Darrell’s Deliberations – Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail: 2025

Ten weeks ago, we were headed towards a federal election where the likely outcome was a large Conservative majority. The Liberal brand appeared irretrievably damaged, and the remaining progressive vote share would be picked over by the NDP, Bloc and Greens.

Fast forward ten weeks.  How did we get here? In two words – fear and loathing.

Fear or its sibling, anxiety, is often the harbinger of great change in the electorate. In Canada, the anxiety around a many-headed crisis was palpable. It was cost of living, the lack of viable and available housing choices, an opioid epidemic, and a crisis in healthcare resources, among others.

There is a difference between fear and anxiety. Anxiety is a general and unfocused sense of unease created by emotional responses to domestic circumstances, those issues internal to the country that people feel are being neglected or mishandled such as those I have outlined above. In elections, parties take advantage of this anxiety. The message of the opposition is almost always about change. This was the message of the Conservatives and still is – “change is on the way.”

Fear is a response to a specific observable danger. In this election, that external and observable danger is Donald Trump and the group of individuals he has surrounded himself with, whom many Canadians consider loathsome, and offensive based on the threats and insults they continue to lob at our country. That constant denigration of Canada, Mr. Trump’s expansionist rhetoric and related economic threats feel real and widely shared.

When a fear is widely shared, it creates an enhanced sense of danger and as a result, a collective response. We have all seen this before – it is the “rally around the flag effect.” Indeed, we as Canadians have seen shared emotions elevate national pride before. In 2019 when the Toronto Raptors won the NBA Finals, the intensity of emotion was palpable. If you are old enough, you will remember the wave of emotions set off by the 1972 Summit Series. Those were happy events – this now feels like a deeply existential threat.

Everyday Canadians are taking matters into their own hands with “Elbows Up” rallies, cancelled travel to the U.S. and careful analysis of grocery items in the aisle at the supermarket to ensure one is buying Canadian. This response is to preserve and protect what we value – our independence, our integrity and a society organized in a different way than our southern neighbours.

Canadians recognize the concept of “commonwealth” in a way that seems to be absent from the political discourse in the United States. It from our commonwealth that we built Medicare, employment insurance, old age security, workers’ compensation and much more.

Unfortunately for our American friends, fear in the U.S. is currency, and Donald Trump knows how to use it to divide and to intimidate. He has already intervened in Canada’s federal election in a real and substantive way to the benefit of the Liberal Party of Canada and Prime Minister Carney.

In times of fear, people look for stability and not change. They look to be comforted and reassured rather than to be told “everything is broken.” They look for a leader who can best defend them from the observable danger they share. It is an emotional response and while it does not have to be true (no Prime Minister can protect us from an unpredictable U.S. President), it does have to appear to be true.

The federal opposition parties must look for a way to move the election conversation back to the internal challenges Canada faces while acknowledging the danger posed by the current Trump administration. It is a political arbitrage, the space between the emotional response to fear and the rational response to internal pressures we face.

This is critical for the Conservatives as they try to remind Canadians of the last three terms of the Liberal government, but it is even more critical for the NDP, Bloc, and Greens if they are to move the conversation away from a simply binary choice on April 28.

One thing is for sure – Fear and Loathing has reshaped the politics of our nation and the election we find ourselves in the midst of.

Darrell Dexter is Vice Chair at Global Public Affairs and served as the Premier of Nova Scotia from 2009-2013 as well as Nova Scotia’s Leader of the Opposition from 2001-2009.