When you hear a politician use the term “common-sense” you should shudder and cringe. “Common-sense” is a simplified and often anti-intellectual approach to complex problems that do not have quick and easy solutions. Populism is on the rise globally and a good way to determine whether or not a politician or political party is populist is by counting how many times they use the term “common-sense”.
Why is populism bad? Most dictionary definitions will flatly point out that populism is inherently anti-intellectual, unorthodox, and limited by scope. Why is populism popular? It is meant to be a grass roots movement and for the people. But for which people?
Populism depends upon an “us vs them” mentality. Historically, in Canada, that meant a class struggle; haves vs have-nots. In more recent years it has taken an alt-right turn. In American politics populism is seen in movements championed by the Tea Party and Donald Trump; essentially white America versus Latino, Arab, and black America. In Canada we have seen populism in candidates like Kellie Leitch, Brad Trost, and Steven Blaney.
Sadly, New Brunswick has not been immune to the rise of populism. Many New Brunswickers find themselves resisting intellectualism and embracing identity politics. The existence of anglo-rights groups is a disturbing trend. Some Anglophones have publicly stated that they are “the most discriminated group in New Brunswick” while others have proclaimed they are “the most discriminated people in history”. The intellectual response would be to mention the holocaust, slavery, colonialism, or Russia’s murder of LBGT citizenry. But populists ignore the intellectual response and retort with baseless propaganda.
Returning to anti-intellectualism, it is natural for people to want to understand a political entity’s stratagem. Simplified solutions are not the answer. An example; taxes are too high in New Brunswick and people can not afford their homes. Too simple a fix would be to lower all property taxes. Why that does not work is that the provincial government can already not afford the basic guarantees for the province; healthcare, road clearing and repair, senior care, access to water, etc. It is far safer to have an intellectual solution to this problem that might not be as easy to comprehend than an easy fix that leads to a bigger problem.
The parties that appear to have embraced populism the most is Keep It Simple Solutions (KISS NB) and People’s Alliance (PANB). KISS NB blames bilingualism for students testing poorly on provincial exams; despite any scientific evidence and despite multilingual school districts around the globe having higher test scores than those in New Brunswick. People’s Alliance also place blame on duality for many of New Brunswick’s woes and favours integration.
KISS NB is having difficulty fielding candidates for the impending election, but PANB has already put many candidates forward. Caution should be urged whenever facing political parties who offer “quick-fix-common-sense-solutions” and are ready to put blame no any specific group of people for the dilemmas of society.
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