This is not the time to vote for more of same
Trudeau’s Liberals gave us four years of broken promises
We’re nearing the end of Canada’s federal election campaign. And for voters looking for a thorough analysis of the party trying to retain power, Martin Lukacs’ The Trudeau Formula offers a compelling account of how Justin Trudeau has adopted his party’s longtime playbook of running to the left and governing to the right, while treating voters with a new and appalling level of cynicism.
Lukacs aptly portrays Trudeau as the personification of the warning by an aristocrat seeking to protect class privilege by making minor concessions to avert an impending popular revolt: “If we want things to remain the same, things will have to change.”
And so the ultimate product of privilege and image management sold himself as offering “real change” to people longing for something better.
As Lukacs documents, the Liberals trumpeted a new internal policy development process for electoral purposes. But while members made impassioned arguments which would be ignored, Liberal power brokers were finalizing their actual plans at closed-door fundraisers with corporate lobbyists.
Hence the results of Trudeau’s term in office. His government designed an infrastructure bank to goose financial sector profits; patterned its climate plan according to a blueprint provided by the oil industry; cut funding for housing to a level lower even than that of the austerian Conservatives who preceded him, and refused to consider providing services such as postal banking which could enhance the public good while slightly affecting the profits of corporate behemoths.
And of course, Trudeau’s most fundamental broken promise was the one which allows him to argue that the corporate class can remain in control by securing access to him alone.
Having single-handedly repudiated the promise of electoral reform which would better reflect the voices of Canada’s electorate as a whole, Trudeau can continue telling his elite peers that he can keep demands for structural reform at bay through an unaccountable majority government — so long as voters buy his claim that there’s no alternative when they cast their ballots.
And the current campaign provides no prospect that the Liberals will reconsider their refusal to challenge the powers that be.
Trudeau’s nominally progressive promises range from a toothless request for lower telecommunication rates, to a meagre allotment for pharmacare which falls far short of providing meaningful coverage. And the Liberals are promising to use much of the federal government’s fiscal capacity on Conservative-style tax baubles — again signalling their prioritization of cosmetic promises over any willingness to confront economic and environmental injustice.
Trudeau’s second election platform thus confirms that the Liberals intend to continue pairing progressive symbolism with neo-liberal substance. But four years of broken promises of change have left Canadians with ample reason to expect something better.
The youngest generation of voters is making its presence felt on the political scene with the demand that leaders act immediately to ensure a livable planet. Workers facing ballooning consumer debt and precarious jobs have recognized the difference between aggregate economic data and their personal circumstances. And people needing access to the most basic of necessities are asking why their supposed progressive champion instead chose to spend public money and political capital to further comfort those who have the most.
Moreover, voters of all ages and classes have every reason for anger at a call for strategic voting from a leader who promised they’d never again be stuck with an artificially narrowed set of options.
Ultimately, then, it’s time to turn the call for aristocratic self-preservation on its head. If we want things to change, we can’t vote for politicians whose vision is limited to more of the same.