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“But possibly some good genie has fated that Canada will forever remain an exception. Congratulations, if so.”

Frum, whose book Trumpocracy will be released next month, said there are a number of common factors in the rise of the scandal-plagued U.S. president and other populist leaders who have little respect for democratic norms.

The slowdown of economic growth over the last decade in response to financial crises, the aging of the baby boom generation and rising ethnic diversity, leading to less social solidarity, have fostered the current situation.

“So, (there’s) less to go around, rising claims from baby boomers as they move to retirement age, at a time of decreased trust and willingness to share,” said Frum, the son of famed CBC journalist Barbara Frum and brother to Conservative Senator Linda Frum.

Further, in the U.S., a wealthy elite that is so terrified of losing its economic advantages have helped abet the “virulence and radicalism” of Trump, he said.

Frum, a senior editor at The Atlantic magazine and former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, dismissed comparisons of the advent of Trump to the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s, but said there is still significant cause for concern about his impact on democratic institutions.

“There are a lot of stops on the train line of bad before you reach Hitler station,” he said. “It is those stops we need to monitor and guard against.”

Frum said he believes the situation is not intractable and that western democracies faced more grievous challenges in the past as they confronted fascism and communism.

Western governments must look to solutions that include encouraging a growing birth rate, tapering off immigration levels and adopting economic reforms that will boost wages and employment among workers, he said.

Frum also called for a “spirit of moderation” in American politics that would see opponents of Trump on both the left and right strive to find common ground.

“The United States is in a constitutional crisis,” he said. “To check this onslaught will require joint-exertions of all who are committed to democracy and the rule of law.”

jwood@postmedia.com