The Left Has Failed To Confront Canada’s Resurgent Right

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Canada, like many capitalist democracies, is lurching to the right. The radical right is now mainstream, with its agenda of hate and austerity exerting growing influence on the political centre.

A new book edited by Miriam Edelson seeks to understand the genesis and methods of the radical, extremist right, and encourage models of resistance. Confronting The Resurgent Right, out this month from University of Manitoba Press, brings authors and activists together to probe the challenges posed by the right and to chart a path forward.

This week, I sat down with Edelson and contributors Barbara Perry and John Clarke to discuss the book.

Edelson is a writer and editor living in Toronto. Her literary non-fiction and personal essays have appeared in Canadian newspapers and various literary journals in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, and on CBC Radio.

Barbara Perry is a professor in the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities at Ontario Tech University, and the director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism. In 2024, she was named to the Order of Canada in recognition of her work in the field of hate studies.

John Clarke was an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty for 28 years. He currently facilitates a course for union and community activists.

Adam King (AK): First, congratulations on putting together a remarkable volume. The book covers a wide range of critical issues and challenges us to think about how right-wing politics are reshaping Canadian society in deep and disturbing ways.

Miriam, you write in the introduction to the book that the so-called “Freedom Convoy” was the impetus for this project. Can you tell readers how the anti-lockdown politics of those early days of the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the right and why this inspired you to undertake this book project?

Miriam Edelson (ME): I would say that the anti-lockdown politics were part and parcel of the right, a right that was deeply influenced by conspiracy theories circulating in the United States about the danger of vaccines, among other issues. Playing upon the vulnerabilities of Canadians during a confusing time, the right was following up on its smaller “United We Roll” pro-pipeline convoy that had descended on Ottawa three years prior.

I was aware of these conspiracy theories and had experienced a couple of antisemitic incidents which caused me to be attuned to the rise of the right. But what truly stopped me in my tracks and was the impetus to this book project was seeing the trucks rolling into Ottawa in 2022 sporting swastikas and Confederate flags. I was appalled and felt the need to do something, somehow, to counter this movement. I knew I could not tackle this alone.

At that point I began to cast about for others who might feel similarly threatened by the convoy. Over time, I came up with the list of authors found in the book — people from many different perspectives and backgrounds who were willing to answer my two main questions: How to account for the rise of the right in Canada, and what can we do collectively in our communities to resist the right’s resurgence? Essentially, that is how the book came together and it is unique in that voices from the academy are interwoven with voices from social movements to create a compelling whole.

AK: A theme that runs throughout the various contributions to the book is how right-wing politics have been mainstreamed. In some cases, the right draws on longstanding tropes and in other instances it inserts itself into new debates and pulls our politics rightward. Racism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia all play a role, as do defences of settler colonialism and attacks on workers and the poor.

How do you explain the right’s growing influence?

Barbara Perry (BP): There are so many factors at play here. When I’m speaking with community groups I generally identify half a dozen or so “flash points” that are especially important in helping to understand why this past decade has been so fertile for hate mongers to gain traction.

We can’t say enough about the impact that [United States President] Donald Trump and his minions have had on shaping and enabling hateful sentiments and consequently hate-fuelled actions. They have vilified most communities that they consider to “deviate” from their very narrow norms: queer people, people of colour, non-Christian religious communities, of course newcomers, feminists, liberals, and the list goes on. This has been mirrored by some political figures in Canada, particularly through the People’s Party of Canada, and certain elements of Conservative parties at both the federal and provincial levels. Regardless of which side of the border these narratives come from, they have had the effect of rendering the expression of bias and bigotry acceptable, and even preferable to what they see as “pandering to special interests,” or in other words, “wokeness.”

We have also seen considerable backlash against recent Black and Indigenous activism in defence of their communities’ safety — or lack thereof relative to law enforcement — and in defence of treaty rights. Consequently, racist hostility to these communities has grown considerably. The current Alberta separatist movement, for example, has exploited anti-Indigenous sentiment, claiming that it is Indigenous activists that have stalled their momentum.

In the context of COVID, of course, we saw a rise in expressions of anti-Asian hate and in antisemitism. Both Asian and Jewish communities were held to be responsible — in different ways and for different reasons — for the onset and spread of the virus. In more recent years, there has also been a dramatic increase in the targeting of South Asians, that is often meshed with anti-immigrant hostility. [...] A final point to highlight is the rise in hate directed toward queer communities, and especially trans communities. The recent institutionalization of anti-queer, especially anti-trans, narratives into policy in Canada is indicative of an environment that lends permission for parallel sentiments and action in the broader public. The 2020s have seen waves of anti-queer and anti-trans protests across the country, many of them thinly veiled as claims to “parental rights.” Resistance to gender-inclusive curricula, drag story time or other programming for youth that centre trans and queer identities has been framed as vital to the protection of “our” children. This is buttressed by the use of offensive and hurtful language that often resurrects age-old stereotypes of queer people as “pedophiles,” “groomers,” or “child abusers.”

AK: John opens his chapter with an important point. He writes, “If we consider the financial crisis and Great Recession from 2008 to 2010, the sluggish recovery and intensified austerity that followed it, the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and the cost of living crisis that has developed in its wake, the past 15 years can be seen as fertile ground for an upsurge in the far right.”

Can you say a bit more about how you think the various crises of capitalism have contributed to the right’s growth, and why you think the left has failed to provide a compelling alternative?

John Clarke (JC): I would say that ever since the financial crisis and Great Recession of 2008-2010, the conditions have existed to foster and perpetuate a mood of reactionary rage.

