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Since Donald Trump began intimidating Canada with border tariffs and threats of annexation, the premiers have been wavering. While François Legault and Doug Ford puff out their chests, striving to embody the image of strongmen in the face of the storm, Justin Trudeau in Ottawa is lacing up his boxing gloves one last time. Deep down, we suspect they will eventually return to their usual posture of concessions and subservience toward Washington. They all have one thing in mind: returning as quickly as possible to the free-trade status quo.
Let’s face it, it’s not just Trump threatening jobs in the lumber sector in Quebec’s regions. It’s also the obsession with free trade that prevents our governments from considering credible and concrete solutions within our reach.
The abrupt departure of Amazon, which flouts the right to unionize and leaves more than 3,000 people jobless, sets the tone. Just days after celebrating Trump’s victory at the White House, Jeff Bezos showed his 1.5 million employees that any attempt to stand up will be punished, no matter the cost. Unsurprisingly, if Trump ultimately imposes tariffs, the primary victims will be the workers.
Before our eyes, neoliberalism, with its destructive effects—outsourcing, job insecurity, growing inequalities, dismantling of public services, environmental destruction—is now paving the way for authoritarian solutions to the problems it has itself created.
But what hurts me most, what makes me feel so dismayed, is the silence of the left. Where is this left that once stood up without hesitation when the system crushed its own people?
I grew up in a family of leftists. Not revolutionaries seeking glory, just people who believed the world could be changed. Through their stories, I heard of a time when the left never missed a fight.
This left that marched for bread and roses against poverty and exploitation, that besieged Quebec’s Upper Town to block the freedom-stifling advance of free trade, that defied imperialism by opposing the war in Iraq. This left that brought down a government during the Maple Spring.
Today, it seems the left hesitates, unsure of how to proceed. Donald Trump’s tariff announcements are a perfect example. In the 1980s, we campaigned against the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA), in the 1990s against NAFTA, and in the early 2000s we helped stop the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). So why, today, in the face of the evident failure of neoliberalism and the aggressive return of economic protectionism, is the left hesitating? Must one be a dangerous radical to say that this questioning of free trade is a golden opportunity to rethink our economy?
The same analysis could be applied to the migration crises. The authoritarian right relies on no facts to erect its walls, only on communication strategies that benefit them and endanger everyone else. Yet, the left responds only on the level of ethics, recognition, and symbols: we must not exclude, we must not discriminate. Fine, but as significant increases in migration caused by climate change loom, what public policies are we proposing to welcome them? Nothing, just good intentions and respect for others in coexistence. That’s not enough.
What I dream of is a Quebec where the question asked on the radio in the morning isn’t “how many immigrants will we turn away,” but rather “how many people will we help?” Our humanity depends on it, and historically, the left has never shied away from defending it.
I don’t know if I’m the only one asking these questions. Maybe I’m too young, too idealistic, too naive. I don’t want to be nostalgic for a left I never knew, but I refuse to grow old with the feeling that it was already too late.
I have only one certainty left: the time for ambiguity, or even condemnation, is over. The time is for organization and action. Or at least, it should be.
So here I am, casting my bottle into the sea. I don’t know if anyone will pick it up. But if it ever washes ashore, I hope someone will take the time to read my worry, my anger, but above all, against all odds, my hope. Because I want to believe the left still has a role to play, but if it refuses to confront the situation, perhaps we must conclude it has nothing left to say…
