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The Canada-EU trade deal has been tied up in the rebellion of those who feel like the benefits of globalization has passed them by. And that has blindsided a politician who has been warning about that kind of rebellion for years: Justin Trudeau.

Remember Nathalie? She was a fictional middle-class everywoman in Mr. Trudeau's speech to the 2014 Liberal Party convention. Nathalie was stuck in traffic on Montreal's Champlain Bridge, worrying about debt and her kids' future. There was a global growth agenda, including openness to trade, but people such as Nathalie felt left out, Mr. Trudeau warned.

"The original promise of that agenda was that everyone would share in the prosperity that it creates. That hasn't happened. That's not a political point. It's a fact," Mr. Trudeau told Liberals. "If we don't fix it, the middle class will stop supporting a growth agenda. That will make us all poorer."

In one respect, Mr. Trudeau was ahead of the curve. The "growth agenda" he was talking about was, in large part, globalization and trade. And just look at the backlash now, from Donald Trump's anti-NAFTA tirades to Brexit to opposition to the Canada-EU trade deal known as CETA. But the CETA sticking points suggest dealing with the rebellion isn't as simple as nudging middle-class incomes. This is about disruption, and desire for control.

The fact that the small Wallonia region of smallish Belgium has gummed up the works for Canada's deal with a trade bloc of 508 million people is cited as evidence of the EU's dysfunction, and it is. But repeated rumbles from other places showed the Walloons are not alone.

Their obstruction is yet another sign that many people adamantly reject the notion that globalization and open trade is good for them – no matter how often they're told it boosts the broader economy. The French-speaking region was once Belgium's industrial belt, but now it's a rust belt. It suffered the loss of manufacturing jobs, much like Ohio or the factory towns of Southern Ontario. Unemployment is high, and worse since the financial crisis of 2008.

It's not hard to see why Walloons ignore assertions that free-trade agreements boost the European economy. Their own languished while the European common market grew. Their rebellion isn't about stagnant middle-class incomes. Their way of life has been disrupted, and they've found it hard to adapt. Look at the focal point of their opposition: investor-state dispute settlement provisions that allow companies to sue governments, raising fears that firms might beat back local regulation of the environment. They are not demanding advantages for their businesses. They want control.

In Britain, voters chose Brexit despite warnings it would hobble the economy. Most "Leave" voters, according to exit polls, didn't care. They were upset by immigration and the idea they couldn't control it. Voters split into two Britains. In cities such as London, most voted to stay in the EU. In smaller towns, they voted to leave. In the town of Boston, in Lincolnshire, where there had been a dramatic rise in immigration from Eastern Europe, 75 per cent voted for Brexit. Londoners rub elbows with a lot of immigrants, but they also might think their kids will go to university in France or work in Germany. Lincolnshire voters probably didn't see their kids' futures in Europe.

Those voters are a bit like Donald Trump's. His supporters are far more likely to be white voters who never left their home town, according to a PRRI poll. They're not particularly low income, but they're far less likely to have a college degree than white voters who support Hillary Clinton. People who have moved from place to place, and have a degree, tend to have more faith they can adapt. Those who haven't worry their way of life is being disrupted, and respond to border walls, tearing up NAFTA and putting America first. They want control.

That's not Mr. Trudeau's way. His pitch is that Canada can grow its economy by opening to the world, including deals such as CETA, but it just has to spread the benefits to the middle class. He cut middle-class taxes, and raised them for the wealthy. But the real trick in countering a backlash against globalization isn't just a little more take-home pay for Mr. Trudeau's fictional Nathalie. It will be finding policies that make her feel she can adapt to the disruption. Otherwise she, too, could look to politics that promise her a feeling of control.

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