He’s referring to Sam’s habit of always referring to Trudeau as ‘the drama teacher’, which frankly is a pretty odd thing to harp about incessantly given the real life job experience of the leader of the party Sam supports. Drama teacher is pretty resoundingly better experience than receptionist at an insurance broker, but the latter mostly got called out because Scheer did his best to present his job as actually being a broker when he wasn’t.
A) Not a fan of Scheer, and I don’t think I’ve ever said a good thing about him.
B) If you don’t like ‘drama teacher’, I can use other terms for him. How about engineering school dropout? Snowboard instructor? Trust fund baby and international gadfly? Even drama teacher was overstating it - how about substitute drama teacher? That’s more accurate.
But none of those really get across the immense amounts of privilege Justin Trudeau had. Where else can you flunk out of university twice, finally get a degree in education, spent a couple years as a substitute teacher, then quit and become snow bum… Then be elevated to the highest levels of government? In Canada only a Trudeau coild pull that off.
There is absolutely no appetite for an election amongst the Canadian public right now.
Well…we basically have a guy in the White House who’s major claim to fame is he was a fairly good reality show host as well as being a real estate wheeler and dealer (how successful he’s actually been is an open debate). In a democracy it’s often about how the electorate sees the person, not how qualified they are. While I don’t know a lot about Trudeau (I’ve learned more in this thread than I knew going in), he doesn’t seem worse (and actually seems better) than Trump, even with these various scandals, which seem more quirky to be honest, from my American perspective based on stuff going on here, than serious. 
Thank god only Trudeaus benefit from privileges afforded by wealth. Imagine if rich people ever ran for leadership positions in Conservative parties. They might become Premiers or potentially Conservative leadership runners. The heart flutters at the thought,
Has there been a prime minister of any party (or President of the U.S.) with a thinner resume? Three quarters of the people I know have better educations and more job experience in more demanding jobs than Trudeau did when he entered politics.
The comparison to Trump is ridiculous. I don’t like Trump at all, but he was the head of a billion dollar company for decades, has a degree from Wharton, was massively successful in television and a known figure around the world for decades.
It isn’t Trump’s paper qualifications that are the problem - it’s the fact that he’s an unhinged asshole with no ability to control his impulses. Trudeau’s problem is that he doesn’t know much and isn’t very bright.
I think Trudeau has done a decent job on some issues such as coronavirus, dealing with the US and dealing with other Western countries. Although Trudeau has a lot of natural retail political skills and admits considerable privilege, it is true a lot of his original jobs had modest academic requirements. That said, I agree with a lot of the “sunny ways” and philosophy in Trudeau’s initial proposals and wish that they, along with sensible budgeting, had done better in practice (understanding crises are largely outside of one’s control).
It seems a long time ago, a few months only, when hereditary chiefs were blocking railways and disrupting the economy. I watched some of this footage recently, it almost seems otherworldly now. A balance needs to be made between considering (but only to a reasonable degree, despite its importance) different views and keeping things going. The government could be more realistic and hard-headed about several other countries and their real interests.
I understand the desire to trivialize opposing politicians as “a haircut” or previous jobs. But I don’t think that has always had mass appeal or worked out that well outside political bubbles. It does provide some modest entertainment; have at it.
It would be nice to see more ethics in government and I have been personally surprised and pleased by the Ford government, which in some cases should also have stayed with their original instincts. But Trudeau and has government remain quite popular despite the incredulousness of some people and some other parties. He has done a good job on some files and could improve greatly on others. But it is incumbent on other parties to produce better alternative people and proposals and they have much work to do in this regard.
If all the Liberals can put forward as their leader is a black-face wearing drama teacher and claim that at least he isn’t as bad as the opposition’s leader, then that is just sad. I’m more qualified on paper than that, but unfortunately, I don’t have the name recognition that would get me elected…or the nice hair.
Donald Trump obviously compares; his claim to fame was staying rich by taking money from his father. Trudeau did get elected to Parliament as an MP. Trump’s qualifications to be President are equivalent to those of Paris Hilton.
I’m going to have to disagree. He has not. Compared to the USA, sure, but that’s a dreadful comparison; it’s like saying kidney disease is better than Stage 4 cancer. As compared to the average industrialized country, Canada’s response has been nothing special at all.
