The Contrasting Electoral Effects of National Identity: Evidence From White Working‐Class Voters in Canada and the United States

ABSTRACT Can national identity ever be captured by non‐right‐wing parties? This paper examines this question with an underutilised comparison of white working‐class voters in the Canadian province of Ontario and the Midwest region of the United States. This paper combines insights from survey data and a candidate‐choice conjoint experiment. Evidence shows that national identity has a strong association with Republican voting and partisanship among Midwestern white working‐class voters, but is instead tied to support for the centre‐left Liberal Party among white working‐class voters from Ontario. Behind these effects, conceptions of the nation differ greatly. National identity among the American sample is more closely tied to racial resentment, religiosity and anti‐government sentiment, while national identity among the Canadian sample has no association with these sets of attitudes. This paper shows how the same social identity, among a similar group, can have starkly different political effects depending on national context.