06.23.2017 08:36 AM

Snippet from next week’s column: what movie character reminds you of Justin Trudeau?

I love the movie, still, and I also think the comparison works.  If you disagree, tell us what movie character he most resembles?

He’s hard to hate.  Tom Mulcair and assorted Tories try, certainly, but they usually just come off sounding bitter and/or jealous.  Trudeau (unlike his Dad, unlike Stephen Harper) is the Lloyd Dobler of politics:  like that immortal character in 1989’s Say Anything, Trudeau is the guy in high school who gets invited to every party, breaks up fights, and makes sure no one drives home drunk.  He isn’t a straight-A student or the valedictorian, but that’s also why you don’t hate him.

 Lloyd Dobler, Justin Trudeau: coincidentally never seen in the same room.

37 Comments

  1. Gyor says:

    I find it incredibly easy to hate Trudeau.

    I’d say he’s a Cross, he has the intellicect of Micheal Kelso from That 70’s Show and the morals of Gordon Gekko from Wall Street.

  2. Eric Weiss says:

    Say Anything is a classic.

  3. Pierre D. says:

    Great film and reference.
    I feel this way as well, I have hardcore conservative friends and they come off as jealous or spiteful when they go on and on about selfies and stuff.
    Right now, there are things I don’t like too much about the Liberal government (reneging on electoral reform is high on that list), but they haven’t done anything major that would convince me to vote NDP (again) or CPC (for the first time). They have my vote in 2019.

    • Howard says:

      Weren’t you the HDS patient that claimed in another thread that Harper killed an “immigrant child”?

      I asked you which immigrant and how Harper accomplished this task and you never answered. Could you shed some light?

      I can see why selfies and creepy photobombing of high school kids taking prom pictures (as occurred recently in Vancouver) impress you.

  4. Lyndon Dunkley says:

    I don’t know how you can watch the recent puppet hugging (Christ, there someone’s hand in there) or the US morning talk show highlights and not think Simple Jack.

    Assuming you’re allowing characters from a movie inside a movie.

  5. Matt says:

    I’d say, Two Face from Batman.

    Says one thing for public consumption, but doesn’ follow through. His actions rarely match his words.

    The most recent example of this is his “open and transparent” rule changes to fundraisers. The legislation calls for media are allowed to attend and see everything going on.

    We know know, thanks to Althia Raj who attended the Liberals first fundraiser under the new rules, that while the media were allowed in, they were held in a small “pen”, a roped off area, weren’t allowed to mingle with people and after Trudeau gave a little speech, they we told to leave.

    Hardly the openness and transparency Trudeau promised.

  6. Charlie says:

    Here’s the thing about Justin Trudeau: He’s got personality.

    And in a political arena that has such a massive fucking personality deficit, of course this guy is going to look magnetic.

    Tom Mulcair has the likability of a kidney-stone; Andrew Scheer has the vibrancy of a rock; its nearly impossible for Trudeau not to come out tops by comparison.

    The problem is that Trudeau is his own worst enemy. He’s essentially competing against himself as he titillates his audience. Retaining that level of interest and adoration is going to be impossible for the long-haul. If he doesn’t start delivering on big issues that matter to Canadians in their daily lives, all the jauntiness will dissipate and he will unwittingly fulfil the prophecy of “all style, no substance” that has been made by his enemies. The end result is not that he loses voters to the Dippers or Tories; its that he loses his own supporters who choose not to engage at all.

    At the end of the day, that valedictorian guy just ends up being someone you realize you couldn’t give less of a shit about as you start first year in Uni.

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Warren,

      What Charlie said. Bang on.

      Can’t do any better than that.

    • Terence Quinn says:

      I think he will create a succession plan long before his best before date and continue the popularity via a new face. He does know he has the best before date ahead of him and its a matter of when that time is. I say another 5 to 8 years.

      • Ronald O'Dowd says:

        Terence,

        Please remind this Prime Minister that the only people who are actually worse at determining his best-before-date than he is are his garde rapprochée. They wouldn’t see it coming, even if it hit them squarely in the face.

        PMO staff, by their very nature, live in an Ottawa bubble and quickly lose their detached reasoning ability, almost as quickly as they become hopelessly partial. That’s the nature of the job.

  7. Lance says:

    Zoolander. It ain’t even close.

  8. Kevin says:

    Well, if you want to have some fun with this, and nodding in the direction of those who have bought into the Trudeau selfie myth, I’d propose the Norma Desmond character “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up”.

  9. Clarke Wood says:

    The alt-right have a visceral hatred for him. The less knuckle dragging conservatives tend to dislike him simply because he is more charismatic than Harper or Scheer (not that this all that hard).

  10. Howard says:

    He’s on track to accumulate more debt in 4 years than Harper did in 10, and he’s doing it without any global financial crisis.

    Those nerdy details won’t matter though to the kind of voters that select a party based on its leader’s hairstyle.

