The Politics of White Identity and Settlers’ Indigenous Resentment in Canada

Abstract

This article introduces White identity as an understudied concept in Canadian politics and compares how White settlers’ ingroup attachments and their outgroup attitudes—specifically, White settlers’ anti-Indigenous attitudes—shape Canadian politics. We find that White identity is associated with greater support for government spending on policies that disproportionately benefit White Canadians, such as pensions, whereas Indigenous resentment is associated with greater opposition toward government spending on policies that are often perceived as disproportionately benefiting Indigenous peoples, such as welfare. In Canada outside Quebec, both White identity and anti-Indigenous attitudes are associated with voting Conservative. In Quebec, White identity mobilizes support for the Bloc Québécois, while White settlers’ negative attitudes toward Indigenous peoples are not associated with vote choice.

Underrepresented Encounters in Mining Towns: Chinese and Indigenous Relations in the Cariboo Region During the 1850s to 1920s

“…Researching and representing settler-Indigenous relations literature becomes what Tuck and Yang (2012) calls "settler moves to innocence," in which these stories are shared 1 More information on the impact of politics with white identity in correlation to settler colonialism can be found in Beauvais, E., & Stolle, D. (2022). The Politics of White Identity and Settlers' Indigenous Resentment in Canada.…”

Indigenous Canadians take the Stand: The Influence of Age and Race on Mock-Juror Perceptions and Verdict Decisions

“…The pattern of voting Conservative and outgroup resentment follows a similar pattern to those living in the United States, where evidence shows racial resentment is a strong predictor of voting Republican (Jardina, 2020). They also found that Indigenous resentment is associated with greater opposition towards government spending on policies that disproportionately benefit Indigenous peoples, such as welfare (Beauvais & Stolle, 2022). In 2018, the third reading of Bill C-262, an act ensuring that the laws of Canada are harmonious with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), was passed in the House of Commons with majority of elected members of parliament (MPs) in full support (i.e., Liberal, NDP, Bloc, Green, Quebec-67.4%; Department of Justice, 2022).…”

“…There is also evidence of Conservatives' resentment toward initiatives and policies that benefit racial groups, including opposing reconciliation efforts and "specialized treatment" for Indigenous Canadians (Feldman & Huddy, 2005). A recent study by Beauvais and Stolle (2022) examined how White identity and anti-Indigenous attitudes shape Canadian politics has found evidence that White identity, anti-Indigenous attitudes, and Indigenous resentment are associated with voting Conservative. The pattern of voting Conservative and outgroup resentment follows a similar pattern to those living in the United States, where evidence shows racial resentment is a strong predictor of voting Republican (Jardina, 2020).…”

“…Although the current study is not examining or manipulating juror political affiliation, participant political affiliation will be collected and used as a co-variate or moderator if possible dependent on sample size. Due to perceived infringement to the conservative parties' propositions and opposition of government policies that benefit Indigenous communities, it is likely that individuals who hold more conservative political views may perceive Indigenous peoples more harshly than other political affiliations (Feldman & Huddy, 2005;Beauvais & Stolle, 2022).…”

“…Lastly, juror ethnicity and continuous political affiliation were hypothesized as covariates in the current study, as they have been associated with influencing juror decision-making outcomes (Beauvais & Stolle, 2022;. However, juror ethnicity and political affiliation did not meet the assumptions of ANCOVA to be used as controls in the current study and were excluded from the analyses.…”