Canada: A Nation of Centrists

The Broadbent Institute’s new un-bylined report, titled “Canadian Values Are Progressive Values,” starts off with a bang: “As evidenced by the recent re-election of President Obama, progressive values — including respect for equality, sustainability and justice — are gaining traction around the world.” That’s a novel take. Broadly speaking I agree that, with some very notable exceptions, the world is becoming more respectful of equality and justice. But Mr. Obama lost three-and-a-half million votes in 2012 after a first term in which he didn’t close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre; authorized the assassination of Osama bin Laden, and of both foreign and American citizens abroad using drones; implemented an enormously complex package of health-care reforms from which any other “progressive” nation would flee in terror; and generally governed in a way that Canadian progressives would abhor were it transposed on to Parliament Hill.