Let’s all be honest here and admit Sam is clearly right about one thing: Trudeau did get the job with remarkably few qualifications, and I think it is fair to say he is the least intellectually gifted person to hold the job in living memory. Say what you will about Brian Mulroney, or Jean Chretien, or Stephen Harper, but they were intelligent men. John Turner is much maligned, but I know people who know him personally and without exception they are all wildly impressed by him. (Did you know Turner’s the longest-lived person to ever be PM? It’s true.)
Trudeau has never demonstrated that he is particularly intelligent. I agree with him on some issues. His government has done a good job on some files. He simply isn’t a very smart guy, though, and his lack of smarts does show, especially on shit like the WE fiasco, where, once again, he just doesn’t seem to have the brains to get out of his own way.
I think Trudeau is more intelligent than you give him credit for. I’ve talked to him many times and believe his passions and values are real and not just mere political theatre. But I would agree he is probably less academic than Chrétien or Harper (who I see as an underrated PM). Hiring Freeland was a great political decision and one that was far from easy or obvious. Trudeau has been less successful at avoiding some crises that could easily have been avoided. Academic nous are not quite the same as intelligence although they are correlated.
I think average working Canadians have more respect for a guy who has held regular jobs like bouncer, bartender, drama teacher. Most sons of privilege, (after, of course, insisting they cut lawns at 10 yrs old!), later reveal their first job was paid intern at Daddy’s law firm. Or some other thing that amounts to an inside tract to executive access due to name and connections. That path was DEF open to him.
Conservatives don’t seem to understand, when they try to run him down for having held such jobs, that about a gazillion people ALSO had a first job as a bouncer, waiter, drama teacher BEFORE grad, law, med school, etc. They ALL feel that juvenile mudslinging, smears them too. I find it a very odd tactic for this reason.
And when people go on about his looks or his hair all anyone hears is, ‘I guess that’s all they got!’, no actual critical points, or anything requiring any deeper thought. Equally baffling tact.
Many politicians seem to be lawyers. Becoming a lawyer involves a lot of verbal acumen and scholastic ability. One could argue whether they rank as the best politicians or whether other things are also important.
There were Conservatives who mocked Trudeau as a nice haircut. Everyone they knew agreed. They still wonder why they lost.
And if a bouncer tried to become PM, their qualifications should be questioned. It is not the fact that he held these jobs, it is that he never did much else other than that and have nice hair (a summation for other similar weighty qualifications), spout a few woke platitudes, and was the son of a (mostly) respected former PM. The latter is the ONLY reason he is PM. Does anyone imagine that any of his other abilities or qualifications would have taken him so far or so quickly?
But that doesn’t seem to be what you guys are doing here. It just seems you’re using them as a derisive epithet. Plus the actual jobs are pretty much irrelevant–all you’d need to say is that he lacked any relevant experience, rather than bringing up specific jobs.
Plus, the argument in this thread seems silly to me. You don’t need to be a career politician or lawyer to know about conflicts of interest. Even if he wasn’t aware of them before he was elected, he should be now. His lack of experience is no excuse.
Where it would be relevant is saying that he handled some political task poorly due to his lack of experience.
Of course, I have no dog in this. I know very little about the man specifically. But I do know what sorts of things you can say about a politician that I would see as relevant info vs. just being petty towards them. And going on about all his other jobs rather than just bringing up his lack of experience seems more like the latter than the former to me.
Note, if any of these jobs were actually part of what he ran on or why people elected him, then that’s different. That’s why I have no problem when people call Trump a reality show star, real estate mogul, con mane, etc. Those are all things that are relevant to how he got the job.
But I doubt that Trudeau was saying “I’m a former drama teacher, so I know how to handle those politicians in parliament!” So it seems just a petty epithet.
Yeah, it’s was a lame attack when he was running for his first term. And it didn’t work, at all. No one cared he was once a bouncer, because everybody knows some one who once was, and are now successful bankers, lawyers, doctors etc. Ignoring as much is really foolish, but conservatives still haven’t figured that out.
