`Self-serving' rhetoric can't justify election
PM can't come up with a ballot question
Justin Trudeau has always veered toward grandiosity but his claim that the election he triggered by visiting the Governor General on Sunday morning is the “most important since 1945” is self-serving nonsense.
The Liberal leader emerged into the sunshine at Rideau Hall and attempted to pre-empt the questions he knew were coming on the necessity for a $600-million election during the fourth wave of the pandemic, at a time when it is clear that the government still has the confidence of the House of Commons to pass its legislation.
Why has Trudeau fired the starting gun on a campaign that will take place when so many people are on vacation? The reason is obvious — if no one is watching the first half of the campaign, the relatively unknown Conservative leader, Erin O'Toole, will remain a mystery to most voters.
Trudeau couldn't say that, of course.
His circular reasoning on why the moment is “pivotal” and “consequential” revolved around Canadians' need to choose how to finish the fight against COVID and to “build back better.”
“As much as we've done in many, many months, we've got a lot of work ahead of us,” he said.
Yikes. That sounds expensive. The government has only recently passed the legislation to implement the historic 2021 budget, which promised $143 billion in stimulus spending. $500 cheques have already started landing on the doorsteps of seniors over the age of 75 as a pre-election mood enhancer.
It will take years for that money to work its way through the approval system that moves at the pace of coastal erosion.
The Liberals have doubled the national debt in six years and spent close to a trillion dollars. Trudeau's comments suggest there is more spending to come in his election platform.
For his “pivotal” narrative to make sense, there has to be because the money to “build back better” has already been approved and allocated. The stimulus was always, in the words of former Liberal adviser Robert Asselin, a political solution in search of an economic problem. As the Bank of Canada's monetary policy report for July makes clear, the economy is rebounding nicely, with employment levels almost back to pre-pandemic levels and consumption leading the recovery, as the retail and restaurant sectors pick up. Growth is forecast at six per cent this year, 4.5 per cent next and 3.25 per cent in 2023. The bank insists that a surge in inflation is pandemic-related and merely a rebalancing of demand and supply. But those calculations could be upended if the Liberal election platform adds more billions in stimulus.
At the moment, Trudeau doesn't have an issue to justify his overblown rhetoric.
He tried to create a ballot question last week, when the Liberals announced their intention to require public servants and people boarding trains and planes in Canada to be vaccinated. “Not everyone agrees. Not every political party agrees,” he said on Sunday. “Canadians should be able to weigh in on that and so much more.”
The Liberal leader attempted to turn the tables on the Conservatives and NDP, who have called the rush to an election unnecessary and selfish.
“I don't accept any party saying we should not do everything we can to keep people safe and end this pandemic. I certainly don't accept any politicians saying you shouldn't have your choice on how to do that, or on what comes next,” he said.
It was fitting that bored reporters waiting in the sun for Trudeau were distracted by the appearance of a red fox in the grounds of Rideau Hall — for some an omen of good fortune; for others the symbol of slyness and trickery.
Trudeau's vaccination gambit was nothing if not mischievous — forcing the other parties to support it or reject it. O'Toole tried to do both, saying vaccines are important and people should get the shot, but adding that Conservatives believe people should make their own decisions on vaccination. It may well be a defensible, nuanced position but the most likely consequence of sitting on the fence in an election campaign is a metal spike in the arse.
The Conservatives need to be sharper than they've been, and that's without commenting on the execrable Veruca Salt attack ad.
But the Liberals, too, need to do better if they are to guarantee what should be a fairly routine mopping up operation to regain their majority, given the billions that have been spent in its pursuit.
Trudeau's attempts to garner support among students and young people made it sound like it would be their privilege to back him: “The planet and our future are at stake. I need you alongside me in this fight. Together we can do so much more.” This from the leader of a party in power as greenhouse gas emissions actually grew three per cent between 2016 and the end of 2019.
He also addressed the issue of affordable housing, which is front of mind for millennials who can't get a foot on the ladder, saying “it's tough, indeed unacceptable.” As the NDP pointed out, house prices have soared by hundreds of thousands of dollars since the Liberal leader promised action in 2019.
It is the New Democrats who perhaps have the most appealing pitch to progressive voters in the early going — give us the balance of power again and we'll keep the Liberals honest.
This election is important for Trudeau — possibly career-defining. But after the flux of the pandemic, it is far from clear that Canadians want to pivot in any direction. Rarely has the political status quo seemed quite so appealing for quite so many people.
WE'VE GOT A LOT OF WORK AHEAD OF US.