Obama weighs in on federal vote, endorses Trudeau
Endorsement from Obama raises eyebrows
If Vladimir Putin were on speaking terms with Chrystia Freeland, the Russian president might be on the phone to Ottawa now, requesting a clarification.
For the past three years, Putin has been the object of regular denunciation for alleged attempts to influence the results of the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Special Counsel Robert Mueller dug deep into suspected dirty tricks originating in Moscow, said to have been aimed at undermining former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s run for the White House. More recently, Democrats have launched an impeachment drive based on charges President Donald Trump sought to pressure Ukraine’s president into providing some dirt on Joe Biden, his potential opponent in the 2020 election race.
Both scandals derive from the well-founded belief that it is wholly inappropriate for a prominent foreign political figure to intrude on the domestic affairs of another country, especially a democratic election in which power is at stake.
Except, it appears, if it’s Canada and you happen to be Justin Trudeau. Once again, as voters ponder how to mark their ballots come Monday’s election, we’ve had it made clear that there’s one set of rules for other people, and another for Justin Trudeau.
Former president Barack Obama is not nearly as distasteful a person as the president of Russia, but he was engaged in a much more open case of intrusion when he urged Canadian voters Wednesday to vote for the Liberal leader over other candidates.
“I was proud to work with Justin Trudeau as President,” he tweeted.
“He’s a hard-working, effective leader who takes on big issues like climate change. The world needs his progressive leadership now, and I hope our neighbors to the north support him for another term.”
Speaking at a campaign stop in St Hyacinthe, Que., Trudeau said of the endorsement: “I appreciate the kind words and am working hard to keep our progress going.” He declined to answer whether he asked Obama for his backing.
Obama and Trudeau developed a warm relationship during the brief period their mandates overlapped, and are said to have stayed in touch since, so both parties might be inclined to suggest this is just one politics guy expressing his appreciation of another politics guy. If it just happens to have landed five days before the culmination of a campaign in which Canada’s politics guy is fighting for his survival, so what?
Trudeau conceded Wednesday he could go down to defeat at the hands of the Conservatives. So what could be better than a boost from a popular U.S. politician?
Obama may no longer be in office, but his stature as a political voice is no less diminished for that. If anything he may be more popular now than even during his eight years in office, his allure only increasing from the comparatively uninspiring choice of candidates seeking his party’s nomination to face Trump.
Yet there are incongruities aplenty in the endorsement, not least that it calls to mind Canadians’ traditional discomfort about anything smacking of “U.S.-style” activities, from “U.S.-style health care” to “U.S.-style gun laws” and “U.S.-style drugs laws.” And, of course, “U.S.-style attack ads,” which, it bears pointing out, long since crossed the border to infect Canadian electioneering.
Liberals began calling themselves “progressives” once the term took hold in the U.S., and Liberals have long enjoyed importing Democratic party gurus to advise on tactics and strategizing. Years before the 2015 election, the Toronto Star noted approvingly that Trudeau was “looking to U.S. Democrats for advice on how to win.” So even before Obama’s tweet on Wednesday it was well established that it’s perfectly fine for Liberals to look south for advice and encouragement — and evidently even a blatant call to choose one candidate over another. Just so long as no other party, especially Conservatives, tries the same thing.
Apart from the precedent Obama’s endorsement sets, it raises other interesting questions. Given the high priority U.S. Democrats put on climate change policy, why is Obama advocating for Trudeau over the Green Party of Elizabeth May, or New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh?
If anything, Singh would appear to be much more in line with the current “progressive” bent of the Democrats, with a platform that mirrors many of the demands of the U.S. left: free tuition, expanded universal health care, taxes on the rich and a far more aggressive approach to climate change.
In Canada’s one and only English-language debate (the Democrats are to hold 12) Trudeau was denounced by both May and Singh for doing too little, and moving too slowly on fighting emissions. In U.S. terms, Trudeau is Joe Biden to Singh’s Elizabeth Warren.
But he’s got a friend in Obama, who recently bought a US$15 million waterfront mansion in Martha’s Vineyard, favoured haunt of wealthy celebrities and other certified one-percenters. Perhaps the Obamas will invite the Trudeaus for a visit, where they can share tales of their battles on behalf of hard-working, middle-class Canadians and Americans.
Just as long as they kick in some dough for carbon offsets to cover the emissions from the home’s 7,000 square feet, seven bedrooms, two guest wings and large master suite with a fireplace. Not to mention the flight down. Economy class, we hope.