Why would Justin Trudeau look forward to besting conservative leader Pierre Poilievre? What does he have to prove? The prime minister has had his ups and downs over the past eight years. His legacy as prime minister is secure in that he led us through the pandemic and introduced $10 a day daycare. Maybe the question is can he make a come-back after two minority governments?
I think he is counting on the polarizing personality of Pierre Poilievre to give him a going-out majority. If that election is still two years away, nobody knows what the key issues will be. Surely inflation will have eased and maybe the anger as well.
But there are always issues to be resolved, hopes to be considered and real or imagined slights to be aggrieved. Mr. Poilievre has never been one to wait for real crises. He can create them. A good example was when he demeaned the trip the prime minister had to make to the coronation of Charles III in London. To Mr. Poilievre this was just another expensive trip for pleasure as opposed to part of the responsibility of the prime minister. It would be sad if this was the real attitude of a man who thinks he could do the job.
I believe the prime minister’s father said it best when he did a brief pirouette behind the Queen one time when visiting London. He said it for many Canadians who consider the royals as out of date and demeaning. It was the obligation to the United Kingdom that he and his son recognized as the country that gave us Canada. If being polite was the only requirement, we could certainly oblige.
And I think that is where Mr. Poilievre and Justin Trudeau part. Mr. Poilievre is targeted on just one objective. As a very young man, he set his sights on becoming prime minister of Canada. He has devoted himself to politics and nothing else from leaving the University of Calgary. He knew he had to come east to find the right electoral district. He is a right-wing conservative ideologue. He knows of no other form of government. Canadians would not be pleased by a Poilievre government.
In Justin Trudeau’s case, he had his young years in Ottawa in the prime minister’s residence to help him understand what he was getting into.
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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry
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