“Freedom not Fear, truckers not Trudeau” : Antagonism as Populism: Against the Liberal Consensus in Canada

Abstract

This thesis is investigating the rise of populism in Canada, and how the Freedom Convoy 2022 changed the political landscape allowing for populism to be mainstreamed. Populism as a political force is reshaping liberal democracies, and by analysing how populism as a counter movement against the liberal hegemony is constructed, this thesis, while focused on Canada, will show how societal polarization and the construction of political frontiers is expanding the populist zeitgeist. Through utilizing a post-structuralist methodology, building on Laclau & Mouffe’s conceptualisation of hegemony and Mudde’s understanding of populism as a ‘thin-centred ideology’, this thesis investigates how the Freedom Convoy was discursively constructed by Justin Trudeau’s liberal Government, as well co-opted by the Conservative Opposition and the Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. The theoretical framework understands populism as an illiberal response to undemocratic liberalism, and a reaction towards progressive neoliberalism, which together with my conceptualisation of populism as the antagonism between the ‘people’ and the ’elite’ will steer my analysis.           The analysis found that populism as a political force is being mainstreamed by Poilievre and the Conservative Party as a response towards changing social relations, argued detrimental to the working class, which the Freedom Convoy was a manifestation of. The expression of discontent is constructed as antagonism between the ‘people’ against the ‘elites’, where globalization is argued responsible for the economic decline in Canada. The main contention is however with the progressive values the globalist ‘elite’ are argued to harbour, and the battle line drawn between progressive neoliberalism and reactionary populism. The findings contribute to the field of International Relations, as the rise of populism is argued to be to be result of changing social relations due to the workings of the global political economy. Thus, populism is inherently a local issue within global structures