I was quite impressed by Justin Trudeau’s diverse new Cabinet and his dynamic attitude, but it was way too early to tell if his youthful enthusiasm was going to follow through on actual results.
But there must be some indicators on how he’s managing things. When Nathan Fillion tweeted his support today, there were some cynical responses, but that’s Politics, not everybody is going to be happy, so now I’m wondering what the facts are, or at least the word on the street.
We’d all like our next Government to move away from the Old Boys Club and be something new and bring real change, but is Canada going to be the example we want it to be?
A couple of things, in case you haven’t seen them …
I started a thread some time ago in a kind of euphoric celebration of Trudeau’s first few days and, specifically, his new Cabinet. It seemed to me that the bright and accomplished progressive young people he had appointed were a stark contrast to the old-school reactionaries that were typical of Harper.
Some 100 days later, I think approval and optimism are still running high. There’s a CBC article here. Trudeau and his Cabinet recently convened at a three-day retreat on the east coast in which one of the key participants was Michael Barber, a highly regarded former civil servant in Britain who has laid out a blueprint for what he calls the agenda for 21st century governance, the three pillars of which are environment, diversity, and democratic renewal. There’s no doubt that Trudeau’s agenda is an ambitious one.
Glad to see the honeymoon is continuing, more or less. As a progressive neighbor to the south and occasional visitor to Canada, I wish the new PM and his team very well.
He hasn’t done much that impinges on my life. So far, I have to say he seems like a decent sort, but hasn’t done much. Maybe that’s all I want in a politician.
The one promise he has nearly fulfilled (it has taken longer than predicted) is open up the borders to middle eastern refugees. I wonder how they felt, any who arrived here the other night when the wind chill hit -41 (that’s -42F).
CBC actually detailed about a half dozen election promises carried out so far. But on the subject of weather, please don’t give our American friends who may never have been up here the impression that we breathe liquid nitrogen! The temperature in the Toronto area almost precisely coinciding with the NBA all-star weekend was somewhere around 25 degrees below normal, which was bad enough in giving our American visitors the wrong impression! It is now back up again to just above freezing where I live. Parts of southern Ontario are farther south than parts of California, and some of it is getting to be really good and expanding wine-growing country. It had to be said!
Major state dinner going on right now. Sounds like good eats, wish I was there.
But yes, a number of news organizations including CBC and CNN have remarked on the close ideological alignment and close relationship between Obama and Trudeau. The previous Harper government was so hostile to the Obama administration that apparently the US ambassador was shunned by the Harper minions and practically locked out of government access.
This is all going to end next January with the new US administration. If it’s Hillary, it might not be too bad a challenge. If it’s any of the Republicans the major problem is going to be managing the American refugees.
He’s saying Trudeau is a fake-Lefty hardass. I think.
“Virtue signalling” means that he’s saying all the right things to seem Left/liberal/‘woke’ (but implies it’s all front, no conviction), and standpatter means “resistant to change” - in a stubborn rather than Conservative sense.
He’s getting some flak for caving on environmental issues (e.g. supporting pipelines), which is deserved, and for his relations for First Nations. I think the expectations of what he could do re: First Nations is unreasonable, and he’s largely moving things forward as fast as is possible. A couple of minor scandals, but nothing big.
Overall, he’s still doing well.
And as a reminder, we didn’t even start our campaign until your presidential primary campaigns were well underway, and this month he’s been in office about a year already.
IOW, he’s apparently accomplishing some of the easier stuff he said he’d do and waffling or backtracking on the harder stuff.
So once again reality demonstrates that chief executives of modern representative democracies can’t govern like the Leftist/Rightist dictators their supporters seem to crave and their opponents seem to fear. I’m shocked. Shocked I say!
If he’s going to start supporting pipelines, then this Albertan might start feeling a little more cordial towards Trudeau II. Alberta’s in a terrible recession, and a Trudeau is Prime Minister - this didn’t go well for us last time.
