scholarly journals The domestic and foreign policy of the Canadian Liberals under Justin Trudeau in 2015-2020: achievements and challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-237
Author(s):  
Andrey Nikolaevich Komarov

The key idea of this article is that, for the first time, on the example of the domestic and foreign policy of the Canadian Liberals, led by Justin Trudeau, we discuss the problems and prospects of Canadian Liberalism. The recent defeat of the Conservative Party of Canada in the 2019 parliamentary elections gave the impression that only the Liberal Party contributes to the prosperity of the modern Canadian state. The closest attention to the activities of the Liberal Party allows us to identify its absolute advantages and corresponding shortcomings. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to analyze and investigate both the indisputable advantages and current shortcomings of the Liberal Party in power, and against this background to determine the effectiveness, or vice versa, the incompetence of Canadian liberalism as a political ideology. At the same time, according to the author, it is necessary to separate objective and subjective factors associated with the presence of liberals in power. The objective ones are related to how the Liberals program settings meet the needs of the time, while the subjective ones characterize how an individual, and, above all, the party leader, implements the partys requests and the electorates hopes. In this regard, the reputation of its leader is of crucial importance. On the basis of the considered source base, and, first of all, the electoral programs of Liberals under Trudeau, since coming to power in 2015. In the first part of the article, the author presents a comparative analysis of the results of the liberals in the parliamentary elections in 2015 and 2019, explaining the reasons for the victory of the latter, and obtaining, respectively, a parliamentary majority, and then a minority. The second part of the article is devoted directly to the aspects of the domestic and foreign policy of the Liberals in 2015-2020. The author comes to the conclusion that the Canadian liberalism, implemented by Justin Trudeau is currently the leading political ideology that unites a significant part of the electorate.

2021 ◽  
pp. 119-154
Author(s):  
David Thackeray ◽  
Richard Toye

While the 1964 election marked a high point in confidence in state-led modernization, by the 1970s there was a widespread loss of faith in the ability of governments to deliver on their promises. Long-term planning was replaced by short-term crisis management. The Scottish and Welsh nationalists and the Liberal Party created the authority of the Westminster duopoly, reinvigorating the local campaign with their ‘pavement politics’. However, the New Right was the main beneficiary of this crisis. As Conservative Party leader from 1975, Margaret Thatcher believed that politics had been debased by parties competing for power by making promises of state expansion and greater public spending which were unrealistic and led to poor outcomes. Thatcher based the Conservatives’ 1979 manifesto around a small number of pledges, reviving the anti-promise rhetoric which had been key to Baldwin’s appeal in the 1920s and 1930s.


1959 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 300-322
Author(s):  
M. A. Fitzsimons

InTheSummer of 1958 the Gallup poll revealed that for the first time since 1955 a small majority of the British electorate favored the Conservative party. The narrowness of the margin made it dangerous for the Conservatives to call for a new election. But an election will take place within a year. The Conservatives are hopeful of another victory — a third successive victory over the Labour party, to cap their feat, unprecedented with the modern electorate, of increasing the parliamentary membership of the Government party in 1955. The Labour party, however, has been duly warned and has already rallied to cover its divisions, banishing them temporarily to the unconscious perhaps only to produce political neuroses in the future.


2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 485-514
Author(s):  
Giles Whiteley

Established in 1859, as a merger of the Whigs, Radicals and Peelites, the British Liberal Party and their ideological forerunners won 15 out of a total of 20 parliamentary elections between 1832–1910. Responsible for passing socially progressive legislation domestically, Victorian liberalism can lay claim to being the most significant political ideology of the period. By bringing together aspects of classical social liberalism and liberal free-market conservatism, this specifically Victorian brand of liberalism enabled Britain to take a place at the center of world affairs. Indeed, by the mid-1850s, the emergence of Victorian liberalism had begun to be seen as something of a political necessity, as demonstrated by Thomas Babington Macaulay's The History of England from the Accession of James II (1848–61), a foundational text of Whig historicism, in which Lord Charles Grey's 1832 Reform Bill was characterized as the teleological culmination of British history. But while the liberals styled themselves as progressives and their opponents as reactionaries, Whig history has tended to oversimplify the dynamics of this narrative. In this context, Henry Longueville Mansel's closet drama Phontisterion offers a fascinating glimpse into a contemporary Tory response to the seemingly irresistible rise of Victorian liberalism.


1972 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 669-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Hurst

Throughout its history the United Kingdom Liberal party has been a conglomerate. On the other hand, it was very rarely just an anti-Conservative Front, feeding off the grasslands of negation. Whatever the manifold stresses and strains of a given moment, the liberty-loving and reforming mentality almost invariably held together the disparate elements for purposes of positive action. And with the Conservative party essentially standstill and inherently strong at most times, this was scarcely surprising in the context of the battle for political power. That context was shaped by the break-up of the vast Liverpool-style coalition and the emergence under Lord Grey of a left-centre administration. The bundle of ideologies and interests behind Grey stuck together until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, although economic and social changes, along with alterations in the constitutional structure both springing from and causing them, did much to shift the influence they exercised. While it is true that the first and second Reform Acts were of crucial importance, the forces behind their passing should not be ignored. The hens did come before the eggs, even though the eventual arrivals were uncommonly large chickens, and hatching out was far from automatic


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Dimitra Kizlari ◽  
Domenico Valenza

Summary To date, the role of cultural attachés in foreign policy has not been the subject of scholarly research, despite the sharp rise in interest in the field of cultural diplomacy. The present study is a comparative analysis seeking to map the ecosystem in which cultural attachés are embedded with the aim to develop a first-time narrative about their role. Interviews with practitioners from Italy, The Netherlands and Sweden indicate that the post of the cultural attaché is a field of responsibility primarily for two state actors. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture both have a vested interest in the work of these cultural operators. The findings suggest that there are two distinct organisational models in how Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Ministries of Culture co-exist and interact.


