onlyTrustedInfo.comonlyTrustedInfo.comonlyTrustedInfo.com
Notification
Font ResizerAa
  • News
  • Finance
  • Sports
  • Life
  • Entertainment
  • Tech
Reading: Opinion – Conservative losses in Australia and Canada have shocking parallels
Share
onlyTrustedInfo.comonlyTrustedInfo.com
Font ResizerAa
  • News
  • Finance
  • Sports
  • Life
  • Entertainment
  • Tech
Search
  • News
  • Finance
  • Sports
  • Life
  • Entertainment
  • Tech
  • Advertise
  • Advertise
© 2025 OnlyTrustedInfo.com . All Rights Reserved.
News

Opinion – Conservative losses in Australia and Canada have shocking parallels

Last updated: May 4, 2025 8:00 pm
Oliver James
Share
9 Min Read
Opinion – Conservative losses in Australia and Canada have shocking parallels
SHARE

The last few weeks brought two extraordinary political events in the Anglosphere: federal elections in Canada and Australia in which entrenched liberal incumbents survived against the odds, surging populist right-wing opposition parties fell short and, in a striking symmetry, both opposition leaders lost their own parliamentary seats.

At first glance, these results might seem like isolated national stories. But dig deeper and a shared narrative emerges — one that reveals how the “Trump effect,” once a galvanizing force, is beginning to falter abroad. Nowhere is that clearer than in the way defense policy factored into these elections: visible, yet incoherent on the populist right; present, yet perfunctory from the incumbents.

In Australia, Peter Dutton led the center-right Liberal-National Coalition into the federal election with a campaign laser-focused on crime, immigration and cost-of-living pressures. It was the kind of scorched-earth populism that echoed Trump’s rhetorical playbook: blunt, combative and heavy on culture war themes.

But it didn’t land. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Labor government — despite middling economic performance and mounting criticism over energy and housing policy — held on to power. Dutton not only failed to unseat the government but lost his own Brisbane-area seat of Dickson, a working-class suburban district that had been trending away from the right for years.

Even on defense, where Dutton might have claimed credibility as a former defense minister, his party failed to articulate a compelling vision that moved beyond vague promises of spending increases and into the realm of strategic foresight, especially in the face of a rising China and a more volatile Indo-Pacific.

Meanwhile, in Canada, Pierre Poilievre suffered a nearly identical fate. The Conservative leader had campaigned with populist swagger, stoking public anger over inflation, carbon taxes and government overreach. He weaponized frustration with Justin Trudeau’s long tenure, and for a while the polls seemed to tilt his way.

But as the campaign wore on, Poilievre’s angry edge alienated moderate voters. The Liberals — led by an uncharismatic but disciplined Mark Carney — squeaked out a minority government. Poilievre not only failed to win the country but lost his own seat in Carleton, Ontario.

And while defense wasn’t the defining issue of the campaign, it mattered. The Liberals made just enough noise about meeting NATO commitments and modernizing NORAD to appear credible, while Poilievre fumbled the file — caught between promising fiscal restraint and the need to re-arm. He said the right things about submarines and the Arctic, but offered no pathway to implementation. Voters noticed.

That two opposition leaders could fall in such spectacular fashion in such similar democracies, and at nearly the same moment, is more than coincidence. It’s a symptom of a broader pathology — and a warning sign for conservatives everywhere. The short version is this: The Trump effect is running out of gas abroad, even as it regains traction at home.

Neither Dutton nor Poilievre is a carbon copy of Trump. But both tried to ride the same wave that swept the American right to power in 2016 and 2024. Each ran campaigns premised on rage: at elites, at rising prices, at immigration and identity politics. They courted conspiracy-adjacent voters while offering little in the way of serious economic or national security policy. They performed well on social media, but confused virality with victory.

The real problem wasn’t style, though that surely hurt them. It was strategic substance — or the lack of it. In Australia, Dutton never developed a coherent vision for national security, climate or energy. His party leaned on platitudes about military modernization and AUKUS without grappling with what that would mean in budgetary or strategic terms.

In Canada, Poilievre railed against carbon taxes and central bankers but had no credible defense platform to anchor his talk of sovereignty. His promises to rebuild the armed forces and invest in Arctic defense lacked follow-through. He had no clear answer to the question of how Canada would meet its NATO and NORAD obligations under his leadership — or how to square that with his anti-government crusade. In both countries, the populist right mistook indignation for strategy and paid the price.

