Tipsheet

Canada Is Mulling a Game Plan In Case a Conservative Wins the 2024 Election

Canada despises Republicans if that wasn't apparent throughout the last election and the COVID pandemic. Canadians were happy with former President Obama and tolerated President Joe Biden, but former President Trump? They hate him. 

So it is no surprise the Left-leaning country has devised a game plan in case the U.S. elects a Republican president. 

According to Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, Canada has been reportedly mulling a plan in the possibility that the U.S. will take a far-right, authoritarian shift in the outcome of the 2024 election. 

"We are certainly working on scenarios," Joly said in an interview. "I will work with my colleagues and with the mayors, the provincial premiers, with the business community, with the unions, with everyone in the country, so that we are ready regardless of the election outcome."

Joly also voiced concerns since Ottawa shares close political and economic ties with the U.S. It is worth noting that the World Economic Forum named her a Young Global Leader.

Despite refusing to go into the country's plan in case the horror inevitably happens, Joly made it clear that they have repeated precise scenarios that could "be a rather difficult situation" for Canada. 

Joly described similarities to her government's experience working with the Trump Administration, which sought to limit long-established trade in crucial sectors. Trump's chances of becoming the next GOP presidential candidate are very likely. In the past, he has vowed "retribution" against his opponents and civil servants.

"The other aspect of the question is more about knowing how we as a democracy can thwart the growth of the far right in our country because it's happening in the United States, it's happening in Europe," Joly continued. 

She warned of a "radicalization of the [Canadian] Conservative Party."

In February 2022, Joly was vocal about her frustration regarding American conservatives who supported truckers in the Freedom Convoy that protested against the government's mandate of forcing law-abiding citizens to get the COVID-19 vaccine. 

"My biggest concern as the foreign minister at this point is the foreign interference that is happening in the convoy we're seeing in Canada right now," Joly said at the time. "The disinformation campaign, where it comes from. The financing of it, where it comes from."