It’s true: Canada is back
Because Canadians are — how else to say it? — so clearly Canadian, so sensible and practical and basically decent, it’s not often that we get noticed by outsiders, let alone get described admiringly by them.
One of the rare exceptions to this rule happened back in 1967, when the world’s media and all the foreigners visiting the country competed to praise the extraordinary magic of the Expo 67 world’s fair in Montreal.
Something similar is happening again. Not on the same scale. We ourselves are a lot older (back then, almost half of us were less than 25 years old). In much of the rest of the world, the determining emotions of a great many are those of anxiety and fear.
The New York Times was the first outsider to spot that something most unusual was happening here. Canadians, declared this august newspaper, had somehow gained “a renewed sense of national identity rooted in diversity, in humane and inclusive social policies at home and in humanitarian services overseas.
“The thrill of the moment may be fleeting,” continued the Times, but it could “awaken new generations to public service and as an antidote to the cynicism about politics that has sadly become the norm in established democracies.”
That the credit for this achievement is due overwhelmingly to Justin Trudeau is self-evident. His election campaign was one of the most skilful ever staged in this country. His construction of his cabinet was more inventive by far than any before it: Asked why he’d chosen as many women as men as his ministers, Trudeau’s reply was the unanswerable, “Because it’s 2015.”
As prime minister, he’s enjoyed some luck. One reason Trudeau has performed so confidently and adroitly at all his international events is because while a teenager, he learned this trade by accompanying his father, then the prime minister, on his tours around the world.
Difficulties are certain to accumulate soon. The most threatening is that Trudeau’s campaign promises will soon be revealed as a good deal more expensive than he’s yet admitted. Getting a climate change agreement that actually commits countries to their emissionreduction promises will be exceedingly difficult, not least when a nation as large as India says it must go its own way.
Yet it’s time to accept that Trudeau is a leader of skill and conviction of an order we’ve never experienced before. He knows how to operate. At the climate conference in Paris, he got himself into the best possible spot for the photographers, with Bill Gates next to him and U.S. President Barack Obama just one place away.
And he knows how to say what his public wants to hear. His declaration that “Canada is back” is of the same unchallengeable order as his “Because it’s 2015.”
That Canada indeed is back is Trudeau’s greatest accomplishment. Ahead of us, disappointments, misunderstandings, legitimate disagreements and outright resentments are all inevitable. The New York Times’ observation that “political passion can be polarizing and no aura lasts forever” is wholly valid.
But what’s happened is that a union has taken place between the right leader and the right country.
Just one thing is lacking. We aren’t any more a young nation as we were back in 1967. So a lot of us oldies are going to have to learn how to think and feel young. Richard Gwyn’s column usually appears every other Tuesday. gwynr@sympatico.ca
It’s time to accept that Trudeau is a leader of skill of an order we’ve never experienced before