Trudeau’s credibility is still in doubt
The most telling moment of Monday night’s Munk Debate, in my opinion, was the moment moderator Rudyard Griffiths asked Liberal leader Justin Trudeau how he would deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The crowd laughed. It wasn’t like the laugh that followed Conservative leader Stephen Harper’s suggestion that he said he had a “great relationship” with U.S. President Barack Obama. Or the collective chortle that met NDP leader Tom Mulcair, when he said his party has a solid record of provincial balanced budgets. The laughter, in those cases, was the audience’s way of saying they weren’t buying what the men at the podium were selling: Sure, Steve, you and Barack Obama are the best of buddies. Good one — tell another!
The laughter that happened at Trudeau’s expense, however, trickled out before he even had the opportunity to answer the question. In that moment, the mere image of Justin Trudeau sitting face-to-face with geopolitical bully Vladimir Putin was enough lure giggles from the audience. It was an uncomfortable moment to watch for many reasons, but primarily because at a bare human level, it must have been awfully humiliating.
That said, Trudeau’s overall performance at the Munk Debate was probably the best of his political career. He pointedly challenged Harper on Bill C-24, which allows the government to strip convicted terrorists who are dual citizens of their Canadian citizenship. He attacked Harper’s suggestion that the government is doing everything it can to help to refugees, and jumped on Mulcair for saying one thing in English and another thing in French, as he had in previous debates, which generally plays fairly well with the crowd.
Trudeau was handcuffed by Liberal policy on the question of what he would do to combat ISIL’s influence in the Middle East, though he offered a passable response in proposing Can- adian troops train local soldiers on the ground. That method didn’t exactly work in Afghanistan, or Iraq, and there’s an argument to be had that Canadian troops are more directly in harms way training troops on the ground, rather than bombing enemies from the air. Nevertheless, it was Trudeau’s way of tempering his rejection of Canada’s current military action in Iraq and Syria while still upholding the responsibility to protect, and though you could deflate his plan with a pinprick, he sold it with confidence, poise and conviction.
Trudeau has demonstrated throughout this campaign that he can hold his own in a serious debate about the economy or foreign policy, as several pundits remarked after the debate last night. But the mere fact that bears mentioning speaks to our enduring perceptions of what it is we believe this Liberal leader is capable — or not capable — of. You won’t hear anyone comment on Mulcair’s ability to handle himself in a serious forum, though he, too, had never participated in a federal leadership debate prior to this election campaign. Compare that to Trudeau, who has grown impressively over the last year, and yet, we still see him as the guy in the canoe who made a dumb comment about admiring China.
Perhaps that is the danger of selling a candidate on affability first, substance later. For nearly his first year as leader of the Liberal party, all we knew about Justin Trudeau is that he was a likable guy who wanted to do politics differently, and that he wanted to legalize marijuana. We got a series of gaffes before we got down to serious policy, and a serious candidate to go along with it.
Trudeau-the-present might be fully capable of sitting down with Putin to talk about Russian aggression in Ukraine or his complicating influence in Syria, but Trudeau from the boxing ring, or Trudeau who made a joke about “whipping” out our CF-18s, would have zero credibility standing up to the Russian president. It would be like a bunny rabbit telling a fox to stop his evening hunt: it just won’t happen, and it’s funny even to imagine. Politicians are a product of their histories, and if you consider the laughter from the audience Monday night, Trudeau has yet to shed his. That is, and should be, devastating to his campaign.
WE STILL SEE HIM AS THE GUY IN THE CANOE WHO MADE A DUMB COMMENT ABOUT ADMIRING CHINA.