05.27.2017 07:15 PM

Somewhere, Justin Trudeau is smiling 


35 Comments

  1. Matt says:

    I’m sure there were a lot of Conservatives smiling when Trudeau won the Liberal leadership too.

    Now, did my preferred choice win? No. But everyone seems to believe Scheer is beholden to the So-Cons now.

    I’m not so sure.

    If the So-Cons put Scheer second because they thought they would finally have their voice heard in Parliament, they may be mistaken. Had they been paying attention during the race, they would have heard Scheer, on a number of occasions say while he PERSONALLY is against abortion and gay marriage, he would NOT allow those debates to be re-opened in the HOC, a la Harper. The question is does he have the intestinal fortitude to shut that shit down like Harper did? We’ll see.

    They So-Cons would have been better to support Bernier as a second choice as he said he would allow his MP’s the freedom to introduce any private members bills they wanted.

    Interesting point the CBC reported: After Trost was eliminated, the majority of his ballots were “dead” meaning they only had him on the ballot.

    For the record my ballot top 5:

    Bernier
    Raitt
    O’Toole
    Chong
    Scheer

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Matt,

      You’re mighty moderate. I think Scheer’s mistake right off the bat is not being Harper-lite. Rather, it’s sounding Trump-lite on terrorism.

  2. Steve T says:

    But what of his policies? Do you think that having a little-known background (or being generally little-known by many Canadians) is an advantage? I suppose he won’t be little-known by the time 2019 rolls around.

    Scheer seems like a pragmatic person, who (like Harper) is willing to do what is necessary to make CPC broadly appealing, rather than trying to pander to the base.

    I actually think this makes federal politics a lot more interesting.

  3. Matt says:

    Interesting:

    Lisa Raitt says Scheer was #2 on her ballot.

    It will be interesting to see if the CPC release a popular vote breakdown.

    Over 141,000 people voted.

  4. Al in Cranbrook says:

    Things just got a tad more interesting.

    What finally worked against Stephen Harper won’t work against this guy…whom many seemed to have dubbed, “Harper with a smile”.

    Certainly couldn’t have gotten much closer, eh? 51% to 49%! Bernier definitely struck a note across the country.

    Sheer checks off a lot of boxes, too, that will sit well with voters.

    And not least, Trudeau will have to run against a hundred billion worth of new debt his party has racked up in four short years, done with out the justification of anything remotely resembling what happened in 2008.

    …and a carbon tax.

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Al,

      Come on. The trained economist never had a balanced budget in ten years. And yet the masses voted Harper three times.

      This ain’t the issue that the CPC thinks it is, to get back in power.

      • Miles Lunn says:

        I don’t think Canadians mind modest deficits, but they do like to see them stay modest and deliver results. If we have another recession and the deficit explodes to $80 billion a year I am not so sure that will go over well. Most polls I’ve seen show around 55% are okay with deficits thus on the surface bad news, but around 38% think we should balance the budget and in particular many Blue Liberals aren’t comfortable with large deficits. So while most Canadians may be fine with it, those who support deficits will never vote conservative anyways. Amongst the swing voters they generally don’t like them. Lets remember 55-60% of Canadians are progressive centre-left who the Tories will never win so it comes down to the 10-15% who sometimes vote for them but don’t always, not the 25-30% base who will vote for them no matter what or the 55-60% progressives who never will. And a lot will ride on who the NDP chooses as a strong NDP provides better splits than a weak NDP.

      • Howard says:

        “Come on. The trained economist never had a balanced budget in ten years.”

        Well of course that isn’t true. But if you can’t be bothered to look up such rudimentary information, my correcting you won’t do much good.

        Moreover, Trudeau is on track to pile on as much net debt in 4 years as Harper did in 10, and no world recession to (partially) justify it.

        I do agree with you that generally speaking, deficits probably aren’t an issue about which Canadians give much thought.

      • Al in Cranbrook says:

        Ronald…

        First couple of Fleherty budgets paid off something like $25 billion in total against the debt.

        Then the crash of 2008 hit, and the shinola hit the proverbial fan…and Harper’s government was envied worldwide for its ability to come through it almost totally unscathed, certainly compared to other economies.

        Not to mention it was pretty much back to balanced by 2015.

        In any event…

        I recall that right here on this forum, mutual and unrelenting frothing over Harper’s deficits, despite the global collapse, and how the Liberals, in Paul Martin fashion, were going to fix all that!

        …except for when said same forum members wiped off their chins, and suddenly thought maybe $30 billion of red ink over three years was, you know, not such a bad idea, as election promises go.

        …except that now it’s seeming like maybe a hundred billion is a nice round Liberal kinda number former frothing types can warm up to.

