Trump swept all the key battleground states. Pictured: U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump. Photo Credit: Donald Trump/X.
The post-mortems on the U.S. election and exactly what happened to throw off all the pollsters, pundits, Hollywood glitterati and others will undoubtedly go on for some time. This election was, after all, pegged before the fact as the most important of all time, historic, determining the future of democracy and other such over-the-top descriptions that are losing their mojo as virtually every election these days seems to be described in those hyperbolic terms.
Although the polls consistently indicated things were close, Trump was not expected to win. The fact that he did still has many in shock. He won quite decisively at that, with both a strong electoral college victory and a popular vote win of almost 51 per cent (although some numbers are still being finalized). The Republicans once again have a majority in the U.S. Senate and may also take keep of the House of Representatives, although that is not yet determined. Contrary to expectations, Trump swept all the key battleground states. All in all, a pretty convincing win.
The whole Hollywood thing was absurd. Many movie actors, singers, television talking heads and other entertainers took it upon themselves to very actively campaign for Kamala Harris, something that their colleagues from days gone by would never presume to do. The arrogance of someone like George Clooney, who penned open op-ed articles on why President Joe Biden should step down, then went all out endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, was breathtaking. Americans could be forgiven for asking “Who elected him?” The nerve of the elite Hollywood types was undoubtedly one factor that put off many average citizens who didn’t appreciate being scolded about how to vote by people who fake things for a living. Stay in your lane Hollywood – you have no credibility when you step outside of it.
Many factors undoubtedly affected the results of the election, but one thing is clear – Americans rejected the elites and the “woke” vision they tried to impose on average citizens. While the Democrats harped on issues like abortion, the climate, favoured censorship of social media and prioritized gender identity issues and social justice, the vast majority of Americans were more concerned about the economy, inflation, the quality of education for their children and their eroding freedoms. This is likely the main reason Republicans prevailed.
Prior to the election, there was much made of the gender gap, in that women were expected to massively vote Democrat while men supported Republicans. Although the male vote did materialize for Trump, early returns show that Harris actually captured less of the female vote than Biden did in 2020. The expected women’s wave did not show up for Democrats. Trump actually made gains in votes from both men and women by all indications.
There are many very important implications for Canada from the U.S. results, which will remain vague until it can be seen whether or not Trump will follow through on some of his more extreme election promises. A major concern is if Trump does attempt to oversee a wholesale deportation of illegal immigrants, a significant amount of those immigrants may consider Canada as an attractive destination. Given the Trudeau government’s very irresponsible and sloppy treatment of our immigration system over the past few years, it is unlikely an influx of “refugees” from the U.S. would be handled well by the Liberals.
Trump has also threatened serious tariffs on imports from various countries and it is unclear exactly how this might affect Canada. The Trudeau government was successful in negotiating exemptions for Canada under the previous Trump regime, and this could happen again. As over 70 per cent of Canada’s exports go to the US, this is a very big deal for us. The U.S. also has very important trade ties with Canada, so they also have an interest in keeping those relationships functioning smoothly.
Trump has also said he will greatly scale back the various taxpayer-supported subsidies in so-called green energy such as electric vehicles and other investments intended to lower carbon emissions as contained in Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act. As the private sector has started to back off these areas of investment in the last couple of years as they have not turned out to be the successes they were originally sold as, this could mean the massive amounts of tax dollars spent in Canada in the same areas are doomed to failure. Once again, we’ll have to see what a new Trump administration will actually do to follow up on their promises prior to the election.
As the U.S. election results are finalized and analyzed to death in the coming days and weeks, it will become clearer exactly why things turned out as they did in this very important election. There are surely lessons there for Canadian politicians. Here at home, public opinion polls have consistently indicated that a majority of Canadians would have preferred a win by the Democrats. Many of the same issues are active in Canada currently as they were in the U.S. leading up to the election – a dissatisfaction with the “elites” who live high on the hog on our dime yet want to diminish the standard of living of the rest of us with their policies, concerns with basics such as the economy and inflation, too many families having trouble making ends meet and parents fed up with the social justice orientation of our education system while their children fall behind in key areas such as math and literacy, among others. Canada also has a sharp gender gap currently in voting intentions if the polls are to be believed, just as US polls showed prior to the election yet did not materialize in the actual election results.
The next couple of months will be very important as the Trump team takes over the reins. Although Trump personally is known to be quirky and chaotic in his approach, the fact is he has some pretty interesting team members such as VP-elect JD Vance, Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who can hopefully help to keep the chaos under control. Things will surely change for Canada, however, and it will require some deft moves from our federal government to ensure this does not take place in a bad way. Let’s hope they’re up to it.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
