It is a night and day comparison. Stephen Harper embodied the Darth Vader of Canadian politics. Liberal Justin Trudeau is bringing us into the light. He promised Canadians the change that was so badly needed and they followed him. And we can assure you that he is not Pierre Trudeau redux. Justin Trudeau is a very different person.
This realization came five years ago when we were arranging a dinner for the young Member of Parliament and Barrie Liberals. This writer and the wife both had a chance to just sit and chat with him. We came to the same and separate conclusions: Justin is more like his mother than his austere and aesthetic father.
Trudeau the Younger lacks his father’s intellectual curiosity. His thinking is Quebecois-based and not as worldly. He has an uncanny ability to turn himself on to dealing with a crowd. And in dealing with them, he seems indefatigable. It is as though he is drawing his energy from the hands he shakes, the selfies taken, the quick kisses and the adoration of the women. He is a ladies man.
The dark side’s Hair had no chance. The most serious mistake, the former prime minister made was to try to beggar the opposition by creating a 78-day election period. Like the times, he prorogued parliament, he used a trick to supposedly gain advantage. He lost. He had neither the youth nor the stamina to stay with Trudeau for the extended election time.
Instead of impoverishing the Liberals, the extended campaign period gave them the opportunity to extract even more money from their growing ranks of supporters. It has given rise to the suggestion that if Harper had left the election length alone, the Liberals would never have gained the momentum that took them over the top.
Sitting here in the sea of blue of central Ontario, it was hard to see the momentum growing. Who would have called for a clean sweep of the Atlantic? Who could see through the confusion in Quebec with the four parties vying so stridently for the attention of the voters? Our Toronto region certainly came through for the Liberals. The breakthroughs for the Liberals across the Prairies were isolated and urban. And thank goodness for our wonderful and beautiful British Columbia.
And Canada has come into the light. The trials of Trudeau the Younger have just begun. We just no longer have the Hair to kick around.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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