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Liberal Party of Canada Leadership

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Jim Seggie said:
Stephen Harper may come off like a cold fish, but he's at least competent IMO.

ModlrMike said:
That is largely a construct of his critics and the media IMHO. Having met and spoken with him several times, I have quite an opposite opinion.

But he fosters homeless kittens!  ::)    (Which I think is a great thing to do, in general - just for the record.)

The PM does not seem to be big on communication.  For those of us who don't have the opportunity to meet & speak with him, we're limited to what we see through the media.  If that's found wanting, then perhaps he should consider doing a few more interviews. 
 
The PM does not seem to be big on communication.

Quite the contrary. Just because he doesn't run to the media over each little bit of criticism as some previous office holders were wont to do, does not mean he is not communicating. His actions have spoke far more eloquently than any amount of press conferences    ....
 
Gerald Caplan is a leader of the NDP's hard left wing; he is a noted Harper hater but he was just as critical of Chretien/Martin; here he is, in a column which is reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Globe and Mail, with the loony-left's assessment of Justin Trudeau:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/what-the-ndp-are-scared-of-justin-trudeau/article4608844/
What the NDP are scared of: Justin Trudeau

GERALD CAPLAN
Special to The Globe and Mail

Published Friday, Oct. 12 2012

Although it’s not often acknowledged within the party, many New Democrats are worried sick about Justin Trudeau. They should be. The NDP can’t win power without attracting a substantial new group of progressive Canadians who previously voted Liberal. Yet these are exactly the people who might find Mr. Trudeau appealing enough to keep them in the Liberal camp. Nor do party strategists have much of a clue how to counter this first flush of incipient Justinmania.

New Democrats feel hard done by, and no wonder. On the basis of precious little, much of the media has been lavishing star treatment on Mr. Trudeau. He receives uncritical front page coverage for doing and saying nothing. Maclean’s magazine devoted a good part of last week’s issue to singing Mr. Trudeau’s praises, treating old pals as credible sources. Stories without a soupcon of news are often accompanied by photos of him and family that any politician would die for.

And yet, when you search for the beef beneath the sizzle, you find a strange phenomenon. It’s tempting to parody or satirize the message that Mr. Trudeau has articulated so far, until you realize that no one parodies him better than he does himself. Since every one in Canada knows he’s been criticized for being a featherweight, you’d have thought he’d immediately set out to reveal his true gravitas.

Yet what Mr. Trudeau has so far offered Canadians is something rare in the Hobbesian world of politics. What he has offered is love. He seems to think that all you really need is love. Mr. Trudeau bubbles over with love. As he announced at his campaign kick-off, “I love Montreal. I love Quebec. And I am in love with Canada.” Jack Layton told us that love is better than anger. But for politicians, love without a serious program is mere mush.

Nor does the love stop with Mr. Trudeau. Describing her husband at the launch of his leadership campaign, Sophie Grégoire called him “The man I love” and made it clear she was selflessly donating him to Canada. Yes, it meant a “sacrifice” for her family, but it was for a “noble cause.” Canada, it seems, needs Mr. Trudeau even more than she and the kids do.

This was quite an endorsement of a man who so far in life has moved from snowboarding instructor to private school teacher to third-party backbencher. But his real destiny is now finally clear. You might even think he was entitled to it.

Mr. Trudeau agreed. As he put it to Maclean’s: “Can I actually make a difference? Can I get people to believe in politics once more? Can I get people to accept more complex answers to complex questions? I know I can. I know that’s what I do very well. Why am I doing this? Because I can, not because I want to. Because I must.”

He must. He has discovered his calling, his entitlement.

When asked by The Globe’s Jane Taber to describe his big weaknesses, he finally came up with this: “Sometimes I’m impulsive about the things I say. I try to answer the questions that are asked…Has it got me in trouble? Yes. Will it get me in trouble? Yes.” Like his wife, he sees in himself remarkably few flaws.

Mr. Trudeau now matters a great deal, at least to much of the media. Yet when they cover the full panoply of complex questions asked and answered, one finds there is no there there.

Listen as he tries to inspire his audience, asking them for help “because this road will be one long, Canadian highway. We will have ups and downs. Breathtaking vistas and a few boring stretches. And with winter coming, icy patches. But we will match the size of this challenge with hard, honest work.”

Listen as he offers his bold new vision and solid new ideas. “We need to learn what we have forgotten. That the key to growth, to opportunity, to progress, is a thriving middle class.” And jobs are important too, he doesn’t fail to add. How has everyone else blinded themselves to these complex truths?

