It looks like the churn is working but that is hardly butter we are getting. There is a demand for change in Canada and it need not be change for the worse. I will admit that I am not overly optimistic about the current trends in the conservative party federally or in Alberta. There are frustrations that people need to handle.
But we still have time to respond. The Trudeau government has to move ahead with some of the NDP objectives and keep that liberal-NDP accord in place. It is Justin Trudeau who has to make the Hobson’s Choice—his long-term determinations. He has used up his family franchise. He is not his father’s son. His only choice is his timing to resign. He has to leave the party with the question of succession.
Sometime in the next four months, Trudeau has to announce his end-date. He has to ask the party to replace him. Of course, the party has to be rebuilt so that a proper transition can take place. Trudeau has been using the party as an automated teller machine instead of a source of electoral and policy support. We have to rebuild with real liberals, not rented supporters just for the leadership event. That could take us until 2024 when we are due for an election anyway.
And if anyone wants to question Justin’s legacy you only need to say he brought us through the pandemic. He might have resembled a cuckoo popping in and out of Rideau Cottage, but he was the face of government relief throughout those bad times.
Regrets, he might also have had a few. Who can forget the events of the Jody Wilson-Raybould tenure as justice minister? Strange doings for a professed feminist! Then, there was a trip to India with the ‘dress-up’ family. And what environmentalist would purchase a trans-mountain pipeline?
But we should remember the good with the bad. There was sunlight dancing through the leaves of a verdant Rideau Park on the way to Rideau Hall for the swearing in ceremony—because it was 2015.
There was much promised in 2015 and we need to uphold those promises. Because Canada is a democratic country, a progressive country and a country that has promises to keep with the rest of the world.
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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
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