In celebration of American democracy and the upcoming U.S. Presidential election on November 3rd 2020, I’m re-posting this video from earlier this year.

I had planned to post this on Nov 4^th 2020 – the day after the election – but I didn’t want to be perceived as celebrating either a Biden or Trump victory.

Why Does Trump Have Supporters in Canada?

While Joe Biden has many Canadian supporters, my American friends might be surprised to learn that there are quite a few Trump supporters up here in Canada. Americans (if they ever think of Canada at all – which is rarely) generally think of Canada as one big blue state. But this really isn’t true.

Trump Supporters In A Liberal Canadian City

I live in Toronto, Canada, which is literally the most liberal and multicultural city in the world. And even in Toronto you’ll find Trump supporters from different walks of life – recent immigrants, people of colour, people in the LGBT community; you name it, I’ve seen it!

This unexpected support is perplexing to many opponents of Trump. I’ll attempt to explain it as I see it:

1. There’s the entertainment factor – many people (especially young men). find Trump to be hilariously entertaining, especially the trolling, which I must profess, Trump seems to be a master at. And Canadians have a ringside view of all the action without having any skin in the game ourselves.
2. Canada has a high proportion of first generation immigrants. And whether they’re White, Black, Latino, South Asian, East Asian, Muslim, Catholic, Orthodox, etc., you have to understand that a lot of first generation immigrants have traditional old world values which align with those of the Republican party.
3. To my knowledge, America hasn’t invaded any countries since Trump became President. Why? Because Trump isn’t an idealist – he’s strictly transactional. And American idealism (i.e., spreading democracy across the globe) has resulted in the bombing or invasion of countries throughout the world since the end of the Second World War. Canadians have always hated this.
4. Canadians are sensible and moderate. While our mainstream political parties include socialists (New Democratic Party) and conservatives (Conservative Party of Canada), they are moderate left and moderate right. Quite a few Canadians see the craziness going on within the extreme fringes of the Democratic Party and think that America might just be better off under Trump for another 4 years, despite his own issues.

Trump Versus Biden – A Prediction

For the record, I personally believe that Canada would be far better off working with a Biden presidency – especially with respect to trade issues.

However, my gut feeling tells me that Trump will be re-elected President. And if that happens, then the entire American polling industry may very well go out of business if their predictions of a Biden victory are as wrong as their predictions of a Clinton victory back in 2016.