Examining political polarization in Canada through the lens of Durand’s framework of the imaginary

Recent studies indicate that political polarization has increased in Canada over recent years. To examine this phenomenon, political science research has often relied on two orthogonal axes: a left–right economic axis and a cultural axis (GAL-TAN: Green/Alternative/Libertarian versus Traditional/Authoritarian/Nationalist). These frameworks are commonly used to interpret how the ideological and policy positions of political parties contribute to shaping citizens’ understandings of politics. This article proposes that these orthogonal axes may selectively activate, influence, and filter unconscious structures underlying the imaginary, thereby shaping political worldviews. This proposition is explored through an examination of the two aforementioned political axes alongside Durand’s Anthropological Structures of the Imaginary (ASI) in the Canadian context. The analysis illustrates how Durand’s framework provides an additional interpretive lens for understanding patterns of Canadian political polarization that are partially reflected in the left–right and GAL-TAN dimensions.