        …except for a lot of economists who seem to be thinking that likely would be a tad overly optimistic.

        And people think carbon taxes are all about saving the environment???

        Ha ha ha ha ha!!! Silly persons!

    • Howard says:

      I don’t think Canadians much care about deficits, but the Libs better hope the Toronto and Vancouver housing bubbles take a little longer to deflate.

      • MississaugaPeter says:

        The bubble/balloon has not deflated, it has exploded in the Golden Horseshoe. Houses that were considered worth $1M six weeks ago are down to $900K. Albeit ridiculous, I suspect many seniors and others are not happy seeing $100K’s disappear because of Wynne’s money grab.

        Personally was excited to unload my overpriced home and move to Niagara Region, but not now. 8 houses in my area have been on the market for 3 weeks and only sale went $60K below asking yesterday.

  5. HRabbit says:

    I would assume the CPC has been taking notes because they’re going to be doing this whole thing again in 2020.

  6. Kevin says:

    Sheer’s expression reminds me more of Hannibal Lecter…

  7. Tim White says:

    I have to say he looks more like Potsie.

  8. Charlie says:

    The big takeaway from this convention — and perhaps the only thing that matters — is that social-conservatives are the most powerful constituency in the Conservative party. This vote showed an unquestionable rejection of centrism and progressive-conservatism. The party had an opportunity to expand its horizons and it opted not to do so.

    What does this mean for 2019? Absolutely nothing different from 6 months ago.

    Conservatives elected a younger Stephen Harper with a smile and about a tenth of the charisma Harper didn’t have. Scheer is the antithesis of personality. He will do absolutely nothing to expand the CPC beyond its base. Which is the one thing the Conservatives should been looking to achieve here.

  9. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Warren,

    This is exactly why you War Room guys and gals are so good. You quickly establish an unfavourable narrative and then move heaven and earth to make it stick. Looks like you’re suggesting Ritchie Who?

  10. Simon says:

    Being compared to Richie might be an insult for downtown hipsters, but not in suburbia. “Friendly Dad” is going to play well there. Let’s not forget Millennials too are having kids and moving to the ‘burbs. Also, if it’s Singh for the NDP, Trudeau is going to have a fight on his hands for the hipster/social media vote.

    Also (in my opinion) don’t underestimate what appears to be one of Scheer’s signature policies: free speech for Canadian campuses. The polling on the Liberal anti-Islamophobia bill indicated something like 40% against, and only around 30% in favour. Much of the opposition was of course from old stock Christians, but articles on these controversies have made clear that other non-Christian, non-Islamic minorities resent what are perceived as special advantages for other ethnic/religious groups.
    That’s the making of a coalition.

    And if it’s Singh you are going to have an observant Sikh on the left, and an “observant Christian” on the right. Trudeau relativism (there’s no mainstream, all values are equal) is going to get squeezed from both sides. Once the excitement of photobombing wears off (there was an article in the Guardian this week pointing out Trudeau’s selfies are all actually staged by his team), voters may look for actual values and find it both on the left and right.

    • doconnor says:

      By “Liberal anti-Islamophobia bil” I assume you mean the anti-racism and religious discrimination motion that mentions Islamophobia.

    • Willie P says:

      So Simon, will Conservative leader Scheer be happy to dust off the “free speech on campus” model and endorse cutting off funding when a university cancels “Israeli Apartheid Day”?

    • Nicole says:

      The free speech at university issue is direct from Ezra Levant and the Rebel and they are currently employing white supremacists. That and the fact that only 25% of Canadians even have a university degree and that tuition has skyrocketed over the past few decades means this issue is irrelevant to the average Canadian.
      Come election time Canadians care about their wallet and not about protests at an institution they may or may not have even attended. And since most voters are well past university age, this is really an issue for elites, which is a bit surprising coming from the supposedly grassroots party.

  11. Matt says:

    How long before the Liberals dust of the ol’ “hidden agenda” routine?

    • Terence Quinn says:

      They don’t need to. The split that was very evident in the CRAP will play well for the Liberals as they expose those fault lines.

  12. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Warren,

    When’s the boxing match?

  13. Howard says:

    Disappointed as I was really hoping for Bernier to get in and challenge some of Canada’s sacred cows. Sure he may not have won in the end (Canadians are some of the most change-averse people in the Western world), but it would have been nice to have heard such views finally given a national platform and debated in an adult manner.

    And speaking of similarities to celebrities, although they may not look alike, I’m having a hard time differentiating Justin Trudeau from Justin Bieber, especially after his recent attention-seeking run-by on a group of high school kids on their prom night in Vancouver.

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