered the dire warning Wednesday as she accepted the award for Diplomat of the Year, presented by Foreign Policy magazine, in Washington, D.C.
In a wide-ranging speech, Freeland addressed ongoing NAFTA negotiations, her career as a journalist, the shift of global power to China, and how her government is steering Canada amid deeply uncertain times.
Freelandâs pointed comments come as Ottawa faces a new rift with U.S. President Donald Trump, who recently slammed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as âweakâ after a fallout at the G7 summit in Quebec.
Canada and the U.S. are also at odds over Trumpâs new steel and aluminum tariffs, which Canada will match July 1, and the still-fruitless NAFTA talks.
Freeland did not name Trump in her speech. But her comments shone a harsh spotlight on the populist politics that helped Trump win the 2016 election, while also challenging the U.S. presidentâs approach to trade.
On NAFTA
Before her speech, Freeland joked that, as a modest Canadian, she was âflusteredâ to have so many nice things said about her in opening remarks.
âBut fortunately I have the NAFTA talks to keep me humble, and mindful of my own limitations,â she said.
In her prepared remarks, Freeland made a direct plea to the Americans in the audience to reconsider the deal.
âAs your closest friend, ally, and neighbour, we also understand that many Americans today are no longer certain that the rules-based international order -- of which you were the principal architect and for which you wrote the biggest cheques -- still benefits America.
âWe see this most plainly in the U.S. administrationâs tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imposed under a 232 national security provision.
âWe share the worldâs longest undefended border. Our soldiers have fought and died alongside yours in the First World War, in the Second World War, in Korea, in Afghanistan, and in Iraq. The idea that we could pose a national security threat to you is more than absurd -- it is hurtful.
âThe 232 tariffs introduced by the United States are illegal under WTO and NAFTA rules. They are protectionism, pure and simple. They are not a response to unfair actions by other countries that put American industry at a disadvantage. They are a naked example of the United States putting its thumb on the scale, in violation of the very rules it helped to write.
âCanada has no choice but to retaliate -- with a measured, perfectly reciprocal, dollar-for-dollar response -- and we will do so. We act in close collaboration with our like-minded partners in the EU and Mexico. They too are your allies and they share our astonishment and our resolve.â
âNo one will benefit from this beggar thy neighbor dispute. The price will be paid, in part, by American consumers and by American businesses.â
On the rise of âangry populismâ
âAngry populism thrives where the middle class is hollowed out. Where people are losing ground and losing hope -- even as those at the very top are doing better than ever.
âWhen people feel their economic future is in jeopardy; when they believe their children have fewer opportunities than they themselves had in their youth; thatâs when people are vulnerable to the demagogue who scapegoats the outsider, the other -- whether itâs immigrants at home or foreign actors.
âThe fact is, middle-class working families arenât wrong to feel left behind. Median wages have been stagnating, jobs are becoming more precarious, pensions uncertain, housing, childcare, and education harder to afford.â
On Russia, neo-Nazis and incels
Freeland offered a brief history of the formation of the G20 and G7, and how international rules-based order came to be. And although those systems spread across the world and created positive change, the assumption that democracy was inevitable everywhere was wrong, Freeland said.
âThe saddest example for me is Russia. Even China, whose economic success in lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty is one of the great accomplishments of recent times, stands as a rebuke to our belief in the inevitability of liberal democracy.
âAnd within the club of wealthy Western nations, weâre seeing homegrown anti-democratic movements on the rise. Whether they are neo-Nazis, white supremacists, incels, nativists, or radical anti-globalists, such movements seek to undermine democracy from within.
âThe idea that democracy could falter, or be overturned in places where it had previously flourished, may seem outlandish.
âBut other great civilizations have risen -- and then fallen. It is hubris to think we will inevitably be different. Our prime minister likes to say about our country that Canada didnât happen by accident, and it wonât continue without effort. The same can be said of democracy itself.â
On the future of the middle class
âThe middle class and people working hard to join it need the security that comes from education in your youth, healthcare for your family, good jobs for your children, and dignity in your retirement.
âWe need to think about what the jobs of the future for our citizens will be, and ensure that those jobs will pay a living wage, and that our people have the skills to do them.
âPerhaps most importantly -- and this is work that would benefit from international co-operation -- we need to ensure in a 21st century in which capital is global, but social welfare is national, that each of our countries has the durable tax base necessary to support the 99 per cent.â
On fighting authoritarianism
âAuthoritarianism is also often justified as a more efficient way of getting things done. No messy contested elections; no wrenching shift from one short-termist governing party to another; no troublesome judicial oversight; no time-consuming public consultation. How much more effective, the apologists argue, for a paramount leader with a long term vision, unlimited power, and permanent tenure, to rule.
âWe need to resist this corrosive nonsense. We need to summon Yeatsâ oft-cited âpassionate intensityâ in the fight for liberal democracy and the international rules-based order that supports it.â
On the Rohingya crisis
Before Freeland spoke, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raâad Al Hussein delivered a speech that touch on the plight of the Rohingya people, who fled their homes in Myanmar last August for Bangladesh amid persecution that has been described by UN officials as âa textbook example of ethnic cleansing.â
Freeland thanked Al Hussein for characterizing the crisis as a âpossible genocide.â
âThis is an issue which is a priority for Canada. And I was glad to hear you use to words âpossible genocide.â Words matter, and it is an outrage what has happened to the Rohingya.â