Moving with the Tide? A Content Analysis of the Relative Prominence of Left and Right-Wing Populism in Recent Canadian Federal Electoral Manifestos

Abstract

In recent years, an explosion of populist movements has led some scholars to conceptualise them as part of a larger global “populist wave”. This phenomenon of populist upsurges has spread throughout much of the Europe and North America, manifesting as movements and parties that share similar styles of language and rhetoric but diverge greatly across the left/right political spectrum. Despite large scale populist victories in other states, Canadian politics has displayed a distinct absence of any powerful national populist parties or movements. However, some researchers note nascent populist elements in Canada’s current political sphere both regionally and nationally. This thesis attempts to answer the question to what extent populist influence may have already penetrated the politics of Canada’s major parties and to whether left-or right-wing variations of populism have been employed to a greater degree. This research employs a mixed method content analysis of each of Canada’s major parties’ electoral manifestos from the last three federal elections. It measures the frequency and intensity of the use of both left and right populist language and rhetoric in each of the nine examined manifestos. The study findings suggest that, while the manifestos of all three parties demonstrate an overall increase in total usage of populist language and rhetoric between 2011 and 2019, only the NDP displays a consistent increase across all three electoral years. Furthermore, the use of left vs right populist rhetoric and language generally falls along party lines reflecting the parties’ relative positions on the political spectrum. This paper ultimately concludes that while populism has seen increased use in the manifestos of Canada’s mainstream parties, the rhetoric and language used operates within a firm ideological framework for all three parties.