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The "What Do I Know Grit"
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- James Curran
- "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." — Robert Francis Kennedy
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12 comments:
Not wanting to fall into the barage of thoughtless and partisan comments following the link, I'll make a couple of observations..
a) First, props to Justin Tredeau for speaking plainly about his thoughts on Ignatieff's push to recognize Quebec as a nation, suggesting same would be "based upon a smallness of thought". Shows better foresight than our curren PM (with all respect);
b) His surname, unfortunately, will hurt him nationally - both in Quebec (see above as well) and, more so, in Western Canada, where, for good or ill, anyone over 40 will never foregive his father, and will, fairly or not, tar is son with that same animosity;
c) To this point in time, in any event, he hasn't been tested in any seriously way to determine if he has much to offer.. I suggest the jury is strongly out, but, seeking and winning a race against a BQ incumbant is a good start.
d) Final thought - whoever the future of the Liberal party is - Justin or othewise, you had best reconnect with your base, with the average Canadian, who isn't necessarily buying into the "global warming" hype, doesn't really want to pay for everyone else's daycare, and believes that the business of tending to average Canadians has been long forgotten by all parties to some degree, and the Liberal party in particular..
But then, again, I'm a big, bad, Conservative.. so, what do I know :)
re: average Canadian not buying into global warming hype
If I may offer an ancedote that suggests otherwise - I live in a "safe" Conservative riding (incumbant got over 60% of vote last month). When Rona Ambrose was Minister of the Environment she was scheduled to give a town hall meeting here to discuss the new "Made in Canada" plan. I went, thinking I might be one of only a few non-Conservatives there. Well, the meeting was SRO with people spilling out into the hallway, and it was a hostile crowd. Ambrose had an excuse not to attend and sent her Parliamentary Secretary Mark Warawa in her place, where he was grilled, fried, and otherwise had his goose cooked by the audience, who peppered him with questions. (most of which he answered with "12 years of Liberal blah blah blah..."). Many claimed to have been Con voters all their lives but were mad as hell that nothing effective was being planned by the government on climate change. Most people had a clear understanding of intensity based targets, which actually allow emissions to get higher. They wanted to know why the government wasn't investing in green technology R&D, and they were visibly and audibly pissed off.
So, respectfully, I disagree. I think the average Canadian, even a lot of Conservatives, understand and are very concerned about climate change, and are looking at their government to address the issue in a meaningful way. Kinda hard though when the government chooses to believe "Friends of Science" over actual science.
Well, ok, just my own POV.. though one might consider that when Dion took the gutsy move to stake his election on the greenshift, that a broad belief in global warming as a major issue would have left him somewhat better than history now shows..
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe not..
Roblaw - the Green Shift may not have gone over, mostly because of bad info, etc., keep in mind that two-thirds of Canadians DID NOT vote for the Conservatives and those TWO-THIRDS "are" conserned about the environment.
So, your opinion is in keeping with only about 30% of Canadians.
Now about Justin Trudeau - his name if "Justin" not "Pierre" and time will tell if he's up to it or not.
Trudeau will be duly tested as a cabinet minister under Prime Minister Ignatieff or Prime Minister Rae and then we can all see if he is another Pierre Trudeau or instead an Alan Rock.
30% in this multi-party political spectrum is a big number.. and, regarding the comment regarding "bad info", I'll agree with you on that point.
The complete lack of any involved critical discussion about global warming is appalling for our media, regardless of where you sit on the issue.. for something that is, no doubt, a significant issue, if not "the" significant issue, you would think our collective media would do more. Very few, if any, people I meet even have a passing understanding of the scientific under-pinnings of the global warming concept, and whether you're a Lib, PC, or NDP, the refusal of our MSM to approach the issue with any significant thought is appalling.
And my point, originally, is that it may be unfair, but to ignore the legacy of his father would be folly for those who, at least at present, would see Justin as future Lib leader.. and clearly, his anti-Quebec nationlist stance, which was the one thing I did admire in his father, is something that will not play well in Quebec, at least at this point in history.
Justin is wise enough to know he's not ready - too bad others wouldn't agree with him.
There is only one John A. MacDonald, Pierre Trudeau, Laurier, etc.
This constant trying to bring people back from the dead is silly. They were great because they were "unique".
Each new "great" political leader will have to bring their own uniqueness.
And, it's not only about the stance on Quebec - other policies and views are involved as well.
I would think that if Justin has the potential for greatness - it would be because of his own identity and uniqueness.
You can go back....time moves on.
Fair enough rs, it will be interesting to see his progress, though, with all respect to the host of this blog, comments suggesting he could be the "future of the liberal party" may prove to increase the strain on Justin escaping the rather large shadow cast by his father.
Oh, and props to James Curran for allowing a knuckle-dragging conservative like me to share thoughts freely with other Canadians online.. even though we may disagree. Other Liberal Blogs could learn something from that (W.K., you reading?)
Whether Justin ever runs for leader or not is somewhat irrelevant. He is the future in terms of party renewal and new forethought.
Youth begets youth. And we are a party long in the tooth. For fun I'd like to compare the average ages of the Cons and Liberals elected MPs. I bet it's not close.
According to the Parliament of Canada's own website, here are the average ages:
Conservative (143 MPs, one missing) - 50.21
Liberal (77 MPs) - 51.81
Bloc (49 MPs) - 52.98
NDP (37 MPs) - 52.22
Thank God for Navdeep, Hollan, Ruby and Justin then.
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