Media releases

• Trade agreements, digital regulation among key Canadian ramifications of Trump re-election: Brock expert

  Wednesday, November 06, 2024 | By Brock University

  EXPERT ADVISORY – November 6, 2024 – R0134

  The United States, under newly elected president Donald Trump, will have “a direct lever to hold the Canadian economy hostage to its demands” in mandated upcoming trade renegotiations, according to Blayne Haggart.

  But the Brock University Associate Professor of Political Science says that Trump’s re-election poses challenges far beyond managing trade relationships and the future of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.

  He calls it “an existential threat” to Canada’s economy and to Canadian society more broadly.

  “To be blunt, the fundamental assumptions that have served as the foundations for Canada-U.S. relations — commitment to a rules-based order, human rights and mutual self-restraint — no longer hold,” says Haggart. “We can expect a much more transactional approach to Canada-U.S. politics, with the United States reserving to itself the right to reverse any decision at any time.”

  What Haggart sees as a clear shift toward authoritarianism in the U.S. poses “an unprecedented challenge to Canada’s liberal democracy.”

  “We’ve never had an authoritarian government on our borders before,” he says. “While government officials are putting forward a calm face, the reality is that the country is not prepared for the next four years, and likely longer.”

  For Haggart, another key area of concern is digital regulation in spheres like social media and cryptocurrency, where the president-elect has business interests.

  “On social media regulation, Elon Musk’s tanking of Twitter/X for Trump shows that Canada is extremely vulnerable to the U.S. social media and tech companies that dominate our information ecosystem,” says Haggart, co-author of The New Knowledge: Information, Data and the Remaking of Global Power. “It strongly suggests that Canada’s response — via the Online Streaming Act, theOnline News Act and the proposed Online Safety Act — is wholly inadequate to the challenges we now face, and that we need to seriously think about how to make these platforms operate in the interests of Canadians, not of their billionaire U.S. owners.”

  Brock University Associate Professor of Political Science Blayne Haggart is available for media interviews on this topic.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  *Sarah Ackles, Communications Specialist, Brock University sackles@brocku.ca or 289-241-5483

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock experts available to comment on U.S. election

  Tuesday, November 05, 2024 | By Brock University

  EXPERT ADVISORY – November 5, 2024 – R0133

  Brock University Political Science experts are available to comment on the U.S. election in terms of American politics, Canada’s trade relationships with the U.S. and wider geopolitical effects stemming from the outcome.

  Associate Professor Paul Hamilton says people around the world will likely be “glued to their screens” as the election results begin to roll in because the consequences of the presidential election will be “enormous” not only for the U.S. but also for countries around the world.

  He also says people should pay attention to races further down the ballot.

  “There has been less attention paid to the congressional elections, but those will determine the policy-making latitude of the next president,” says Hamilton. “The very strength of America’s democratic institutions may be tested in the coming weeks and months — and this will be even more contentious if there is a discrepancy between the popular vote and the electoral college vote.”

  Associate Professor Stefan Dolgert says that “regardless of the actual outcome of the election, the U.S. will be in a democratic death spiral for at least the next decade” due to the current organization of the U.S. political system.

  “The antiquated constitutional structure of the United States over-represents white, rural voters, many of whom are fearful of the emerging multiracial democracy that the U.S. is becoming, and who therefore will support fascists like Donald Trump to preserve what they see as their traditional birthright — political dominance,” he says.

  Dolgert, whose expertise is in the history of political thought as well as in the construction of contemporary institutions, says he uses the term “fascist” intentionally, based on the definition of the term. He also notes he isn’t alone in invoking that definition, with even Trump’s former chief of staff now using the term to describe him.

   

  Brock University Associate Professors of Political Science Paul Hamilton and Stefan Dolgert are available for media interviews on this topic.

   

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  *Sarah Ackles, Communications Specialist, Brock University sackles@brocku.ca or 289-241-5483

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  Categories: Media releases