Whenever two or more Liberal Party members meet, the argument rages on. It starts with ‘will he?’ and deteriorates into ‘who else?’ Justin Trudeau has yet to make up his mind, again. He made it up once and most Liberals accepted the decision. He said he was not ready and would not contest the party leadership to be determined early in 2013. It was the right decision.
We have watched him working the Liberal faithful. He is good. He is a relaxed and easy speaker. He gives the party faithful all they expect and more. He needs only to develop his message. He needs direction and we have no idea where that is going to come from—if he decides he needs it.
He is not his father. He lacks his father’s passion. He lacks his father’s distain for the political realities. The intellect is nowhere near as sharp. He has some of his mother in his thinking process. You can see him shift moods. He is easy to read. He is no poker player. When he whaled the tar out of that Tory senator in the boxing ring some months ago, you were pleased that he did it but you were embarrassed by the juvenile behaviour.
Remember his father was almost 50 when he contested the Liberal leadership in 1968. Justin can wait another six or eight years. He also saw what his father’s job did to his family. He rightly wants to protect his wife and young family from that.
The major problem with Justin Trudeau is direction. Where does he want to go and where does he want to lead the Liberal Party? He has that Quebecoise sensitivity to constitutional issues without his father’s intellectual curiosity. He is wary of English-French biases in the simplest of constitutional discussion.
If he does decide to go for the leadership at this time, there are many questions. The party need not to not only listen to him but we really need to know to whom it is that he listens. People who liked Jean Chrétien needed to know that his main mentor was Mitchell Sharp. They thought Chrétien was left wing. Sharp certainly was not. Chrétien’s promises were shallow and rarely kept. What was his legacy? Was it Paul Martin’s budgets?
We have no idea what the full field is for this leadership contest. Members of the party would be wise not to leap on the first bandwagon passing through town.
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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
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