— Feature, Musings —06.13.2018 04:40 AM
O lucky man
Justin Trudeau is the luckiest guy alive. Consider the evidence.
- He starts slipping in the polls. Along comes Donald Trump to the G7 and insults him and Canada and makes Trudeau the most popular politician on Earth. Not just Canada. Earth.
- He and his rookie government make rookie mistakes. Along comes Jagmeet Singh and Andrew Scheer, who proceed to make even more mistakes and underwhelm Canadians from coast to coast.
- He gets in trouble with India and other stuff that makes him look unserious. Along comes Trump, again, who makes Trudeau seem positively Churchillian on any given day.
- He doesn’t have big legislative wins, and he hasn’t won a new NAFTA, either. Along comes a broad-based voter consensus that the government that does less, not more, is the government that angers them the least.
- He’s in trouble on his Left flank (pipelines, electoral reform). Along comes Doug Ford, who (irrationally) freaks out Lefties and will drive them back into Trudeau’s waiting arms.
- He’s in trouble on his Right flank (deficits, taxes). Along comes John Horgan’s ilk, who (appropriately) anger Righties and who thereby make Trudeau look not so bad after all.
- He gets into difficulty on any number of fronts (#MeToo, abortion, etc.). And along comes any number of politicians (see Scheer, Singh, above) who adopt positions that make Trudeau look exceedingly moderate and sensible.
It goes on and on. The guy just can’t lose for winning.
Comments are open.
Yes, Trudeau’s response to Trump is impossible to dislike. Was thinking the same, that although Trump’ s assholery is no good for anyone, it sure must make Justin Trudeau’s domestic political life easier.
Now I will go back to worrying about World War III and/or the second American civil war.
Indeed. He gets juxtaposed against the orange buffoon to the south and comes away looking sensible, diplomatic and statesmanlike for all to see.
Another one of Trudeau’s assets compared to someone like Scheer, is he has that ignorant confidence about him that you often see in kids from privileged backgrounds. The world hasn’t told him ‘no’ on the same level that someone from a modest background (or worse) would experience, so he doesn’t have to look like he’s projecting confidence (something Scheer would not be able to do convincingly), he just is.
Agree, and it’s that confidence that got him into “handling” issues at beer fests even when approaching 30 years of age. Is the Star’s blackout of that story still in effect?
I miss our traditionally middle-class/working-class PMs. Dief, Pearson, Mulroney, Chretien, Harper – all cut from that cloth. Even Paul Martin, although he had an influential father, was not particularly wealthy growing up (politicians were not well paid in Paul Martin Sr.’s day).
The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party has a track record of forcing ‘lefties’ over to the Liberal Party & NDP precisely due to the irrationality of OPC policy objectives on any given day of the week. Ford’s populism directly mirrors that of Orange Jesus, and rational people tend to shy away from that which is actually irrational with respect to leadership.
Trudeau is rational whereas Orange Jesus is consistently irrational as is his base.
Ford would do well to stay away from the proto-fascists when it comes to policy planks being set forth.
RW
I suggest you read the post election report from Navigator regarding the reason’s people gave as to why the voted OPC.
Wow, Self-righteous much? 81% of Ontario just told the Liberals to go away (and this wasn’t Liberal-by-another-name, like when the Tories lost to the Bloc and Reform). And you claim that rational people don’t vote PC – ipso facto, you are rational and those who disagree with you automatically are not. You even equate Ford with Trump and bring in proto-fascists (“proto” relates to initial form or origin, so I can only guess you were being clever with a word you don’t understand.)
Democracy 101: Respect the people’s judgement; do not blame them for being to stupid to see you superiority.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/whiskey-trump-foxtrot-mr-proto-fascist-goes-to_us_5888c35ae4b05a82fd5b30bd
RW
Goodness, Robert. You should send your resume to the brilliant folks who handled Premier Wynne’s campaign. You’re just tone-deaf enough to fit in!
I did send the OLP my cv pre-election.
RW
Can’t agree more, Warren. Trump has been the best gift Justin could possibly imagine. The enactment of the tariffs on Canada Day is also very smart. On a weekend when everyone has the day off and talking about Canada, people will be chatting about how their PM is standing up to the President. That’s something Chretien or Harper would do.
Warren,
Colour me skeptical. I’m virtually surrounded both in my family and at the office by federal Conservatives. Some expressed support to me for Trudeau vs. Trump but that doesn’t mean they won’t be voting Conservative next time, as per usual.
I wouldn’t be too confident, the election is a ways off yet. Given how capricious Trump is he and Trudeau could be back on good terms next week, depriving Justin a useful foil. Or, if this gets any worse, i.e. NAFTA crumbles and crippling tariffs are introduced, I doubt any immediate good will and solidarity towards Trudeau will carry him through until the fall of 2019. If people are hurting they’ll lash out at the most convenient target, the Trudeau government, especially if it can’t provide relief or solutions. If Trudeau wants to capitalize on this situation politically he’ll have to call an early election, which is what Susan Delacourt suggested in her latest column.
https://ipolitics.ca/2018/06/12/anyone-in-the-mood-for-a-summer-election/
Greyapple,
Maybe Delacourt has forgotten that Theresa May person.
Most people seem to be taking a very short-sighted view of this, and appear to be giving no thought whatsoever to the very real possibility of severe, lasting damage to the Canadian economy. I wonder how many people will still be singing Junior’s praises if he is forced to run his next election campaign during an economic recession he himself created by not knowing when to keep his mouth shut?
Yes, yes…Trump is a bully, he’s childish, he’s petulant, etc, etc.
