Beyond the Convoy: Exploring Philanthropic Foundations' Role in Mainstreaming Right-Wing Populism


Fahad Ahmad, Toronto Metropolitan University

Right-wing movements have had a long presence in Canada, yet, only recently, have associated groups garnered the attention of policymakers and academics (Perry and Scrivens, 2019). The frequent characterization of right wing movements as “extremist” or “radical” implies that the values and norms they encapsulate lie outside the acceptable modes of political expression. Yet, when the so-called “Freedom Convoy”—frequently described as Canada’s “far right protest”—brought the capital city of Ottawa to a standstill for a month in the winter of 2022, about half of Canada sympathized with their ideas, even if they did not agree with their tactics. Members of the Conservative Party of Canada took photographs with the convoy leaders and participants. Such endorsements suggest that the ideas of the convoy did not reside outside the spectrum of acceptable politics. The study of “right wing populism” (RWP) attempts to capture the ideas and discourses of the right—ethno-nationalism, anti-immigration, Islamophobia, anti-establishment, economic protectionism, and others—that resonate across sections of global north publics (Mudde, 2017). Whereas the study of right-wing populism has largely focused on the role of political parties, newer studies have started to consider movement dynamics, charismatic leaders, and transnational connections. Among these queries, our intervention sheds light on an understudied area: what role do philanthropic foundations play in mainstreaming right-wing populist ideas; and what are the pertinent material and symbolic mechanisms of support from philanthropic foundations that enable such legitimization? As such, this exploratory inquiry adds to a broader call in the literature to understand the role of putatively liberal institutions—like, philanthropy—play in sustaining right wing populism. We focus on the case of Canada as it represents a somewhat paradoxical case. Much has been written celebrating the positive role of Canada’s official multiculturalism policy on social cohesion and national identity formation. So positive was Canada’s public image of multiculturalist liberalism that when it appeared Donald Trump would become President in 2016, progressive Americans proclaimed they would move to Canada. Studying the ascendance of right wing populism in Canada provides an instructive opportunity to think past conventional paradigms of left/liberal versus right/conservatist divides. Further, by thinking about the pivotal role of philanthropy, our intervention sheds light on another important puzzle: how do liberal institutions at times, knowingly and at others, inadvertently normalize ideas associated with RWP? To examine this, we have started putting together an original dataset identifying financial flows from philanthropic foundations to organizations that publish reports and knowledge instruments that are often reused by RWP movement actors. In the same dataset, we also examine the presence of RWP ideologues on the boards of Canadian philanthropic foundations. Such ideologues either espouse RWP ideas and/or are connected to the “Freedom Convoy” in a meaningful way. While still in preliminary stages, the database provides an opportunity to examine previously uncovered networks of relationships and shed light on the hegemonic processes through which ideological frames/discourses of RWP are mobilized through philanthropic foundations.  For this paper, we present our findings based on analysis of the preliminary dataset we have assembled. Through this, we are able to highlight the mechanisms through which philanthropic institutions, sometimes unwittingly and sometimes knowingly, bolster right wing populist ideas while at the same time professing commitment to liberalism. As such, our findings speak to the political economic and symbolic dimensions that affirm philanthropic institutions, which in turn facilitate the proliferation of regressive ideologies associated with RWP.

Non-presenting authors: Adam Saifer, University of British Columbia – Okanagan; Paul Sylvestre, University of Ottawa

This paper will be presented at the following session: