Back when Trudeau was running to replace Harper, my BIL asked why I would vote for an inexperienced upstart like Trudeau rather than an experienced PM with an established record of being able to get things done. My reply (ignoring that at least Trudeau had been an MP whereas Harper had never held elective office prior to becoming PM) was that I would rather have a PM who tried to do things I wanted done, even if he was less effective in accomplishing them, than someone who was very effective at doing things I didn’t want done.
Fair enough. I disagreed with a fair number of Harper’s policies, and after two minority governments people wanted someone new. Harper made some tough and unpopular decisions, and a few poor ones. He was sometimes vilified for them, but in retrospect he was a skilled politician and relatively measured. I do not think blandness to be a bad thing in a politician. After Trump, some would agree and others would not.
I certainly agree Harper was a skilled politician. He managed to keep the nuttier parts of his party silent.
He was quite effective at things like destroying material from federal science libraries across the country. I still have no idea what was accomplished here that fit a Conservative agenda. Saving a couple of thousand dollars? No not really as there was no money savings here. One single library (Agriculture and Agri-Food Lethbridge Research Centre) lost a huge number of books, papers, manuscripts, research documents, etc., all sent to the dumpster or recycling on the orders of “The Harper Government”* For what purpose, nobody seemed able to explain.
*This re-branding of MY Canadian government by fiat to “The Harper Government” really stuck in my craw for some reason. A relative showed me the command from Ottawa that told the Fed employees that this was the term they MUST use, on pain of punishment. Such overweening hubris in one man made me very cautious about him.
It was pretty obviously a blatant attempt to gain advertising for a political party at tax payer expense.
What really pissed me off was Harper trying to trash the Public Service sick leave system, while blatantly lying to the public about why he was doing it. I didn’t much like anything else he was doing, but I had hope that a few years as a minority government would make him try to be better, but that one was personal, since I was one of the people he was lying about.
Harper managed Canada through the 2008 crisis better than any other country. We came through it in better shape and with less added debt than most western nations.
The ‘scandals’ that the national media hyperventilated over were downright quaint compared to what we’ve seen from Trudeau.
If Trudeau calls a snap election in the middle of the fourth wave of the pandemic, he deserves to lose. There’s no way to spin that other than that he’s willing to risk the lives of Canadians for political gain, because there is no compelljng reason to call an election this soon other than that Trudeau thinks it will maximize his chances.
And if the election procedures are heavily modified because of the pandemic and we have to wait days to find out who won, he risks degrading trust in the election system and increasing western alienation.
Calling an election now is a terrible idea. Only 28% of the country supports it. In other words, most Liberals and no one else.
Well, now I am totally in favour of an election. Bring it on.
Can’t wait for more “I hate Trudeau and so should you”
I don’t really want an election right now, like everyone else, on the one hand.
But a 36 day campaign cycle? Yeah, I’m loving that whole idea!
Also, I used to wonder why conservatives were so focused on Trudeau’s hair and looks, beyond the ‘he’s young though!’ stuff. But one look at Sheer and Otoole and now I kinda get it. They’re AGAIN straddled with a guy who looks every inch ‘old, smug, white, and entitled’, Yikes! He’s not even all that old, but he looks it somehow.
I never saw Sheer speak that he didn’t drip smugness, and Otoole just seems more of the same, to be honest. I wish them luck, I think they’ll need it!
I have never heard anyone on the right bitch about Trudeau’s hair. Where did that come from?
Stories from 2015 and Trudeau’s hair
NY Times has a paywalled story on, there are others
I’ve never even heard of those sources. I have no doubt that somewhere, some conservatives have mocked Trudeau’s hair. But to characterize the right in general as caring about his hair simply isn’t correct.
I kmow a lot of conservatives. What they hate about Trudeau is his leftism, his scandals, the fact that he is the least qualified PM in history, bills C-10 and C-36, buying off the media, his incompetence on the world stage, his disdain for the west, his authoritarianism and dismissal of criticism, spending taxpayer money like a drunken sailor, and how he gets away with stuff that a concervative would have been crucified for.
Oh, and saying, ‘nice hair though’ isn’t bitching about his hair. It’s basically accusing the other side of caring about his looks instead of his substance.
The “nice hair, though” commercial was brilliantly parodied by Letterkenny. My Conservative colleagues did think of Trudeau as a pretty boy with little substance. I’ve met Justin, many years ago, and it would be fair to say he was knowledgeable and passionate.
I’ve never met Scheer. Politicians might be different in private than in public. Perhaps his political skills grew with time, but they were not at Trudeau’s level. O’Toole seems smarter and more skillful, but has struggled to get attention and unite his party.
I’m not crazy about an election or its costs. But it is a stretch to say it can’t be done when it has several times. This would not be my main issue when voting. My vote could still change depending on what the parties say and who the local candidate is, but not all that likely.
I did mention the NY Times. True, I couldn’t link to the paywalled source. The point of the stories is Conservative ads literally targeted Trudeau’s hair in the 2015 campaign. The charge that Trudeau and the Liberals are “leftist” or have “leftist” policies will come as a surprise to many, including many Liberals. Political compass.org is an interesting site and it places the Liberals on the right, while noting it has moved further right over the years. The NDP today is about where the Liberals were in 1970.
There is no good reason to hold an election this fall.
The similarities between the big three Canadian parties are probably bigger than the differences. I think Covid has been generally good to incumbents, hence the election.
It is a challenge in Canada for opposing parties to get consistent quality media attention from the majority, who are not partisans. I like Trudeau. There are things he said he would do and did not. There are things I wish he would do. It is up to the other parties to present a better alternative.
Dude, the “nice hair” line was literally in one of the Conservative’s own ads.
Sam is from the part of Alberta that would consider Diefenbaker a raging commie if he were to be reincarnated today.
One of the links I gave above comments on Diefenbaker’s hair, comparing it to a cauliflower. Compared to the Conservatives today, Diefenbaker looks like a Liberal or worse, in both political and tonsorial stylings.
And on cue, our National Post comes out this morning with THREE opinion pieces on the front of the webpage outlining that Trudeau is calling the election because:
Personal vanity. (Thanks Rex Murphy, you senile dolt)
Stuffed up with his own importance (Mcparland wants to be Rex Murphy lite)
To gain more power (well that’s never why politicians call elections right? I guess he things Trudeau should call an election to LOSE power)
Here we go. “We hate Trudeau and so should you”
Re-run of the last election and the only policy plank from the Conservatives. What do they actually stand for? Who knows.
Trudeau is calling the election because:
- He feels the opposition is unprepared.
- He thinks he can win a majority gov’t
- Some people are willing to give him credit for the Covid successes. The costs are not yet apparent.
- Other incumbents have done well.
- He feels he needs a new mandate after significant changes.
Does anyone ever really want the cost or inconvenience of an election?
When being called during the 4th wave of a pandemic, when people have been sacrificing like crazy through closures and lockdowns to limit the spread? When an election isn’t necessary for several years?
I think that’s a little different.