Strong or Weak, Leader or Enemy: Populist Characterizations of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in Alberta Political Cartoons (1974–1983)

After decades of mainly conservative leadership, the political culture in Alberta, Canada is often regarded as one of the most “right wing” in Canada. With a history of sentiments grounded in Western alienation and ongoing opposition to the federal government, Alberta has also been prone to different types of populist politics. In this article, the authors interrogate the roots of Alberta’s anti-Ottawa and anti-federalist sentiments through an analysis of media as an input or reinforcement to public opinion. Through an analysis of political satire in a popular Alberta newspaper, they find that the anti-Ottawa sentiment is largely grounded in antagonism toward Pierre E. Trudeau. Grounded in the analyses of media framing of leadership in political cartoons (n = 2,058) published in the Calgary Herald from 1972 to 2012, the results speak to the patterns of blaming and scapegoating within Albertan politics and highlight how the framing of economic loss, political alienation, and marginalization, even satire, has become a default position within the province.