It might not please all Canadians that our prime minister is staying the course and sticking around for another election. I have listened to his claims of certitude and I cannot help but feel that he does not have the good sense of his father. While I would not have wanted Pierre Trudeau’s logical mind running things during the pandemic, I felt that Justin Trudeau’s love of acting was perfect to help Canadians during that critical time of needing understanding and direction.
But his father knew when the time had come to go. He resigned as liberal leader twice. First was when when his government was defeated by a minority Joe Clark government and then again after his famous ‘walk in the snow.’
The first time I met Justin, I was running a fund-raising dinner for the Barrie liberals. We chatted over dinner and I quickly learned much about him. Both the wife and I agreed afterwards that he was more like his mother than his father. It was obvious that he would be seeking the leadership of the party. His speech really told you nothing. It was the type of speech I hated writing for politicians. I could have sworn that he had a switch somewhere on him that he could turn on and off when doing that type of thing.
What worries me about Justin’s obduracy is that he has destroyed the effectiveness of the liberal party for the upcoming election. He might not be ready to step down but his confidence is not shared by the liberal party. From what I have seen in Ontario, he has lost much of the muscle of the party to handle the kind of election Mr. Poilievre wants to engage. We have lost all those effective fund-raisers in the Senate. We have lost their knowledge and influence.
And just where does Justin think we are going to find the young, tireless workers, to knock on doors and distribute material. The Ontario liberals had a leadership contest recently and the contestants actually doubled the free provincial membership to over 100,000 people who said they wanted to vote for a leadership candidate.
But when push came to shove, they failed miserably in getting those free members out to vote. If you know who is going to vote for you, you organize to get those votes in the ballot boxes. Less than 25 per cent of those ‘liberals’ got to the polls. They paid nothing. They had no commitment.
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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry
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