He’s not a nice person at all. You know what else he is? He’s the guy who HOLDS ALL THE CARDS here. Oh sure, we could ‘retaliate’ and create some minor annoyances for a few US industries while ours are devastated. Yeah, that’ll show him!
Everyone forgets that Canada’s economy is the size of California’s (that’s just *one* state) and that only two US states do more than 10% of their trade with us. In a full blown trade war, WE WILL LOSE…and lose badly.
(just keep poking that bear, Justin. What could possibly go wrong?…)
Best case scenario? This is all just another one of the heavy-handed negotiation tactics that Donald Trump is well known for. I fervently hope so, for all our sakes.
Do you propose an alternative approach? Already tried playing nicely.
I do wonder if short term pain will be what’s necessary to decrease dependence on the US. Evidently, we suffer risks from being too intertwined, at least when they stick an irrational lunatic in the White House. Perhaps tariff pressure will force pursuit of other avenues.
I also don’t think we should count on everything staying more or less as it has normally been with regard to Canada-US relations. I see every potential for dictator-friendly Trump to upend political allegiances in a big way. If some grotesque Trump-Putin-Erdogan etc alliance develops I hardly think our relationship would or should stay so cozy.
wait till we get a load of President Nugent.
“Do you propose an alternative approach? Already tried playing nicely.”
Well, it would have to be the end of the “supply management” scam, I’m guessing. When viewed against the seemingly unstoppable trend towards free trade, open markets and globalization, you have to admit that “supply management” is the exact opposite of all those things. It’s time to let it go.
Oh, and also…if you’re going to “stand up to” someone by puffing out your little chest and loudly proclaiming that you “won’t be bullied”, you might want to do it TO HIS FACE rather than at a press conference once your opponent is safely on a plane and can’t respond. You know a guy as childish and petulant as Donald Trump is going to go ballistic when you do that. You KNOW it.
As for decreasing dependence on the US market, we’ve been diversifying for years and do much more trade with other nations than we did, say, 20 years ago…but geography dictates that they will always be our most important trading partner, I think.
And aside from the primary lesson here (“don’t bring a knife to a gunfight”), there’s another: “this too shall pass”. Donald Trump is only around for another three years or so *if* his more vicious opponents (many of whom can be seen here) can get their act together and act like adults long enough to defeat him; otherwise, it’s another 7 years. In the end, though, there will be another US leader after him, so don’t worry too much about the future. Canada will survive.
Fred, I enjoyed your thoughtful response.
My perspective is that I don’t care if supply management is or is not a good policy, it has been made abundantly clear for months that is was a nonstarter for Canada, as is the sunset clause. He isn’t negotiating, he is dictating and intimidating, and we should not accept his imposition, lest he seek more and more concessions and render Canada a puppet state. Canada is behaving itself both sensibly and with principle in this matter, and we enjoy plenty of international support, which I suspect will be very important to us in the near future. It is the only choice I can get behind.
Donald Trump is perfectly capable of doing whatever he wishes – that is all he knows. If he sees a mechanism to retain power beyond the normal two term limit, I would expect him to latch onto it. I would put nothing past him. He would encourage the citizen militias to wreck shit and cause a civil war to advance his desires. So I genuinely worry that Trump may devise/ stumble into a way to be a longer term problem.
Right Fred. Got it. When you were in school and kicked by an older larger student, you’re retort was clearly “please Sir may I have another?”
No, but my response also wasn’t to taunt and goad him into beating me unconscious…
Ya man. Trump is Justin’s personal defuckulator.
He will take credit for Justin’s re-election.
Gaul does not dictate to Rome and the whelp will learn that soon enough.
Whither the pipeline(s)?
Trudeau should push fast and hard and get the pipeline(s) going as that will truly annoy the US backers of the opponents of the pipelines, and get Cdn people to work from all provinces. If he doesn’t, he will pay the price, as the current euphoria over his dissing the US will not last. Not when jobs are lost and prices are raised.
Barbara, you could add to your equation the use of Canadian sourced steel in the pipeline, to offset the reduction in demand from the US.
And now Sheer is pissing off a significant number of Conservative Party members. You know, the same people he needs to volunteer on all those local campaigns.
Trudeau seems to have a horseshoe hidden somewhere.
Except every Conservative knows that all Bernier was doing was a fundraising stunt, a fundraising stunt which clearly would hurt the party. The request to donate to Bernier to pay off his leadership debts came in the e-mail this morning.
Bernier is about Bernier. Being Maxime Bernier. Bernier, Bernier, Bernier.
True enough.
Still, the closeness of the vote that elected Scheer over Bernier is enough indication that there are definite rifts in the party. This is still going to hurt, but hopefully not too much. Bernier was my first choice among the available candidates.
I wouldn’t say luck – it was planned by Butts et al.
It appears that Trump had compromised on the sunset Clause and then Trudeau said the opposite in public. It is quite obvious that Trudeau is willing to risk the Canadian economy in hopes that Canadians will have such blind rage against Trump that they won’t realize that most problems created in the past 18 months were actually caused by Trudeau.
It was all planned by Gerry Butts?
Jesus, you’re a dumbass.
Holy troll Batman. Yes, Trudeau is the least likely of the two of them to lie about words spoken in private. Trump’s record of honesty is great. Maybe even 100%. Like, he probably never – and this is true, believe me – lied in his life.
Walter,
Trouble is Trump changes like the weather and is no more reliable.
Remember a while back when the auto sector was suddenly off the table and surprise, surprise, here it is again – – just because King Trump is royally pissed off at Trudeau…