The enormous shock of that crisis has gone over to ongoing economic sluggishness within which points of sharp crisis have emerged, such as the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis that followed it and Trump’s turn to protectionism and trade wars. The sense that things are bad but that catastrophe threatens has been engendered at every turn.

This situation has involved increasing hardship for a major impoverished section of the working class that has fostered embittered conclusions and the quest for an enemy within that the far right exploits. A feeling on the part of sections of the middle class that their state of relative privilege is under attack produces similar sentiments. The fact that mainstream conservative parties have pandered to such ideas has only given them more opportunity to take root.

On the left, we see a marked decline in the influence of radical anti-capitalist currents and the increased readiness of trade unions and social democratic parties to retreat before or even collaborate with a dominant political agenda that seeks to impose the burden of the protracted social crisis on workers and communities.

Gains by the right, with its hateful message couched in terms of anti-elitism, are very largely attributable to the failure of the left to advance a clear political alternative and a means of challenging an unsustainable and increasingly unendurable status quo.

AK: Radical right-wing politics have grown in many capitalist democracies. The two elections of Donald Trump and the Brexit vote in the U.K. are notable instances, but across Europe as well hard-right forces are ascendant. Where they haven’t taken power, they’ve managed to pull politics to the right, particularly on questions of immigration. This seems in part to be the dynamic in Canada.

To what extent do you see the resurgent right in Canada tracking this more global trend? Is there something unique about the growth of the right here?

BP: We have certainly seen evidence of Trump-style politics in Canada, many of which I mention in my chapter. This has played out at all levels of government — municipal, provincial and federal. Some of the hateful narratives I referenced earlier have found their way into policy — anti-trans limits on gender affirming health care, for example. And we have seen public opinion polling toward less tolerance for diversity, and especially immigration.

But for the most part we have managed to avoid the worst excesses of this rightward drift. Yes, [Prime Minister Mark] Carney has brought the federal Liberal party to the right, but largely through fiscal policy rather than outright assaults on the rights of marginalized communities. And yes, some provinces have embedded damaging ideologies into practice. But the 2025 election, for example, seemed to me a repudiation of the kinds of extreme rhetoric that [Conservative Party leader Pierre] Poilievre was spewing.

The Liberal victory signalled resistance to populist politics of division. The dramatic slashing of EDI initiatives and restrictions on women’s rights and those of immigrants seemed to give Canadians pause for thought. Indeed, whereas terms like “wokeness” or “Black Lives Matter” or “#MeToo” have been weaponized by American right-wing elements, Pollara polling, for example, indicates that the same language largely evokes positive connotations in the Canadian context.

AK: This is a newsletter primarily focused on work and labour, so I’m especially curious to hear how you think the radical right has influenced the politics of work and labour in Canada. Politicians of the right, such as Premier Doug Ford in Ontario and Poilievre federally, have made certain overtures to workers and some (mostly private sector) unions, but their project still seems to centre on containing organized labour and de-regulating labour markets.

How do you see the right’s relationship to workers and labour? And what role should the labour movement play in resisting the right?

JC: Whether we speak about the more mainstream ‘new right’ electoral formations or fascistic forces looking to increase their influence, there is a striking contradiction in the right’s dealing with workers, including those who are unionized.

A major political objective of the right is to massively tilt the balance of forces to the advantage of capital in its contest with labour. This means weakening or even smashing of unions and, beyond that, undermining or suppressing any capacity for independent working-class organization and struggle.

At the same time, the right has always opportunistically presented itself as the voice of plebeian outrage in the face of the injustices inflicted by elite elements within society. For agitational purposes, this charade is, along with the promotion of racism, a key strategy for the right. In the present context, a bold right-wing conservative is far more likely to use the term ‘working class’ than a timid social democrat, focused on the politics of respectability.

Trade unions could and should be on the frontlines of the struggle against the right. In the workplaces they organize and in the communities their members are part of, they are in a unique and powerful position to challenge the right’s efforts to sow division. Frankly, it is a sad sign of our present shortcomings that the so-called “Freedom Convoy” wasn’t challenged by a massive counter-mobilization led by the labour movement.

Above all else, unions are well placed to advance the fighting demands and lead the genuine struggles to improve working-class lives that could entirely marginalize the right’s populist fakery.

AK: A number of contributors to the book grapple with how to mount a resistance to the resurgent right, from protest politics in the streets to building community coalitions that reshape politics more broadly.

Can you give readers a sense of how the book sees building an alternative politics that both resists the right’s influence and speaks to peoples’ real material needs?

ME: Several of the authors speak to the need for a fundamental change in how we ‘do’ politics. For instance, Marshall Ganz, the renowned American professor and organizer, maintains that organizing is ‘relational.’ Our authors allude to this point in outlining the need to work across difference.

What does this mean? It means listening to others, even those with opposing views. It means making space for different viewpoints in building a coalition. We may agree on some key values, but we also need to make room for other viewpoints. A viable political program can be fashioned out of these exchanges. I would go so far as to say this is a reaction to typical left politics, where leadership believed it held the truth and this informed strategy and tactics. The politics envisaged by several of the authors in this volume is less rigid, less hierarchical.

This alternate way of doing politics is not less effective, but it may take a little longer to achieve our objectives. But hopefully we get there together, with fewer of the soul-crushing fractious debates of the past.

In many communities at the present time, the cost of groceries and gas is causing undue hardship among a broad swathe of the population. Electoral politics is one means of expressing discontent, but gathering together to protest big grocery firms’ inhumane jacking up of prices, for example, is also an effective means of organizing against the right. Similarly, finding means to support the call for public grocery stores constitutes an act of resistance that may bear fruit.

I believe that a new politics that engages in work across difference as well as presenting a cohesive and sustainable political program may hold promise.