The Liberal’s Justin Trudeau is turning out to be the potential survivor of this battle for the electoral island. With a third of an overly long campaign now behind us, there is little question that Trudeau’s youth is working for him. As much as the Conservatives have derided that youth on television, most Canadian voters have already decided “What’s so bad about being young?”
It was the same foolish commercials that lowered expectations for Trudeau at the first debate. It enabled him to win the debate without even breaking a sweat.
It is not that Trudeau has not made some mistakes. A few of the candidates he and his team have supported are disasters waiting to happen but, overall, Trudeau has a strong and effective group of candidates behind him.
But Trudeau’s parliamentary caucus was dead wrong on the Conservative’s anti-terrorism bill. The bill fails the smell test. It is unlikely to survive legal challenges and Canada’s concern for individual rights and freedoms. Everybody would understand if Trudeau made a commitment even at this late date to kill that bill as soon as a Liberal government takes office.
Yet he grabbed the nettle of deficit financing and stood apart from his opponents. That was a step that had to be taken. He left Harper and Mulcair in the sad state of saying they would balance the budget when they know they probably cannot.
Trudeau was also the leader we needed when the real horror of the mid-east turmoil was brought home in a simple picture of a dead little boy. That was everyone’s child and Trudeau made clear the need and Canada’s potential to offer immediate help.
It is Trudeau’s energy that is going to win the election for him and the Liberal Party. He is the party’s Energizer Bunny and he can still work a room full of strangers better than any politician we have every seen in many years in politics. It turns out that Stephen Harper’s ill-considered strategic move to call the election early benefitted the Liberal leader more than anyone else.
The election still has eight weeks to go. There will be more issues. There is give and take yet to come. There will be punches and counter-punches. It is Justin Trudeau who has the youthful energy to stay the course and to still be beating the drum on October 19.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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