Political parties and groups are seeing a rare moment of alignment, unthinkable just 20 years ago – and ironic for two sides that have grown only more apart over recent decades.Tibor Kolley/The Globe and Mail
Adin Wagner is a freelance writer and lawyer based in Toronto.
After decades of laissez faire, neoliberal economic policy enabling industry to take whatever shape it pleased, segments of both the right and the left have come to a startlingly similar conclusion: we don’t much like the shape of our industry.
A surge of populism has become embedded in the North American right wing, announcing itself with the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Mr. Trump recognized that the free-market, neoliberal turn of the world economy – which reduced state influence in the economy and despite its name has little to do with its left-wing politics – had left swaths of the American populace feeling empty.
The manufacturing jobs had shifted elsewhere as companies sought cheaper labour in a free-trade world, sapping many domestic communities of economic prosperity and a part of their cultural identity. His lack of follow-through notwithstanding, Mr. Trump broke from Republican tradition and ran on a pledge to reinvigorate the working class, finding that promise paired nicely with heavy doses of xenophobia and nationalism.
Meanwhile, for the politicians of the left, what deference to open markets they had has waned as the world has warmed. U.S. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have opted for an explicit industrial policy, attempting to spur industry in their preferred direction.
Mr. Biden has introduced two major pieces of industrial policy: a bipartisan bill to incentivize the domestic production of semiconductors, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which is focused on green technology. Mr. Trudeau, for his part, has introduced a budget that allocated more than $21-billion in new spending over the next five years to encourage investment in low-carbon technologies and promised billions to companies such as Volkswagen and Stellantis to build their manufacturing plants in Canada.
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Presumably, the intent is to kill two birds with one stone: to place their respective economies at the forefront of technology sectors vital to the world’s future, and to bring back manufacturing jobs, shoring up support among voters who, if left disenfranchised, might otherwise find a home among the populism of the right.
The right’s response to both Mr. Biden’s and Mr. Trudeau’s industrial policy agendas speaks to the political potency of their approach and to neoliberalism’s weakening hold over conservatives. Ontario Conservative Premier Doug Ford has served as a willing partner in both the Volkswagen and Stellantis deals, even coughing up some of the province’s money to reel in the auto giants. In the U.S., Mr. Biden’s semiconductor bill garnered the votes of 17 Republicans. (The bill itself was an attempt to curb China’s influence and power, a cause championed across the aisle.)
And then there is federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. He has certainly adopted a populist rhetoric, attacking Mr. Trudeau on issues of housing unaffordability and inflation. But his anti-institutionalist attacks have been mostly limited to specific governmental bodies, such as the Bank of Canada and “municipal gatekeepers,” and lack true economic direction. A supposed free-market libertarian, Mr. Poilievre has stayed mostly silent about Mr. Trudeau’s industrial policy push, possibly in recognition that his base may actually quite like the return of manufacturing jobs.
People of all stripes are concerned about the state of modern industry, and anxious for policies that will impose economic order. The left has found its answer in a pivot to industrial policy, a natural fit with its interventionist leanings. What is more surprising is that the right seems to be teetering that way, too.
This is a rare moment of alignment, unthinkable just 20 years ago – and ironic for two sides that have grown only more apart over recent decades.