Mr. Trudeau boldly challenges his listeners: “Think about it for a moment: when was the last time you had a leader you actually trusted? And not just the nebulous ‘trust to govern competently,’ but actually trusted, the way you trust a friend to pick up your kids from school, or a neighbor to keep your extra front door key? Real trust? That’s a respect that has to be earned, step by step.”

While Thomas Mulcair, once briefly the new boy on the block, immerses himself in crucial and controversial issues and (one hopes) pursues serious new policy initiatives, determined to make the NDP a credible choice for government, Mr. Trudeau proffers self-parodying, sophomoric piffle.

Is this good enough for the Liberal Party? Is it good enough, as the NDP fears, for liberal Canadians? Is it enough for the media to continue peddling? So far, it seems it is.


If Caplan is right; if we are being set up for a HUGE battle for the (mainly young) progressive vote then there is no place for the older, fiscally conservative, moderates to go except to Stephen Harper's Conservatives.
 
Can you say vote split = 2015 CPC Majority?
 
GAP said:
His actions have spoke far more eloquently than any amount of press conferences    ....

That's part of my point, actually.  He just does things and doesn't talk to Canadians about them.  In a more-or-less democratic society, this tends to breed mistrust over time. 

Mr. Trudeau, on the other hand, talks a LOT - but we've yet to see what his actions would be.  Hmm, if only there were a happy medium... 
 
bridges said:
That's part of my point, actually.  He just does things and doesn't talk to Canadians about them.  In a more-or-less democratic society, this tends to breed mistrust over time. 

Mr. Trudeau, on the other hand, talks a LOT - but we've yet to see what his actions would be.  Hmm, if only there were a happy medium...

I've said this previously to others:

Canadians had a choice last election between a "great thinker" or a "great doer" and chose the later. The Liberals appear to be facing the same choice between Ms Coyne / Mr Garneau (potentially) and Mr Trudeau. I suspect that they will have leaned nothing by the time this leadership event takes place, and crown Mr Trudeau. The result will be that once again we are faced with making the thinker vs doer choice. The question is which species of leader will Canadians choose?
 
And while watching a program about government conspiracies, I recalled a Trudeau elder solution to the arms race. In his early years he began to urge scientists and engineers to "strangle discoveries" in the lab so they could not be turned into weapons. Clearly it was a loopy idea from a confused intellect.
 
The CPC finally makes an acknowledgement of the Young Dauphin. A trial balloon for their attack ads?

http://www.maximebernier.com/en/2012/10/justin-trudeau-ne-comprend-pas-l’economie/

Justin Trudeau doesn’t understand economics

14-October-2012 · Comment 
Tags :
Justin Trudeau launched his campaign for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada a couple of days ago. This week, I gave an interview to La Presse about Mr. Trudeau’s economic vision – or rather his lack of vision. Here is an English version of the article by Joël-Denis Bellavance published on Friday.

Maxime Bernier goes after Trudeau

October 12, 2012

Joël-Denis Bellavance

La Presse

Justin Trudeau is using “empty slogans” to woo the middle classes, but he has nothing credible to propose to improve their lives from an economic perspective, believes Maxime Bernier, the minister of State for Small Business.

Stephen Harper’s conservatives have until now remained silent on the candidacy of the young MP from Papineau, who wants to lead the Liberal Party of Canada. Mr. Bernier broke that silence by sharply criticizing some passages of the speech delivered by Mr. Trudeau when he launched his campaign in Montreal Tuesday of last week.

In his speech, Mr. Trudeau claimed that the middle class plays a determinant role in economic growth. “We need to learn what we have forgotten. That the key to growth, to opportunity, to progress, is a thriving middle class, he declared. A thriving middle class provides realistic hope and a ladder of opportunity for the less fortunate. A robust market for our businesses.”

“The great economic success stories of the recent past are really stories of middle class growth, he added. China, India, South Korea and Brazil, to name a few, are growing rapidly because they have added hundreds of millions of people to the global middle class.”

Maxime Bernier thinks Mr. Trudeau has it all wrong. “It’s the other way around! It’s not because their middle classes have grown that China and India, among others, have become economic successes. It’s rather because these countries have first experienced strong economic growth that their middle classes have had the chance to develop.”

“And why did they experience strong economic growth? Because over the past couple of decades, their governments have abandoned their old socialist and interventionist policies and have liberalized their economies. They increasingly relied on private enterprise, open markets and a more reasonable tax burden instead of trying to control everything and to stifle innovation with excessive regulation, bureaucratic planning and restrictions on businesses.

In an interview with La Presse, Mr. Bernier said that he did not expect to hear specific proposals from Justin Trudeau right at the start of his campaign. But these words from the aspiring leader about the middle classes convinced him that he had to speak out.