Significance This comes as US foreign policy, especially towards China and Iran, is forcing some political tightrope-walking for US partners. It also comes as UK Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to resign as Conservative Party leader on June 7; her party will from June 11 pick a successor who will become prime minister. Impacts A ‘no-deal’ Brexit would allow London to strike independent trade deals; Trump’s team is ready for talks. The next Conservative leader may well be pro-Brexit, potentially making a no-deal exit more likely. Both countries will emphasise security and defence ties to counter claims of diminished UK utility to Washington post-Brexit. London will likely seek a middle course in UK-China ties since it also eyes a UK-China trade deal. London may try to discourage Trump from using tariffs, but is unlikely to persuade him.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 37-45
Author(s):  
Boris Guseletov ◽  

This article presents an analysis of the results of the parliamentary elections held in Cyprus on May 30, 2021. These elections were held in the context of the aggravation of the issue of the division of the island into Cypriot and Turkish parts and an increase in illegal migration to the island, an increase in the negative impact of the Covid‐19 pandemic, as well as a number of corruption scandals related to the issuance of so-called golden passports. It is shown that the leading Cypriot parties, the ruling Democratic Union and the opposition Progressive Workers Party of Cyprus, continue to lose their supporters who are dissatisfied with the existing party-political system and the inability of these parties for many years to resolve the issue of dividing the country into two states. The center-left Democratic Party (DP) and the Movement for Social Democracy, which took third and fifth places, respectively, retained their modest positions. Against this background, the influence of the nationalist «National Popular Front», which supports the federalization of the Republic of Cyprus, has grown, which came in fourth place. And for the first time, a new liberal party, the Democratic Front, was elected to parliament, also advocating an early solution to the issue of dividing the island by involving international mediators.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Carissima Mathen

The 2006 Canadian federal election, which brought the Conservative Party to power for the first time, shifted the dynamics of constitutional advocacy. The government adopted a combative litigation posture, channeled through aggressive political messaging and uncompromising choices. Since the return to power in 2015 of the Liberal Party, many expect a more respectful attitude towards litigants, the courts and the Constitution. Certainly, the new government appears more positively disposed to constitutional rights and judicial review. As a result, Canadians are less likely to witness an openly hostile attitude towards the judiciary. That said, it is impossible to predict the precise way that the new government will respond to constitutional litigation.The observations that follow largely focus on government responses to final judicial settlement of constitutional disputes. But there is, as well, much to be gleaned from how a government conducts itself during litigation. While the latter issue does not feature prominently in this paper, it informs some of the concluding comments.


Author(s):  
Friedrich Wilhelm Graf

Abstract On September 12, 1949, the liberal politician Theodor Heuss, party leader of the „Freie Demokratische Partei“ (FDP), was elected by the Bundesversammlung (Federal Convention) as the first Bundespräsident, i. e. head of state, of the newly founded Bundesrepublik Deutschland. As a young man Heuss had been a close friend and political ally of Friedrich Naumann, the protestant pastor and left wing liberal politician, supported by Ernst Troeltsch. Heuss then working as a political journalist for liberal newspapers and Naumann’s weekly journal Die Hilfe, was an admirer of Troeltsch, and since 1910 they often met in Heidelberg, at Villa Fallenstein, Ziegelhäuser Landstraße 17, where Max and Marianne Weber as well als the Troeltschs lived; Heuss frequently visited Max Weber’s Sunday jour fixe. When in 1915 Troeltsch became a professor at the Philosophical Faculty of Berlin University Heuss regularly kept in contact with him especially through Hans Delbrück’s „Mittwochabend“, a weekly gathering of liberal intellectuals, professors, politicians and journalists discussing political reforms and the ongoing war. Both Troeltsch and Heuss, 19 years younger, demanded the democratization of the Deutsches Reich, and after the end of the war and the revolution of 1918/19 they became members of the newly founded left wing liberal party „Deutsche Demokratische Partei“ (DDP). After Troeltsch’s sudden death on February 1st, 1923, Heuss wrote an obituary, and, together with his wife Elly Heuss-Knapp, attended the funeral service conducted by Adolf von Harnack. Heuss was a member of the „Demokratischer Klub Berlin“, founded in 1919 by liberal politicians, bankers and academics to regularly discuss the political situation of the new democratic state, the Weimar Republic. Unknown until now, seven weeks after Troeltsch’s death the „Demokratische Klub“ invited its members (the club only had male mebers!) to a memorial act for Troeltsch. On this occasion Heuss delivered a speech „Zu Ernst Troeltschs Gedächtnis“ („To the Memory of Ernst Troeltsch“) which is published here for the first time.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2020) (2) ◽  
pp. 359-394
Author(s):  
Jurij Perovšek

For Slovenes in the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes the year 1919 represented the final step to a new political beginning. With the end of the united all-Slovene liberal party organisation and the formation of separate liberal parties, the political party life faced a new era. Similar development was showing also in the Marxist camp. The Catholic camp was united. For the first time, Slovenes from all political camps took part in the state government politics and parliament work. They faced the diminishing of the independence, which was gained in the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, and the mutual fight for its preservation or abolition. This was the beginning of national-political separations in the later Yugoslav state. The year 1919 was characterized also by the establishment of the Slovene university and early occurrences of social discontent. A declaration about the new historical phenomenon – Bolshevism, had to be made. While the region of Prekmurje was integrated to the new state, the questions of the Western border and the situation with Carinthia were not resolved. For the Slovene history, the year 1919 presents a multi-transitional year.


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