    • Terence Quinn says:

      GDP is growing just as fast you should note.

      • Howard says:

        I didn’t note it because it’s not true.

        GDP growth in 2017 expected to come in around 3.5%. Deficit will be $30B on a debt basis of $650B, or 4.5%.

        And given that Canada is overdue for a recession and the real estate bubble appears to be deflating, that 3.5% growth rate won’t last but the deficits will keep piling up. Like father like son, party like it’s 1982.

    • Kevin says:

      I’ve never met someone who selected a party based on its leader’s hairstyle. On the other hand, I have met people who rejected a party based on its leader’s hairstyle.

      • Dan Calda says:

        Bingo.
        Well said.

      • Ronald O'Dowd says:

        Kevin,

        It wasn’t Harper’s hair that did him in, it was what Harper chose to do with his majority mandate. My feeling on the record was that he was far too politically savvy to do what he ultimately did, after stick-handling two minority mandates. Instead, he chose to give the base their long awaited red-meat.

        That’s why Harper took sole responsibility for the loss because he, above everyone else, knew precisely that Harper undid Harper.

  11. Steve T says:

    After Tom Mulcair’s ridiculous rant in the House Of Commons today, regarding the Canadian sniper who killed an ISIS maniac, I don’t think Mulcair will ever be considered “hard to hate”. I personally hate him now more than ever.

    • Matt says:

      Except it wasn’t a ridiculous point he was making.

      Trudeau repeatedly criticised Harper say he was hiding the truth from Canadians that our armed forces in Iraq weren’t there as trainers but were actively, directly involved in combat operations. In the cases where news came that Canadians were involved in fire fights with ISIS, Harper said they were at the front lines in advisory roles and returned fire in defence. Trudeau essentially said Harper was lying and our forces were the in a boots on the ground combat role.

      Hell, Trudeau pulled the CF-18’s to get away from offensive ops and focus on the training role.

      Well, here are our troops, under Trudeau, involved in active and direct combat. He’s a hypocrite.

      • Terence Quinn says:

        You are dead wrong. That sniper was doing exactly what our troops are supposed to in tha the backed up the front line local troops and saved them from an ambush. that is what support is supposed to be. Canadians were not in harms way in terms of front line exposure.

    • Jaime says:

      Using Warren’s metaphor:

      Tom Mulcair is like that one kid in class everyone hated because he constantly reminded the teacher to assign homework, tattled on his classmates regularly, sucked-up to the teacher daily, never made any effort towards making friends, went out of his way to be a dick to others, and whined constantly about not being treated like a prince.

      This is Tom Mulcair.

      • Steve T says:

        Exactly true, except for one thing. He’s the kid who wants homework assigned to everyone else, when he has a special exemption because he knows he’ll never be in a position to actually have to do homework. Just criticize others for their homework.

  12. Mario says:

    It it because, he doesn’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. Doesn’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, He doesn’t want to do that.

  13. Ted H says:

    Trudeau’s main asset, he’s an intelligent, hip, contemporary human being, not a sub-human swine like so many Conservatives.

  14. lou says:

    Looks more like Anakin Skywalker everday. The evil emperor Gerald Butts has seduced him and turned him to the dark side. His lust for power has made him angry. Anger leads to fear, fear leads to darkness. His transformation to Darth Vader is almost complete. He has failed you,Yoda Kinsella. You tried to warn them before he killed of the rest of the Jedi liberals, but you were too late.

    • Matt says:

      He may lose his puppet master Gerald Butts sooner rather than later.

      Some rather scandalous information circulating around Ottawa about Mr. Butts and a Liberal Cabinet Minister.

      More and more people are becoming aware of it and it’s only a matter of time before it makes the news.

      • Dan Calda says:

        Holy fuck Matt…
        You guys really are desperate.

        Bottom line…there is no longer a Conservative Party…just a coalition of racists, evangelicals and Trudeau envy folks.
        You had a chance…but Michael Chong was too reasonable for your crowd.

        To play your innuendo game…Scheer has more scandelous skeletons in his closet then any other politician…

        But it really doesn’t matter…the Alt Right is now firmly in control of the Conservative Party. Trudeau will be PM until he gets bored.

      • Ronald O'Dowd says:

        Warren,

        Nothing quite like D. C. and Ottawa where practically everyone wants to be in this kind of a loop. Almost quaint.

  15. Doug says:

    I hate his mere existence. With any other last name, Trudeau would be asking if you want fries with your order (not to suggest that fast food workers are as dumb as Trudeau).

    His entire appeal is built on false celebrity and false nostalgia. He is famous because his parents were famous. His parents were famous because they associated with famous people. At least Kim Kardashian made a sex tape to earn her fame. The last name supposedly elicits memories of a time when “Canada was on the map” and we “felt good about ourselves”. The self love fest seems to be the only real connection to Trudeau Sr’s legacy.

    I would have hated in high school because of his free ride.

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