January 14, 2025

[On the popularity of Margaret Thatcher] The further you got from Britain, the more admired you found she was.

James Callaghan (1912-2005), British Labour politician and prime minister, Spectator, 1 December 1990, Jay p.73

Interesting, and a reversal of what should be the preferred order of things, as a Caribbean fan club is of little use to a Canadian politician. Have you ever been admired “from a distance”? Did the ego-boost help you nearer to home?

Perhaps there is a lesson here: who are inspired by a particular politician from another country? And why? Barack Obama was popular in Africa, for the obvious reason—his father was African; Donald Trump elsewhere, perhaps less obviously so.