TORONTO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd November, 2020) Canadians across the political spectrum are attentively following the US presidential race, but do not expect much change in bilateral relations or in their daily life regardless of the election outcome, three Canadians said in separate interviews with Sputnik.
On November 3, Americans will decide whether they will give US President Donald Trump a second four-year mandate or elect his Democratic challenger Joe Biden in what many analysts have called the most important election in our lifetime.
Canada and the United States are bound by close economic, cultural and often family ties - a situation that has prompted Canadians to watch the developments in the US presidential race particularly closely and frequently offer their views or debate on social media. The US election has gripped the country to the point where Canadian state tv stations were accused of overlooking domestic headlines to concentrate on events across the southern border.
Joe Emersberger, 54, an engineer from Windsor, Ontario and a member of Unifor, Canada's largest union in the private sector, said he identifies as a leftist and views the US election as a choice between the lesser of two evils.
"The outcomes will be worse if Trump wins rather than Biden, in my opinion. But both outcomes are bad. We basically have two bad outcomes and one is worse," Emersberger said.
Emersberger said foreign policy tops the issues in terms of importance and cited the United States' outsized role in Canadian and global affairs as a context for his heightened interest in the US election. He noted that Canada's international engagement has mainly become an extension of US foreign policy, with Ottawa supporting coups in Venezuela and Bolivia while standing in the midst of US diplomatic rifts with China and Russia.
As a unionized worker, Emersberger said he worries about the economic impact of the election, noting that the aftershock of years of anti-labor policies that have left US unions decimated could likely reverberate in Canada.
"[De-unionization in the United States] puts tremendous downward pressure on Canadian wages and working conditions as well. The labor movement in Canada ends up getting squeezed by the downward trend in the United States," he said.
Emersberger said he doubted much would change after the election.
"In the United States, the Democrats and Republicans, basically, are two factions of the same party," he said. "There is kind of a very closed off political discussion that dominates."
Kiro Attia, 27, an engineering consultant and self-described centrist, said he holds a pragmatic view of the candidates and on the impact the outcome of the US election will have on Canada.
"I wouldn't really be pressed to see either candidate win or lose," Attia said. "Our lives in all aspects are very intertwined. Our economies rely heavily on each other and on the transfer of goods, services and travelers across the border. In this sense, US-Canada relations are important and impact who we see, what we consume, and how we consume it. I don't see any of these things changing drastically anytime soon."
However, Attia said he is leaning toward Trump in the matchup of imperfect candidates, as some analysts have billed the US election, saying that a Biden victory would reinforce a trend where meritocracy, logic and core issues are drowned out by rhetoric and moral grandstanding.
Attia also said that a Biden victory would have a negative impact on his investments, but noted that he does not believe his career prospects will be affected by any potential slowdowns.
"Media reports suggest that a Biden win will not affect the markets negatively, but I think my investments would react negatively to a Biden presidency and I think the long-term outlook in terms of major companies downsizing and/or offshoring is more likely to happen," he said.
Attia explained there is a two-fold reason shared by many Canadians for staying on top of the US election: the emerging new school of political thought and the entertainment value the 2020 campaign has brought.
"Canadian politics sort of lag behind and emulate American politics over time and Canadians are just tuning in to see a glimpse of what the political landscape might look like here soon," Attia said.
The proximity as well as the lack of what he said is "consequentiality" makes the US election easy to engage in without agonizing over its implications, he said.
Nevertheless, Attia said he laments the carnival-like atmosphere that has defined the campaigns and superseded policy discussion by propaganda, insults and antics.
Stacy, a Toronto-area healthcare worker who provided only her first name due to heightened political tensions, said the Trump presidency has been a breath of fresh air that she never anticipated would appeal to her four years ago.
"I'm interested in this election because I've been following US politics more closely ever since the 2016 election. Back then, I was rooting for Hillary, watched every debate, laughed at every single thing that came out of Trump's mouth because I didn't believe he had it in him to win on election night when Trump beat out Hillary, I was completely shocked," she said.
Stacy pointed out that the relentless tide of anti-Trump media reports prompted her to give right-of-center publications a try and reach out to family in the United States to gather objective information and form a more complete picture.
Eventually, she started increasingly liking Trump's stance of prioritizing the needs and interests of US workers, his personable approach with ordinary people and lack of political experience as opposed to career politicians who run on the same often empty promises every election cycle, she said.
Stacy said the entertainment factor makes the US election an enticing thing to watch especially in light of a domestic political vacuum.
"Another reason Canadians have more interest in this election could be because our own country's leader, [Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau, has pretty much been flying under the radar since the pandemic started and we need some kind of political stimulation to fill that void," she said.
Stacy emphasized she hopes for a Trump victory on Election Day, since a renewed mandate would spur an expedient and equitable post-pandemic recovery and give the sitting US president more time to further ease global tensions in the middle East and withdraw US troops from Afghanistan by year's end.
In addition, Stacy says neither of the election outcome would fundamentally change US-Canada relations with the exception of minor economic shifts.
