Lean to the Left, Lean to the Right

 

Stephen LeDrew argues, intending to be provocative, that Justin Trudeau is a right-winger compared to Pierre Poilievre. 

He is right, based on the traditional meaning of the term. Traditionally, since the French Revolution, the left was for liberty, for the individual, for free choice, free markets, and smaller government; and against established elites. The right was for the corporate state, for paternalistic government, for more social control, was respectful of elites and authority, and for bigger government.

That puts our modern right on the left, and our modern left on the right.

This is indeed more philosophically coherent than our common current understanding, which is scrambled by Marxism. This puts Marxism, Trudeau, the NDP, and the US Democrats, on the right-wing. Stalin, Castro and Mao were right wingers. Pierre Poilievre, Maxime Bernier, Milton Friedman, Rand Paul, Tim Poole, the Koch Brothers, and more or less the US Republicans, are the left. As am I. 

We have stood everything on its head when we suggest the US is politically to the right of Canada or Europe. From its inception, by those who rejected the American revolution to stick with king and tradition, Canada has always been conservative to its core. America wants life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Canada wants peace, order, and good government. A decent summary of liberalism and conservatism, left and right.

But the problem is that many get confused and, I suspect like LeDrew, vote Liberal and support Democrats imagining they are left-wing in the true sense. And imagining the right stands for autocracy. Indeed, I think the reason we have gotten these terms garbled is that the Liberals and Democrats have been trying to trick people into believing this. Marxism is less popular. So instead of identifying as Marxist, they began calling their ideas “liberal.”