Canada, U.S. face democratic ‘rough patches’ amid populism: American envoy

China and Russia are among the actors involved in attempts to subvert democracy, U.S. ambassador David Cohen said, but also domestic forces as shown by the trucker convoy protests.

Canada and the United States are facing “rough patches” in their democracies as populist, authoritarian movements continue to find traction among Western countries, says the American ambassador.

But in an interview with The West Block‘s Mercedes Stephenson, David Cohen said he is ultimately optimistic that the democracies will find a way through the political turmoil of recent years.

“I am always a glass-half-full kind of a guy,” Cohen said. “I irrevocably believe that democracy will prevail.

“But at the end of the day, you combat these rough patches with the strength of democracy, with dialogue, with working together with other democracies.“

His comments come as the U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, deadly attack on the Capitol presents its findings to the American public in televised hearings.

Cohen added that the challenges to democracy are not just happening in North America but in countries around the world where extremists are trying to use populism to subvert democratic processes and voices to further the goals of authoritarianism.

China and Russia are among the actors involved in those attempts to subvert democracy, he said, but also domestic forces including elements in the trucker convoys that blockaded the Canadian capital and border crossings for three weeks earlier this year.

“I don’t know whether it’s Donald Trump lines that have seeped into Canadian politics or whether it is this global movement that, quite frankly, predated Donald Trump,” Cohen said.