Justin Trudeau's autobiography will soon hit the bookstores. It's probably been ghost written and -- because it's appearing now -- it's a blatantly political document. Predictably, Conservatives are not impressed. Tasha Kheiriddin writes:
Writing an autobiography at a young age is fine if your experiences give you something valuable to teach others. Malala Yousafzai is 16, but she survived getting shot in the head while campaigning for girls’ education rights in Afghanistan. Anne Frank was only 13 when she went into hiding from the Nazis during the Second World War.
The problem, she writes, is that Trudeau hasn't done anything:
He owes his current position in federal politics to the cachet of his family name; those who pretend otherwise are kidding themselves. While Trudeau has matured as a politician over the past few years, his resume remains woefully thin for someone aspiring to the highest office in the country. Had he not been the son of the most revered Liberal politician of the past fifty years, he wouldn’t have gotten the chance.
To become a true leader — his own man — Trudeau needs to transcend his past, not venerate it. Which is why his book’s title, and its subject matter, are so perplexing.
I'm old enough to remember when the same complaint was made about Justin's father. And, even though I'm not old enough to remember, the same complaint was made about Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I'm not sure what kind of leader the younger Trudeau is. Truth be told, I'm unhappy about his support for KeystoneXL and his one sided take on what has been happening in Gaza.
But Kheiriddin's knock against Trudeau is getting stale. And it's not working.
16 comments:
Tasha Kheirridin is a partisan hack. Her love of all things Harper is shameless.
As for Gaza and Israel, All 3 are pretty much one sided -- I luv Israel. Each for different reasons:
Harper -- His evangelical roots
Mulcair-- He is married to a Zionist
Trudeau-- I believe it's because of the Mount-Royal riding in 2015, which is probably even more important for him to keep than even his own riding of Papineau (I'll elaborate some other time).
As for Keystone, I think Obama is going to leave that for his successor. So, he will keep putting that off until he's left office.
Justin Trudeau may not be a great choice, but honestly, I'll take him as PM any day over another Harper majority, which we cannot afford.
I have a hunch that a lot of Canadians have reached the same conclusion you have, CK.
And that is what is scaring the Harperites.
Hi Owen. I don't subscribe to iPolitics but I found an interesting item there about Canada trying to source second-hand spy aircraft. "Spy plane program ditched as National Defence eyes surplus U.S. planes"
What are they after? AWACS or JSTARS-type aircraft to support the F-35 or general surveillance/patrol craft to cover the soon to be ice-free Arctic?
Thanks,
MoS
Ms. K's acknowledgement of the lofty position JT's father holds in the minds, hearts and history of Canadians speaks to the hope for the future with JT who clearly has some big shoes to fill and seems likely to do so.
As for pedigree, what does she thinks makes harper so qualified?
His purported economic prowess has not proven beneficial to most Canadians although he himself seems to have managed to attain substantial wealth while having no significant or particularly well paying employment on his resume'.
Jim Flaherty could only dream of such financial acumen.
As inadequate as JT's credentials may seem to Ms. K, they do seem to have stuck a chord with more Canadians than do harper's.
Speaking of woefully inadequate qualification for important positions, Ms. K should turn her guns on the preemy of BC who has almost none.
@ CK. It's a double bind. Vote for Trudeau because he's "less worse" than Harper or reject neo-liberalism outright no matter whether it is clad in Liberal red or New Democrat orange. It took years for me to understand Ralph Nader's intervention against the Gore Democrats. I do now.
Time will tell, Ron. I read this morning that Canada produced 200 jobs during the month of July.
That does not speak well for Harper the economist.
They're fixated on aircraft, Mound. They'd be wiser to replace the navy's rusting fleet -- if they really cared about the Arctic.
A change of face will not be good enough, Mound. If Trudeau cares as much about the future as he does the past, he will have to break the stranglehold of corporatism -- a tall order.
This "thin resume" of Justin Trudeau's just makes me laugh. Near as I can tell, Harper's own resume was pretty thin before he was elected too. Most of his experience appears to have been in hateful organizations, working to tear things apart. Trudeau was a teacher - a hopeful, forward reaching, future building occupation if ever there was one.
On the other hand, the whole bunch of them, Con, Liberal, NDP and Green have been pretty damn silent for months as the planet goes to hell in a handbasket and there isn't a one I could vote for in an election. A pox on all their houses, as my Grandmother used to say.
It's all about jockeying for position at this point, Karen. One hopes that one of the challengers has a vision that is more altruistic and less mean spirited than Harper's.
You're right about a break from corporatism, Owen, but I just don't see any inclination to do that on the part of JT. I suspect that his handlers feed him the policy that he dishes out. He certainly wouldn't have learned much of it at his father's knee.
If only Michel Trudeau had lived...
Trudeau for me is still a big question mark, Mound. There is some satisfaction to be had from the fact that the Harper attack machine has not been able to do to Trudeau what it did to Dion and Ignatieff.
But more of the same under a different name leaves us where we are.
Choices we do not need no stinking choices. Consider the 2016 election in the USA. Hilary a Republican Dem against Attalia the Hun.
Sometimes, Steve, there are no good cards in the hand you've been dealt.
Just look at baby Steve's record a Hokey Hokey book at the recommendations of guess who?
"Massaging the Voter: Manufacturing Harper’s Hockey Identity" "Harper’s fondness for representing himself via an affective national symbol is far from unintentional; rather it illustrates his skilful adaptation of the promotional strategies of the George W. Bush administration. Indeed, in May 2006, Harper met with Frank Luntz, a US Republican pollster, communications adviser, and adjunct fellow at the conservative think-tank, the Hudson Institute." "Harper’s 2006 meeting with Luntz occurred the day before the Republican pollster (Doskoch) gave the keynote address at the tenth-anniversary conference of the Civitas Society (Gairdner), described as “the premier venue in Canada where people interested in conservative, classical liberal and libertarian ideas can not only exchange ideas, but meet others who share an interest in these rich intellectual traditions” (Civitas Society)" "Luntz’s speech, “Massaging the Conservative Message for Voters,” was a communications blueprint offering a range of promotional strategies for “tailoring a conservative message and selling it to moderate voters” (Moxley);" "Luntz encouraged Harper to link his identity and right-wing agenda to national symbols like hockey: “If there is some way to link hockey to what you all do, I would try to do it” (qtd. in Thompson A6)." all from--->
http://www.erudit.org/revue/ijcs/2011/v/n43/1009457ar.html
[also never a real world job combined with taking six years for a two year economics course?] Give me a break neo-cons we are not so dumbed down by your PR [propaganda machine] that we buy it although we do pay for it.
harper is not a self made man but a self made-up man with right-wing help and money he is a fool for the money...
It's been clear for sometime that the inspiration for the Harper government came from the Bushies, Mogs.
In the end, George W's administration was a failure -- in many, many ways.
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