U.S. Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders may be in a distant second place in the delegate race behind fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton, but that doesn’t mean his bid for the White House is impossible just yet. Even if he is unable to steal the lead from Clinton, he has been demanding that his message be included in the Democratic platform.

“If we don’t win, we intend to win every delegate we can,” he said at a rally in April, “so that when we go to Philadelphia (for the convention), we will have the votes to put together the strongest progressive agenda that any party has ever seen.”

As a way of avoiding a complicated Democratic convention this summer, the Clinton camp might accommodate some of his policies.

  • For how a Trump presidency would impact Canada, click here
  • For how a Clinton presidency would impact Canada, click here

So how would Canada “feel the Bern?” CTVNews.ca takes a look at how the Vermont senator’s ideas could impact Canadians.

Trade

Sanders has been a longtime opponent of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and, more recently, he has expressed opposition to the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal. At a rally in Pittsburgh, he called Clinton out for initially supporting the TPP and then changing her mind about the deal.

“She called it the 'gold standard' of trade agreements. Now she says she has reservations about it,” he said. “Now let me be very clear what I will do, if elected president. I will not renegotiate the TPP. I will reject it.”

Over the course of his campaign, Sanders has repeatedly blamed free trade deals for hurting American jobs and wages, particularly those in manufacturing.

“Over the past 15 years, the state of Michigan has lost one-third of its manufacturing jobs. The most significant reason for this economic decline is our failed trade policies,” he said during a speech in the Rust Belt state.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has already signed the TPP, which would lower tariffs and trade barriers among a dozen Pacific Rim countries. Canada has not ratified the deal yet, but Trudeau hinted his government was heading in that direction during an event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“In our conversations with Canadians, with industries which are ongoing, there are a lot of people in favour of it and there are a few who have real concerns and we’re looking at understanding and allaying certain fears and building on some of the opportunities,” he said.

Sanders has been consistent in his dislike for the NAFTA agreement from the moment it was signed into law by Clinton’s husband, former president Bill Clinton, in 1993. He even went so far as to introduce a bill that would lower American politicians’ wages to that of their Mexican counterparts to demonstrate the effects NAFTA would have on the average U.S. worker. Predictably, his bill failed to pass.

Sanders repeatedly criticized his rival Clinton on the campaign trail for supporting NAFTA earlier in her career.

“She (Clinton) was very, very wrong and millions of families around this country have been suffering as a result of those disastrous trade agreements,” he said at a news conference in Lansing, Mich.

During a recent trip to Washington, Trudeau said he wasn’t concerned about the prospect of Sanders, or Trump for that matter, reopening NAFTA if they’re elected.

“I’m not worried that we are going to reopen NAFTA or other trade deals,” he told CNBC in March. “The challenge is once you open it a little bit, they all tend to unravel and it’s too important for our economies to continue to have a strong trade relationship.”

Keystone XL pipeline

Fighting climate change and protecting the environment are major issues for the Sanders’ campaign so it’s not surprising that he opposed the proposed TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline project. The 1,900-kilometre pipeline would transport crude oil from Alberta’s oilsands to the Gulf of Mexico.

“The idea that we would give a green light for the transportation of 800,000 barrels of some of the dirtiest oils all over the world makes no sense to me,” he told CNN in November.

Late last year, Sanders released a statement applauding U.S. President Barack Obama for rejecting the proposal. The senator also said in the statement that he was “someone who has led the opposition to the Keystone pipeline from day one.”

Trudeau supported the pipeline project and said in a statement that he was “disappointed” by President Barack Obama’s rejection of the plan in November. A few weeks ago, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley travelled to Washington, D.C. in an attempt to change Americans’ perceptions of her province’s oilsands.

“Really at this point, what we’re mostly doing is trying to just change the narrative about our province,” she said. “We felt it was really important for people to understand that our government is taking a very different approach to environmental issues and to climate change.”

Sanders and Trudeau

Sanders and Trudeau might disagree on trade and the Keystone XL pipeline, but they do have some shared values when it comes to social programs. A centrepiece of Sanders’ campaign is the call for a universal health care system that would be available to all Americans.

"It is time for our country to join every other major industrialized nation on Earth and guarantee health care to all citizens as a right, not a privilege,” he said in a statement.

In order to pay for this government-run health insurance program, which Sanders’ campaign team estimates will cost US$1.38 trillion per year, he has proposed a 2.2 per cent income tax on Americans and a 6.2 per cent tax on employers. The wealthy would also see their taxes increase under this plan.

Trudeau is no stranger to the idea of raising taxes. During his campaign last year, he called for tax hikes for the wealthiest one per cent to pay for expanded social programs such as child benefits, employment insurance and old age security. In January, Trudeau’s new income tax bracket came into effect which lowered taxes for the middle-class and raised them for a new, upper bracket. The income-tax rate dropped to 20.5 per cent, from 22 per cent for Canadians earning between $45,282 and $90,563. The rate rose to 33 per cent, from 29 per cent for Canadians with an income higher than $200,000.

With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press