The politics isn't all that different, but the small variances make an enormous difference.
The US has a number of factors that give Trump's faction a substantial leg up. He has never won the popular vote. There is a very good chance that he will win this November the same way.
Republicans have one a grand total of 1 popular vote this century, and yet have won half of the elections. More than half, until recently, and likely to be more than half again.
The US Supreme Court has also been captured for coming decades by Trump's party. Those are lifetime appointments -- and their decisions guide who will replace them.
Culturally, Americans are not radically different from Canadians. Perhaps a tinge to the left. But American politics is very tipped to the right.
American left-wingers may not in fact find Canada any better for them. As you say, it's certainly not a left-winger utopia. But the US has become extremely ugly, and it's hard to choke down that ugliness when you know the power structures are tipped against you, and show every sign of becoming monotonically more so.
I think Americans hear that Canada has a single-payer health insurance system, and just make assumptions based upon the kinds of people that advocate single-payer here in the US. But the truth is that the US has had single-payer system my entire life, it's just that it only covers the elderly and the disabled.
> The US has a number of factors that give Trump's faction a substantial leg up. He has never won the popular vote. There is a very good chance that he will win this November the same way.
Trump is, according to polls, well on his way to winning the national popular vote this time. But that's irrelevant because the national popular vote is irrelevant in the US ... and in Canada. The US electoral college is in essence a parliament elected by the various states for the single purpose of electing the president. In any parliamentary system with a first-past-the-post system (the UK, Canada, and India, for example), it's similarly possible for a party to win the most votes across the country but not win the election because another party won more seats. This has happened in Britain four times, the last in February 1974. In Canada this happened in 1896, 1957, 1979, 2019, and 2021.
The Liberals have formed a government three consecutive times under Justin Trudeau despite, in the last two elections (2019 and 2021), the Conservatives winning the national popular vote and, further, the Liberals not winning a majority of ridings in the last election. In 1979, the Conservatives formed a government despite receiving 4.2% fewer votes than the Liberals, a size discrepancy between the popular vote and the actual outcome that has never occurred in the US. In 1896 the Liberals formed a government despite receiving 6.8% (!) fewer votes than the Conservatives!
>The US Supreme Court has also been captured for coming decades by Trump's party. Those are lifetime appointments -- and their decisions guide who will replace them.
Trudeau, like any Canadian prime minister, has complete control over naming new supreme court members (other than one third being from Quebec). There is no appointments clause or equivalent in Canada or other Westminster countries.
>But the US has become extremely ugly, and it's hard to choke down that ugliness when you know the power structures are tipped against you, and show every sign of becoming monotonically more so.
Sorry to again shatter your illusions, but the Canadian prime minister is probably the single most-powerful head of government in the developed world. Not in terms of military might, but in terms of what he can do within his political system, with the above being one small example.
The US has a number of factors that give Trump's faction a substantial leg up. He has never won the popular vote. There is a very good chance that he will win this November the same way.
Republicans have one a grand total of 1 popular vote this century, and yet have won half of the elections. More than half, until recently, and likely to be more than half again.
The US Supreme Court has also been captured for coming decades by Trump's party. Those are lifetime appointments -- and their decisions guide who will replace them.
Culturally, Americans are not radically different from Canadians. Perhaps a tinge to the left. But American politics is very tipped to the right.
American left-wingers may not in fact find Canada any better for them. As you say, it's certainly not a left-winger utopia. But the US has become extremely ugly, and it's hard to choke down that ugliness when you know the power structures are tipped against you, and show every sign of becoming monotonically more so.