He didn’t achieve all that because of his name alone. He had tons of outstanding assistance from the conserv’s spectacularly failed leadership candidates. But to continue to beat this silly drum AFTER he’s already served a successful term AS Prime Minister, it’s just soooo sad and lame.
There is no denying he’s shepherded our nation extremely well throughout this crisis.
It’s a proven failed/backfiring approach that they should definitely continue to cling to because it helps to Liberals enormously.
I dunno about you, but I have no more (or less) respect for a bartender than I do for a lawyer, and know no serious-minded person who would. Being a lawyer is a hard job, and they work really hard to get those law degrees. It’s an impressive accomplishment. And if you’re going to criticize any recent Prime Minister for trading on his father’s accomplishments… uhhhh, Justin Trudeau is in first place there, isn’t he? I don’t even know who Jean Chretien’s or Stephen Harper’s parents were. Paul Martin’s father was also a notable politician, but Martin was rather more qualified than Trudeau 2 by the time he got the top job.
I’m not saying anyone should sling mud at him for holding down the job of drama teacher, but observing that he was ill qualified for being Prime Minister is a fair criticism. He was, and the errors he’s making are exactly of the sort I’d expect from a not-especially-bright guy who got the top job because his father was a legendary Prime Minister.
This reminds me of when the Conservatives and NDP both were ripping Michael Ignatieff for the fat he wanted to be PM despite the fact he’d spent almost his whole adult life living in the USA, and to all appearances had come back just to be PM. The Liberal response was “lots of Canadians go abroad for work, is there anything wrong with that?” Well, no, there isn’t. Nothing wrong with that at all; Canadians have a right to leave the country and go do whatever they want and they have a right to come back to Canada, it’s right there in the Charter. But no one has a right to be Prime Minister. That is a privilege, and it’s a privilege for which you’re going to go through a lot of scrutiny, and saying “This guy who wants to run the country didn’t even both to live here for 25 years” is a valid point. It’s equally a valid point to ask if a guy with few professional or academic accomplishments is really the best we could do for Prime Minister.
I mean, look at the shit thrown at Andrew Scheer about being an American citizen. Is there anything wrong with a Canadian holding dual citizenship? I don’t think so. It’s legal, and I don’t think it’s on me to tell some dude to give that up. But it IS an issue in a person applying to be Prime Minister. That, I think, makes the criticism valid; if you want to actually lead the country, that’s a different ball of wax.
Gosh, I’ll deny it. He’s done okay, not “extremely well.”
I dunno, when you’re still slagging a guy for a lack of qualifications when he’s already served a term as PM successfully, it just seems a reach, is all. It was a possibly valid point for his first run, but still banging that drum now, just seems silly.
You don’t have to think he’s done a great job, of course, but a lot of people, not just Canadians, seem to think Canada has done a pretty good job.
We’ve been hearing from the right-leaning press about how absolutely terrible and awful Trudeau is for the past 12 years, ever since he became an MP. The National Post has been running an article a day about how we should hate Trudeau for the past 6 years or so.
It’s numbing. It’s similar to what the Republicans tried to do to Obama (Tan suit anyone?) And it works to whip up the faithful into a slavering foam of hatred, but fails miserably on the majority of the country.
And now, when there ARE issues that really look bad*, the critiques of Trudeau just blend into the past 6 years of white hot outrage over how Trudeau dresses funny or something.
It really is a “boy who called wolf” situation, I feel.
*Disclosure; I work with students who were totally screwed over by this WE charity fiasco, and I am tired of the corrupt way that these contracts have been handed out for DECADES. I expect better, and I’m pissed.
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Justin Trudeau isn’t Canada.
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Canada has objectively not done a “pretty good job,” unless your only comparison is the USA, which is a terrible bar. I’m not a populist.
Mostly agree with this. We cannot compare ourselves to the complete shit-show south of the border and pat ourselves on the back.
We can compare ourselves to several European countries though… we’ve been… OK. Not great, but not terrible. See Britain for example.
But given that most of the public health was handled by the provinces, I really cannot come up with a SPECIFIC example of how Trudeau himself fucked up something during the Pandemic. Sure, in hindsight there are things that the Federal government could have done better - but at the time they were following the best path they could. Do you think Trudeau should have waded into Alberta when they were fucking up the response at meat packing plants and told them what to do?