Chris Alexander: Election Race and Divide-and-Conquer Populism

chris alexander: As federal Conservative leadership hopeful Chris Alexander slammed the record of Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley, the crowd of 1,000 outside the provincial legislature chanted loudly and clearly, Lock her up, according to Hamilton Spectator. This was, of course, the infamous cry heard at so many pro-Trump Republican rallies in the recent presidential election race. Canadians may assure themselves theyre immune to the vicious, divide-and-conquer populism that made Trump the next U.S. president, but a rally in Edmonton last weekend shows how wrong that assumption is. And it was always directed at Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whom an obliging Trump vowed to have formally investigated if he won. Not only did he, unfortunately, fail to do this, video footage shows him smiling and nodding as the words were being screamed. As a former federal cabinet minister in a country with less extreme, dare we say more polite, politics, Alexander might have been expected to denounce the repeated demands to lock up the premier. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.