What Israel's Election Means for Canada

An election pitting a long serving right wing prime minister, against a recently resurgent party that used to dominate the political landscape, but had been in a precipitous decline in recent years. With a new face descended from a previous national leader, this left-wing party in many polls seemed likely to wrest power from a prime minister who had served one of the longest mandates in that nation’s history. This narrative applies just as easily to Canada’s election as it does to Israel’s. The parallels are stark, and the lessons to be learned likely are too.

The similarities between the recently held election in Israel and the forthcoming one in Canada extend to politics as well. Prime Minister Netanyahu pivoted away from any talk of his country’s languishing economy to focus squarely on security issues and foreign policy. This led to increasingly shrill calls to ditch any potential peace deal with Iran, and ultimately, renouncing his former position of a two state solution with Palestine. Perhaps the most egregious action was during voting itself when Netanyahu warned of Arab Israelis rushing to vote. Taking extreme measures to obfuscate domestic failure is something Canada’s own prime minister has been resorting to. Sweeping new measures to drastically curtail civil liberties are conjured up in response to terrorism through bill C-51. This bill seems to do very little to counter terrorism, and very much to foment fear and play wedge politics. Speaking of wedge issues, Harper has also decided as of late to tackle niqabs during citizenship tests. These wedge politics, just like Netanyahu’s policies towards Iran and Palestinians can drive votes, especially right-leaning votes. They also do well to gloss over these leader’s other glaring failings. The strength of the primary opposition party in both cases is sorely lacking as well. Isaac Herzog, former head of the labour party and leader of the Zionist Union, had the backing of a family name with his dad being a former president, but was largely out of his depth when it came to the campaign. An allegory is likely for Justin Trudeau.

Admittedly the similarities have been emphasized here, but there are enough of them that Israel’s elections should have insights into the one Canada is likely to hold soon. Those insights are not all rosy. Harper, like his friend Netanyahu has already begun playing crass politics with fear. It worked very well for Netanyahu, despite polls that seemed to put him in second place he still came out the victor. Harper is already using the same tactics, and even polls that put him behind should be analyzed with this in mind. Voters are unfortunately very receptive to fear, despite gains for the left in Israel, fear and a strong showing from a more united right won out. Hopefully Canada will not succumb to the same fate, and there is no reason to be deterministic about this, but there is no reason to be overconfident either. Harper’s tactics might prove more effective than many think, that was most certainly the case for Netanyahu in Israel.