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it's time for one to go and one to arrive
Oct. 19th, 2015 11:19 pmU.S. progressives tend to think of Canada as a blissful paradise of peace and prosperity, but in fact Canadians complain bitterly about their political system and government when they don't think anybody from the U.S. is listening, and things have been really different from the image since Stephen Harper's Conservative government took over in 2006.
Traditionally, the Conservatives were the party of the corporate boardroom (Brian Mulroney was the embodiment of that image), while the Liberals were the party of the crass but wily professional politicians (Jean Chrétien and Pierre Trudeau exemplify that). But the new model Conservatives are really the insurgent Reform Party of the 1990s taking over the old corporatist shell, and it's rather like the Tea Party taking over the Republicans in the U.S.
The result has been appalling policies especially in environment and social justice, and despite his mild-mannered personal style, Harper has been ruthlessly and unprecedentedly authoritarian in enforcing this and maintaining his government's power.
Three elections he won, each more successfully than the one before, and people wondered when, or if, it would end. The Canadian political protest song hit of the last year has been one with the refrain, "Harperman, it's time for you to go."
Well, with Monday's election, the wish has come true: he's gone. One of the reasons he stayed for so long was appallingly inept leadership from the Liberals in the previous two elections. This enabled the third party, the supposedly socialistic (but no more than Bernie Sanders) New Democrats, to fill in the gap to some extent, and in the last parliament they became the second-largest party for the first time.
But in the process, the NDP lost nerve, and some of its policies are now to the right of the Liberals. Furthermore, the Liberals finally hit the jackpot with their choice of a new leader: Justin Trudeau, the 43-year-old, and looking more youthful than that, son of the late colossus of Canadian politics, Pierre Trudeau. Trudeau fils first came to public attention with the eulogy he delivered 15 years ago at his father's funeral - watch at least the beginning; the first three minutes, telling a story of when he was 6 and his father was Prime Minister, form one of the most delightful anecdotes ever told at a eulogy - and he seems to have maintained in Parliament and in the election campaign the wit and sharpness he showed then.
So now the Liberals will have a majority, and we'll find out just how much they can, or want to, reverse of Harper's legacy. And also how well Trudeau can run a government. Inexperienced prime ministers have a mixed record in Canadian history.
The scale of the Liberal victory does remind me a little of the elder Trudeau's electoral debut in 1968. Then fairly young himself (he was 48, and in those days was shaving two years off his actual age), fresh on the political scene, handsome and charming, and hugely energetic, Pierre succeeded an elderly and rather bland Liberal PM and immediately called an election. People went wild over him, like a second coming of the Beatles, a phenomenon accordingly called "Trudeaumania", and he won a solid majority of the seats.
It didn't last, of course. His policies, particularly nationalization of the language issue and of energy policy, and strong liberalization of social policy, generated a lasting resentment in the English-speaking, energy-rich, and conservative prairie provinces that the Liberals haven't quite overcome yet, and he was what at the time seemed highly authoritarian in response to terrorism, though in comparison to post-9/11 events it seems rather mild. Pierre actually lost his majority in the next election in 1972, but carried on with a minority government, regained a majority two years later, lost unexpectedly in 1979, but popped back up again immediately afterwards when the replacement Conservatives stumbled over their own shoelaces, and finally retired in 1984 just in time to avoid another electoral disaster. But during those 16 years he was continually the commanding figure of Canadian politics, and during the remaining 16 years of his life, whenever he emerged from retirement to pronounce on an issue - he was still trying to get Quebec-federal relations fixed to his satisfaction - the earth trembled.
It's quite a legacy, and if Justin Trudeau has inherited his father's flair, Canada is in for a very interesting time, and not just in the sense of the Chinese proverb.
Traditionally, the Conservatives were the party of the corporate boardroom (Brian Mulroney was the embodiment of that image), while the Liberals were the party of the crass but wily professional politicians (Jean Chrétien and Pierre Trudeau exemplify that). But the new model Conservatives are really the insurgent Reform Party of the 1990s taking over the old corporatist shell, and it's rather like the Tea Party taking over the Republicans in the U.S.
The result has been appalling policies especially in environment and social justice, and despite his mild-mannered personal style, Harper has been ruthlessly and unprecedentedly authoritarian in enforcing this and maintaining his government's power.
Three elections he won, each more successfully than the one before, and people wondered when, or if, it would end. The Canadian political protest song hit of the last year has been one with the refrain, "Harperman, it's time for you to go."
Well, with Monday's election, the wish has come true: he's gone. One of the reasons he stayed for so long was appallingly inept leadership from the Liberals in the previous two elections. This enabled the third party, the supposedly socialistic (but no more than Bernie Sanders) New Democrats, to fill in the gap to some extent, and in the last parliament they became the second-largest party for the first time.
But in the process, the NDP lost nerve, and some of its policies are now to the right of the Liberals. Furthermore, the Liberals finally hit the jackpot with their choice of a new leader: Justin Trudeau, the 43-year-old, and looking more youthful than that, son of the late colossus of Canadian politics, Pierre Trudeau. Trudeau fils first came to public attention with the eulogy he delivered 15 years ago at his father's funeral - watch at least the beginning; the first three minutes, telling a story of when he was 6 and his father was Prime Minister, form one of the most delightful anecdotes ever told at a eulogy - and he seems to have maintained in Parliament and in the election campaign the wit and sharpness he showed then.
So now the Liberals will have a majority, and we'll find out just how much they can, or want to, reverse of Harper's legacy. And also how well Trudeau can run a government. Inexperienced prime ministers have a mixed record in Canadian history.
The scale of the Liberal victory does remind me a little of the elder Trudeau's electoral debut in 1968. Then fairly young himself (he was 48, and in those days was shaving two years off his actual age), fresh on the political scene, handsome and charming, and hugely energetic, Pierre succeeded an elderly and rather bland Liberal PM and immediately called an election. People went wild over him, like a second coming of the Beatles, a phenomenon accordingly called "Trudeaumania", and he won a solid majority of the seats.
It didn't last, of course. His policies, particularly nationalization of the language issue and of energy policy, and strong liberalization of social policy, generated a lasting resentment in the English-speaking, energy-rich, and conservative prairie provinces that the Liberals haven't quite overcome yet, and he was what at the time seemed highly authoritarian in response to terrorism, though in comparison to post-9/11 events it seems rather mild. Pierre actually lost his majority in the next election in 1972, but carried on with a minority government, regained a majority two years later, lost unexpectedly in 1979, but popped back up again immediately afterwards when the replacement Conservatives stumbled over their own shoelaces, and finally retired in 1984 just in time to avoid another electoral disaster. But during those 16 years he was continually the commanding figure of Canadian politics, and during the remaining 16 years of his life, whenever he emerged from retirement to pronounce on an issue - he was still trying to get Quebec-federal relations fixed to his satisfaction - the earth trembled.
It's quite a legacy, and if Justin Trudeau has inherited his father's flair, Canada is in for a very interesting time, and not just in the sense of the Chinese proverb.