At the same time, these defeats were not a rebuke of conservatism. In Canada, the Liberals were returned with fewer seats and a much weaker mandate and will need support from a decimated New Democratic Party. Carney’s victory was narrow, conditional and likely unstable.

In Australia, Labor’s majority shrank, and Albanese is now vulnerable to pressures from the Greens and independents. The populist opposition didn’t win, but the centrist establishment is hardly secure. What we’re witnessing isn’t a leftward lurch — it’s a crisis of political coherence.

In both Canada and Australia, center-right parties tried to borrow Trumpist aesthetics without understanding its American context. Trump’s brand of grievance politics works (when it does) because it’s rooted in a specific set of American cultural fault lines that don’t transplant easily. In Australia and Canada, the political right imported the style but forgot the soil. The result was electoral collapse.

So what lessons should conservatives draw from all this?

First, populism without discipline is a dead end. Outrage can fuel a movement, but it doesn’t govern — and in multiparty democracies like Canada and Australia, it doesn’t even win elections.

Second, opposition parties need serious, hardheaded policy platforms. Voters want answers, not just attitude. That means clear, actionable defense policies — not just gestures.

Third, the politics of the Anglosphere are converging in strange and sometimes contradictory ways. Trump’s influence is felt everywhere — but it mutates in transit. What works in Mar-a-Lago often fails in Mississauga or Melbourne.

The defeats of Poilievre and Dutton are strategic lessons about the limits of mimicry and the dangers of mistaking performative populism for power. They show us that political realignments are messy, nonlinear affairs — and that the American right’s path is not necessarily a roadmap for its cousins abroad.

But they also show us that all is not well with the liberal order. Both Australia and Canada emerged from their elections more fractured than before, with weaker governments and stronger undercurrents of discontent. The populist right may have lost the battles, but the war is far from over.

The Trump factor still haunts the politics of the English-speaking world. But what we’re seeing now is not a triumph — it’s a test. A test of whether conservatism can evolve beyond Trumpism without collapsing into irrelevance; whether liberal democracies can offer more than just managerial continuity in a world demanding strategic courage; and whether voters, fatigued by theatrics and fear, are ready to reward seriousness again.

The jury is still out. But if Poilievre and Dutton are any indication, the path forward will require more than slogans but what neither man could offer: substance, humility and a willingness to articulate defense and foreign policy in terms voters can respect.

That might not go viral — but it might just win.

Andrew Latham is a professor of international relations at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minn., a senior fellow at the Institute for Peace and Diplomacy, and a non-resident fellow at Defense Priorities in Washington.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

You Might Also Like

Philippine president calls for all Cabinet secretaries to resign after election setbacks

Lawmakers, gig workers push for Evers to sign portable benefits bill

Russian divers found dead, one in the jaws of a shark, near popular Philippines resort

What the Appeals Court Said About Trump’s National Guard Power

Ford reports slight decline in Q1 sales as industry braces for tariffs

Share This Article
Facebook X Copy Link Print
Share
Previous Article This Rare See-Through Squid Is Blinking for a Reason This Rare See-Through Squid Is Blinking for a Reason
Next Article IBM CEO makes play for AI market and more US investment IBM CEO makes play for AI market and more US investment

Latest News

Carlos Correa in comfort zone in return to Astros
Carlos Correa in comfort zone in return to Astros
Sports August 1, 2025
Mitchell scores 23, Boston and Howard have double-doubles as Fever beat Wings 88-78
Mitchell scores 23, Boston and Howard have double-doubles as Fever beat Wings 88-78
Sports August 1, 2025
Sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson arrested for incident at Washington airport involving boyfriend
Sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson arrested for incident at Washington airport involving boyfriend
Sports August 1, 2025
Kyle Manzardo’s RBI single in 10th inning gives Guardians 3-2 win over Twins
Kyle Manzardo’s RBI single in 10th inning gives Guardians 3-2 win over Twins
Sports August 1, 2025
//
  • About Us
  • Contact US
  • Privacy Policy
onlyTrustedInfo.comonlyTrustedInfo.com
© 2025 OnlyTrustedInfo.com . All Rights Reserved.