Canada

A new study on Canadian social class and political identity defies familiar stereotypes about the ideological alignment of rich people versus poor people.

It also offers a new perspective on that most popular of all social classes, to which all decent people think they belong, sometimes despite strong evidence to the contrary, and to whom all politicians most fervently pitch — the middle class.

As attention finally shifted away from the pandemic, 2023 saw everything from the rise and fall of political fortunes, to consequential pieces of legislation being introduced or passed, to a heightened focus on Chinese interference, and much more.

“… This may surprise the average Canadian given that so much of the government is noticeably threadbare and underfunded. Canadians are dying in hospital waiting rooms due to unprecedented shortages in health care. The navy’s so strapped for cash that it can only deploy one offshore patrol vessel at a time. The RCMP’s federal policing is so under-resourced that Parliamentarians are now calling it a threat to national security. And even $600 billion in cumulative debt hasn’t been enough for the Liberals to honour their 2015 campaign promise to ensure universal clean water on First Nations reserves.”

About two months ago, following the New Democrats’ national convention, I predicted a federal election was in the offing for 2024. While the NDP rank-and-file voted 81% confidence in their leader, Jagmeet Singh, they also showed impatience with their party’s submission to the Trudeau Liberals.

So there sat Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and National Post columnist Rex Murphy in a cinderblock hallway that looked like one of the nation’s better prisons or lesser university dorms, a blue tinsel Christmas tree beside them.

You knew you were in for a treat when Mr. Murphy started out with this: “You’ve had in this particular year, the greatest – to some people surprising – acceleration both in your popular standing and in the sway of your politics, and – I’d like to say so – your performance in the House. What is it that came together that convinced enough people that you were more than a viable candidate for the next prime ministership?”

Federal Ballot: CPC 41, LPC 27, NDP 18, BQ 7, GPC 5, PPC 1 – Poilievre hits a 10-year Conservative leader high on preferred PM tracking (Nanos)

Fewer than 31 per cent of Canadians are optimistic about the future of Canada’s middle class, according to the latest class identity survey by research firm Pollara Strategic Insights(opens in a new tab).

The survey is Pollara’s seventh in a series that began tracking Canadian class identity in 2014 and reveals that Canadians are less optimistic about the future of the country’s middle class now than at any time in the past nine years. The last time the survey was distributed, in August 2020, just over half of Canadians felt optimistic about the middle class.