Experts, expats in Saskatchewan divided over Trump victory
The president-elect's agenda worries some, but others see promise
Tuesday night's election results in the United States have drawn mixed reactions in Saskatchewan.
Former president Donald Trump will become the 47th president of the United States when he is inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025.
The Republican politician defeated Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in a huge political comeback, winning in battleground states including Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
During an interview with CBC Blue Sky host Adam Hunter on Wednesday, Cheryl Camillo, an American citizen living in Canada and an associate professor at University of Regina's Johnson-Shoyama graduate school of public policy, said she was "very concerned" about the future of the U.S. and the potential effects Canada could face.
"I believe President Trump will be further emboldened to erode the democratic institutions of the United States, including the federal executive branches and the judiciary, and democratic processes in general,"Camillo said. "I'm also concerned that he will create more divisiveness and a more divided nation."
People saw flashes of that messaging in Trump's victory speech when he did not thank President Joe Biden or Harris, his vice-president, she said.
A Trump presidency could affect Saskatchewan in several ways, Camillo said, including economically if tariffs are imposed, but also with an increase in Trump-style rhetoric, something she said can already be seen in Canadian politics.
"I believe they [Canadian conservatives] already have adopted many of the tactics that the Trump campaign has used, and so I anticipate as I'm driving by the [legislative building] down Albert Street, there will be more protesters with 'F Trudeau' signs and and other vulgar signs, and the rhetoric will devolve from there," Camillo said.
Another Blue Sky guest disagreed.
"You know, just listen to people like that [Camillo] and you'll be totally uninformed about what's happening in America," said Frank Buckley, who was born and raised in Saskatchewan and is now a law professor at George Mason University in Virginia. He previously wrote speeches for Donald J. Trump and Donald Trump Jr.
Americans aren't at the point where pronouns and climate change drive them to vote, he said. People voted for Trump for economic reasons and inflation. Camillo had argued Harris had the better plan for the economy.
"It is not the case that Americans are just too stupid to understand that the Democrats are good for them," Buckley said. "I think they also understand that there have been structural problems in our economy, and in particular with respect to the loss of the American dream."
Buckley likened Trump's "reinvented" Republican Party to Saskatchewan's Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), a democratic socialist party that was succeeded by the NDP in the 1960s.
Expats weigh in
Two expatriates from the U.S. who currently live in Saskatoon reflected on the election with CBC's Saskatoon Morning host Stephanie Massicotte.
Ben Dunning, originally from Wisconsin — a key battleground state — watched as Trump claimed victory for the second time in three elections.
Dunning said most of his family back home are Trump supporters, but he chose not to vote in this election because he has no plans on going back to the U.S.
As well, as an instructor at the University of Saskatchewan he said he doesn't want his students to think he is biased.
Dunning said he watched the results roll in with his brother.
"I got 2016 vibes," he said. "I saw this strange Trump early lead, and then it just never went away, and I thought, 'Uh oh, I think we're headed for Trump 2.0 here.'"
Now that Trump has been reelected, Dunning said he questions what will happen with some of the promises made regarding immigration, tariffs and crime.
"I'm not sure whether or not he plans to follow through on this idea of, like, the biggest mass deportation in U.S. history, I don't know how we could even afford to do something like that, let alone carry it out," Dunning said.
"So, yeah, I'm very nervous about what will happen in the U.S. going forward."
Beau Sutton, originally from New York, said he voted Democratic this election because he felt it boiled down to one simple reason: Harris was more qualified than Trump, who had done a "terrible job."
"They [the Harris campaign] underestimated how people were feeling about the economy — just the general dissatisfaction with how the government was running right now. I think they overestimated how much people would be against Trump … and that cost them everywhere," Sutton replied when asked about mistakes the Harris campaign made.
With files from Saskatoon Morning, Blue Sky and Chris Iorfida