Outside Ottawa, touring Trudeau still packs powerful punch
Reading the wretched headlines from Justin Trudeau’s crosscountry town hall tour, one is tempted to score the exercise as an own-goal.
Moans over the still-creaking Phoenix pay system, tough questions over tattered plans for electoral reform, and gripes about outof-control spending couldn’t have been what the Trudeau brain trust had in mind when they announced their tour to “reconnect” their man with “ordinary” Canadians.
Then again, what did they expect when they invited the parliamentary media around with them on the heels of a secretive, and possibly illegal, “family vacation” with a billionaire on his private Bahamian island? It’s an invitation for a mugging. A deliberate one. Trudeau’s mind-numbingly earnest and scripted answers, delivered with sleeves rolled up on those hard-working arms, rarely address the question at hand, and grate with those in the know. But they sing for those who don’t dose daily on Ottawa.
Trudeau’s audience isn’t the national press; it’s the local guys and the people whose bums are filling the seats in halls across the land. The two couldn’t be further apart in terms of expectations or response.
Locally, Trudeau gets credit for just showing up, usually with a flattering picture on the front page. “Trudeau grilled at Kingston town hall, as taxpayerfunded tour begins” read the CTV National News headline after the first stop. “Trudeau kicks off Canadian tour in Kingston” read its local CKWS counterpart. One sounds critical, the other like flattery for a rock band, which Trudeau returned in kind with a request for a Tragically Hip song during a call-in to local radio.
Trudeau is wagering the latter will linger locally and the former will fade nationally. It’s a smart bet.
During the 2011 election campaign, Stephen Harper kept the national press at bay, offering only four questions a day. They hated it, and no one cared. One day (in Halifax, if memory serves) they even saved their fourth question to ask why they couldn’t have more questions. Harper didn’t budge and later went on to sit down with local radio and answer questions on the local economy and job creation.
Trudeau’s audience isn’t the national press; it’s the local guys and the people whose bums are filling the seats in halls across the land.
Even better for Trudeau, he gets to do this mid-mandate electioneering on the taxpayer dime, with the Liberal MPs hosting the prime minister scooping up the email addresses of all in attendance for future communication on issues of importance. It’s a prize worth some snark from cynical Ottawa reporters.
People in Ottawa forget most ordinary Canadians don’t keep a scorecard on the state of play in their nation’s capital. When the prime minister comes to their town outside of election season, they appreciate the gesture, and offer the office their respect.
Most people in Dartmouth, N.S., or Fredericton don’t care that Trudeau isn’t in Davos rubbing elbows with Xi Jinping or snapping Alps selfies with preening rock stars. What’s more, he doesn’t have to be. Besides, in our globalized world, the Liberal government can sell out to China from a distance, as they appear to be with free trade talks around the corner, and Trudeau’s cabinet recently reversing a Chinese acquisition that had been turned down by Stephen Harper over security concerns.
Taking a little heat from the locals is better and easier than explaining how you’re going to hug China more tightly to mitigate some of the impact if Donald Trump turns out to be half as crazy as advertised.
The townhalls buy time — and fill airtime — until a proper plan can be constructed and discussed at the upcoming cabinet retreat in Calgary next week. Mind you, the folks out West probably won’t be thrilled to have heard their prime minister on tour discussing the “phasing out” of the oilsands when the local economy is already on its knees. Not to worry. Calgary is miles away as the modern communication crow flies. There will be dozens of news “cycles” before Trudeau hits town. That’s another reason to have the prime minister in three or four spots a day, sending out different messages and images hither and yon: There’s a home for all of them. Their cumulative impact matters more than any one impression.
And with emotion up-weighted over reason in modern political communication, the images of Trudeau on the hustings matter more than the words he speaks. He’s the master at conveying positive energy, and having his young, dynamic presence flooded out over social media. He will squeeze Adam Scotti’s camera dry and use his official photographer’s snaps (taxpayer-funded, too) to scrapbook his way into voters’ memories.
The words and any gaffes will fade; the images will remain. That’s why it’s too early to give Justin Trudeau’s tour a grade.
With emotion up-weighted over reason in modern political communication, the images of Trudeau on the hustings matter more than the words he speaks.