- Reaction score
- 5,960
- Points
- 1,260
And, in a column that is reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Ottawa Citizen, Michael Den Tandt, who is not a Conservative shill by any stretch of the imagination, wonders if the shine is off M. Trudeau:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/national/Justin+Trudeau+honeymoon+over/9796337/story.html
Quibble: I guess (hope) the editors missed the second line of the opening sentence:
"I’ll so offend to make offence a skill,
Redeeming time when men think least I will."
Henry IV, Part 1, Act I, Scene II
Anyway, Shakespeare did define what M. Trudeau needs to do. He has been "unscripted" but now he needs to redeem himself by showing us, in the next 18 months, something of substance, someone worth voting for.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/national/Justin+Trudeau+honeymoon+over/9796337/story.html
Is Justin Trudeau’s honeymoon over?
BY MICHAEL DEN TANDT, POSTMEDIA NEWS
MAY 1, 2014
“I’ll so offend to make offence a skill;
It seemed for the longest time that nothing could touch Justin Trudeau; that his ascendancy was inevitable. But that may be beginning to change. In April, for the first time since he took the Liberal crown, successive national polls showed his support slipping. Across Canada the Grits are now in a dead heat with Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, at 33 per cent versus 31 per cent, respectively, according to poll aggregator threehundredeight.com.
In Quebec, meantime, the Liberals now trail Tom Mulcair’s New Democrats by one point, at 32 per cent versus 33, according to a new CROP survey. It’s not a collapse, to be sure; but across the board, suddenly, Trudeau’s numbers are moving in the wrong direction, if you’re a Liberal. And the question, of course, is why. What has changed?
For months, running into years, the knock against Trudeau has been that he is an empty vessel; young, good-looking, with a celebrated pedigree and a bright smile, but void of substance, inexperienced, and — as the Conservative attack ad puts it — “in over his head.” Each of his public, verbal goofs — and there have a been a string of them now — has bolstered that narrative.
Set against that, from the start, has been the strategic savvy on display in, among other things, his choice of issues. The trend toward greater income inequality is real; it is in place worldwide, and Canada is not exempt. One can argue it is unwise for any politician to promise to “fix” such a problem, let alone while ruling out a major wealth transfer; but not, credibly, that inequality is make-believe. More important politically, no Canadian party leader can ever go too far wrong in championing the middle class, because the vast majority of voters consider themselves to be just that.
Economic policy-wise, we now know where he’s headed; it’s in keeping with the centrist tradition established in the Chretien era, but with a John Manley-esque, almost Red Tory tilt. The first three priorities named in Trudeau’s presentation to the Vancouver Board of Trade last month were education, trade and resource development, in that order, the latter couched in language not particularly different from that used in the past by Jim Prentice, soon to be the new Progressive Conservative premier of Alberta. The fourth priority, innovation, is classic Manley blue Liberalism; the fifth, infrastructure development, the only nod to the interventionist ethos that animated the federal Liberals before they came to power in 1993.
Here’s what that confirms: Trudeau proffers no wrenching change. Rather he stands to inherit Harper’s neo-liberalism and make it more equitable — just as Tony Blair once did in the United Kingdom, following the Thatcher years, or Bill Clinton did in the United States, following the first Bush presidency. This explains, I suspect, why his gaffes haven’t hurt him more than they have; his program is broadly appealing both to conservatives weary of Harper’s anti-democratic tendencies, and social progressives leery of the New Democrats’ love of higher taxes, more government and debt.
Why, then, the current backslip?
Trudeau, as he showed in an appearance on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight a month ago, can be both candid and engaging in an unscripted setting, without setting his hair on fire. If he brings that game to a campaign, he’ll be competitive. But then there’s the other guy; the one who wondered about the Boston bombers feeling excluded, praised China’s dictatorship for its decisiveness, and joked about the pending invasion of Ukraine. Even his recent dropping of the F-bomb at a boxing match, though not a hanging offence in 2014, displayed a lack of internal editor that does him no credit.
Trudeau’s supporters assert the blurt factor is no big deal; that it comes with the territory of being less scripted than other politicians, and that a double standard is at work; but that doesn’t wash. He’s running to lead a G7 country. He makes his living by speaking. Misspeaking undermines his standing among the very people he most needs in order to win — small-c-conservatives, many of them older, who strayed to the Tories after Chretien. Frankness, for Trudeau, is exactly on brand; silly or callow frankness, exactly off. In a country shorn of so much real ideological debate, leadership and questions of character will dominate. There is no avoiding it.
So, to the question: Can this admittedly talented politician develop the skill of speaking frankly, without stumbling over his own feet? He has very little time, now, to figure this out — assuming victory in 2015 is still the objective. Never mind blaming the Tories and NDP for their negativity; surely it’s fair to expect thoughtful speech, virtually without fail, of a potential national leader? It’s an expectation Trudeau invited when he set himself up as different, and implicitly better, than either of his rivals.
Quibble: I guess (hope) the editors missed the second line of the opening sentence:
"I’ll so offend to make offence a skill,
Redeeming time when men think least I will."
Henry IV, Part 1, Act I, Scene II
Anyway, Shakespeare did define what M. Trudeau needs to do. He has been "unscripted" but now he needs to redeem himself by showing us, in the next 18 months, something of substance, someone worth voting for.