“Justin Trudeau confuses cause and effect in terms of economic development. This is the only economic perspective we find in his campaign launch speech. This does not bode well. You can’t govern a country with empty slogans,” concluded Mr. Bernier.

Sources close to Justin Trudeau did not make much of the conservative minister’s remarks. “Mr. Bernier is ten days late. People are looking for something else than the conservatives’ dirty politics. There’s a reason why Justin’s candidacy is attracting so much interest. And the campaign is only beginning,” said a close collaborator who did not want to be identified.
 
Thucydides said:
The CPC finally makes an acknowledgement of the Young Dauphin. A trial balloon for their attack ads?

http://www.maximebernier.com/en/2012/10/justin-trudeau-ne-comprend-pas-l’economie/

Hahaha.... oh dear.  :pop:
 
ModlrMike said:
I've said this previously to others:

Canadians had a choice last election between a "great thinker" or a "great doer" and chose the later. The Liberals appear to be facing the same choice between Ms Coyne / Mr Garneau (potentially) and Mr Trudeau. I suspect that they will have leaned nothing by the time this leadership event takes place, and crown Mr Trudeau. The result will be that once again we are faced with making the thinker vs doer choice. The question is which species of leader will Canadians choose?

In support of my position, I offer this:

Long-shots plunge into Liberal leadership race
CBC News
The Canadian Press
Posted: Oct 14, 2012 11:55 AM ET

A clutch of little-known long-shots is rushing in where Liberal luminaries fear to tread.
 
E.R. Campbell said:
mark-carney-facebook.jpg

The Liberal Party of Canada's favourite wet dream ~ brains, gravitas and charisma, in spades!
Source: National Post


The National Post article from which the Facebook page was lifted says:

Governor Carney strikes me as being a liberal, not a Liberal.



Governor Mark Carney, speaking in Vancouver said, according to Reuters, at a follow up press conference: "Look, I am doing my job. I am going to do my job. It’s pretty simple, I’ve got two years and change, at least, left on my mandate ... Why don’t I become a circus clown? I appreciate the great concern about my career, but I have gainful employment and I intend to continue it.”

I wonder how carefully he chose his words ... is he comparing the Liberal Party of Canada to a circus and the next leader to a clown?

 
Do you not think he chooses his words very carefully? In fact he may have been talking about his opinion of a post-bank political career.
 
E.R. Campbell said:
Governor Mark Carney, speaking in Vancouver said, according to Reuters, at a follow up press conference: "Look, I am doing my job. I am going to do my job. It’s pretty simple, I’ve got two years and change, at least, left on my mandate ... Why don’t I become a circus clown? I appreciate the great concern about my career, but I have gainful employment and I intend to continue it.”

I wonder how carefully he chose his words ... is he comparing the Liberal Party of Canada to a circus and the next leader to a clown?

The rumour mill is that the Bank of England is looking at Mark Carney for its chief financial officer. So, if you were Carney, which position would you take; head of some moribund party or a chief position with the BoE??
 
Anyone think this will lead to yet another name tossed into the mix?

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canada-politics/ontario-premier-dalton-mcguinty-resigns-office-225507009.html
 
Dalton McGuinty as a Federal leader?  Come on, that's as ridiculous as Bob Rae!



Oh.
 
Danjanou said:
Anyone think this will lead to yet another name tossed into the mix?

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canada-politics/ontario-premier-dalton-mcguinty-resigns-office-225507009.html

He said tonight it was time for a "renewal". Not a retirement or a private sector job. A renewal. I immediately saw a jump to the Fed Liberal party, via the leadership race, as his motive. I'm sure as soon as he shucks his Premiership, he'll dive head first into the national scene.

It'll be good to see him bitch slapped by the heavyweights.

Renewal? Nope, he's just tired of screwing one province. Now he wants to screw them all.
 
recceguy said:
He said tonight it was time for a "renewal". Not a retirement or a private sector job. A renewal. I immediately saw a jump to the Fed Liberal party, via the leadership race, as his motive. I'm sure as soon as he shucks his Premiership, he'll dive head first into the national scene.

It'll be good to see him ***** slapped by the heavyweights.

Renewal? Nope, he's just tired of screwing one province. Now he wants to screw them all.

Oh no... please Great Mother Maple Tree... save us all from this travesty  :o
 
PrairieThunder said:
Oh no... please Great Mother Maple Tree... save us all from this travesty  :o

Don't worry, Justin will crush the Mcguinty's with one hand tied behind his back. I will even join the LPC and work for the Young Dauphin's leadership race just to ensure this happens if needed.

Yes, I am serious about this.
 
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