Justin Trudeau has made his feelings about a second Trump presidency pretty clear. Susan Delcourt writes:
On the one hand, it isn’t surprising that Trudeau would be open about his views on Trump, who came to office determined to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement and make Canada a casualty of his fierce, America-first protectionist policies. Personally, Trump appeared to hold Trudeau in low regard, famously slamming him as “dishonest and weak” during a 2018 Twitter tantrum. Similarly, Trudeau’s tolerance of Trump seemed stretched at times; notably, he was caught on camera in late 2019 laughing at the president with other world leaders at a Buckingham Palace reception.
As one of the longest-serving progressive leaders now on the world stage, Trudeau is one of the few who bears the battle scars of dealing with Trump, and he has spoken before of how he has had to explain to Biden how much America’s reputation changed during the stormy Trump years.
Trudeau also sees a domestic advantage to running against Trump:
However, a new poll from Abacus Data shows that Canadians are more ambivalent about Trump than they were eight years ago — and while not as polarized as Americans, more divided on party lines than they once were.
Abacus CEO David Coletto reports that in his latest survey of opinions about the U.S. election, not all Canadians — especially Conservatives — share Trudeau’s view that a Trump victory would be bad news.
Coletto writes that “66 per cent of Canadians favour Biden over Trump, with a notable divide among Conservative supporters — 57 per cent favouring Trump and 43 per cent Biden. On the other hand, overwhelming majorities of Liberals and NDP supporters prefer Biden. Strikingly, younger Canadians, particularly those under 30, show a higher inclination towards Trump compared to those over 60.”
The Trump lie has spread across the border.
Image: Evan Vucci/The Associated Press file photo
12 comments:
The most disappointing aspect for me, Owen, is the poll that shows the favour Trump finds among young people in Canada. Clearly, we are not immune from the madness permeating the U.S.
Like you, Lorne, I'm puzzled by Trump's support among the young. My faith in the young is not what it used to be.
The young are pissed off at the status quo. Why should they be facing a life of having little to no choice of but to rent rather than own their housing, gig employment, and income inequality?
The likes of Trump, Poilievre and other populist right wing ‘politicians’ are speaking out that they will change paths and are friends of the working people. Some of us see the likes of Trump and Poilievre messaging as pure horse pucky, but the young are listening to what they want to hear.
The right wing parties - Republican in the US - have done a good job of aligning themselves with the Evangelicals and the disenfranchised, and Trump and Poilievre have tapped into that anger.
I fear a Trump victory in November will unleash more street violence as the disenfranchised will see aTrump victory as ‘permission’ to change rallies and protests to looting and destruction. Not a good time to be a cop.
And Poilievre will be watching very carefully what happens in the US.DJF
Poilievre is keeping a very close eye on what happens to the south of us, DJF. If it works, he'll be all in.
If Merrick Garland hadn't waited almost two years to appoint a special counsel to prosecute Trump, I suspect we'd be having a very different discussion today. As it is, it looks like Trump will be able to delay his criminal trials until after November's election, with the possibility of shutting down all but the Georgia one if elected president. Not sure why Garland was even considered for a Supreme Court seat, let alone AG.
Justice is notoriously slow, Cap. Roy Cohn taught Trump how to take advantage of that fact.
" I'm puzzled by Trump's support among the young."
We were 'educated' to 'think for ourselves' and 'question authority' within a well-funded, expanding educational system. The current generation of 'young' Canadians are simply lost in social media and have less direct experience of living under charlatans and their 'common sense revolutions'.
As for Jr. ?
He broke solemn promises and failed in his core mission to lead us to a better electoral system which in turn left us prey to the fossil-fuel/capitalist/real estate trifecta that is humming along fine under a 'progressive' gov't and will soar under Lil'PP, should that calamity come to pass.
Personally, I could care less about Jr.'s vacations, but his latest own-goal, the botched-communications Jamaica story, makes me think that he just doesn't care anymore and he may soon have his 'walk in the snow'.
The education system has been shrinking for some time, PoV. That process strangles thought.
Now that Northern PoV has brought it up, I want to make a brief off-topic comment on Trudeau's vacations. You know, every time he goes on vacation it turns into a scandal. For God's sake, can't the guy ever learn? He's so unbelievably arrogant. No wonder nobody likes him. His best before date is looooooong past.
GDN
Trudeau makes a habit of scoring on his own goal, GDN.
Trudeau's vacations. If you or I took the same vacation no one would notice. It's Pierre Poilievre and his crowd who make a big deal out of Trudeau's vacations. For sure, Trudeau's friends are richer than mine but it's just a vacation.
You have a point, Toby. But Trudeau's vacations are an easy target for Poilievre. It would help if Justin didn't offer such low-hanging fruit for Poilievre.
Post a Comment