Trudeau’s rebels storm the gate
Young ‘Greeks’ not about renewal, they’re starting from scratch
TORONTO Already they’re worried they’ll be perceived as the Young Turks, rabble-rousers and malcontents, mostly in their early 40s or younger, who fervently believe the Liberal Party of Canada needs a swift kick in the pants.
“If there was any kind of age design in the assembly of this team, I’m not aware of it,” says Ontario organizer Omar Alghabra, dismissing a report of an upper age limit of 40 for membership in the inner circle.
“We’re a bunch of friends, like-minded people who have the same vision for the country, the party, and for Canadians.”
But that’s precisely who they are, in spirit, and what they intend to do: With Justin Trudeau leading the way, and with his younger brother Sacha now also leaping into politics at his side, the barbarians are at the gate of the party of Laurier. The two baby boys born on Christmas Day — 1971 and 1973, respectively — are all grown up. They intend to seize control of, unmake and then remake their father’s party — and in the process, they and their supporters hope, change the course of Canadian history.
This possibility is no longer the stuff of Liberal fantasy: A recent poll for the National Post found that, with Trudeau heading the party, the Grits would win 39 per cent of the vote, enough for a majority. So, who are these people, anyway?
The people closest to Justin Trudeau are “Greeks” (a cross between a Grit and a geek); bright, capable young people who, not many years ago, were toiling in relative anonymity at the feet of the party’s 1990s-era giants. Most are parents with young children. Like Trudeau himself, they tend in their backgrounds to hew to what is generally perceived as the party’s left wing. Some are people who’d hoped, in 2006, that Gerard Kennedy would win the leadership and revitalize the Liberal party. But they’re not talking about revitalizing any longer. They’re talking about starting over.
“I was one of those people that was hugely behind renewal of the party in 2006,” says Katie Telford, who ran Kennedy’s 2006 leadership bid and is now running Trudeau’s campaign.
“That was when we really thought we were going to bring about the change required. It didn’t happen so successfully and I think Justin and others are of the view that ‘renewal’ became a word that just started not to work any more. It became just a word. What are we renewing? What are we rebuilding? We actually just need to build. This is roll up your sleeves and build.”
Without question, Trudeau’s rebels embody a generational shift: generation X is finally at the head table. Whether what the campaign is already calling a “movement” represents a philosophical and ideological shift as well, remains to be seen.
Certainly, there are early signs Trudeau intends to try something unusual: His stump speech is explicitly anti-ideological. His senior people speak about crafting “post-partisan” policy. Behind the scenes they are quietly but deliberately reaching across party lines in a search for ideas.
“I’m not sure I would characterize us as left-leaning,” says Telford. “If there’s a good idea that’s traditionally seen as right … we’re all pretty openminded people. ( Solutions) need to be results-driven, and evidence-driven.”
In addition to Telford, and Sacha Trudeau, the core team includes: Gerry Butts, one of Trudeau’s close friends and a former policy architect in the Ontario McGuinty government; Mike McNair, an alumnus of the London School of Economics and former director of the Liberal Research Bureau; former Ontario MPs Navdeep Bains and Omar Alghabra; policy analyst and University of Ottawa professor Robert Asselin; Bruce Young, formerly an adviser on British Columbia issues to Paul Martin; former CBC TV journalist and Ontario Liberal staffer Ben Chin, who now lives in B.C.; Chris MacInnes, a senior organizer in the Nova Scotia Liberal party; Danielle Dansereau, a Quebecbased communications consultant; and Jon Moser, a former
WE’RE A BUNCH OF FRIENDS, LIKE- MINDED PEOPLE WHO HAVE THE SAME VISION FOR THE COUNTRY, THE PARTY, AND FOR CANADIANS.
OMAR ALGHABRA ONTARIO ORGANIZER
Paul Martin staffer who now lives in Alberta.
New Brunswick MP Dominic LeBlanc, who ran unsuccessfully for the Liberal leadership in 2006, is not running and is endorsing Trudeau, who is a longtime friend. LeBlanc will also play a key role in the Trudeau campaign.
Of this group, only Telford has a formal title. She and McNair, thus far, are the only operatives working full-time on the campaign. The rest are unpaid volunteers. Their idealism appears sincere.
“I’m just helping as much as I can,” says Ben Chin, “… to help a person I care for, and think he’s the right guy for the job.”
Trudeau’s team is animated by a belief that the political system has failed or is failing. “What we see is old- school rules,” says Chin. “Regional divides, regional mistrust … I don’t think Canadians are ideological. I don’t think Canadians are polarized. I think Canadians want pragmatic solutions that work, and policy based on facts as opposed to making up the facts to justify the policy. That’s what we need to get back to.”
For now, the team’s main practical goal is to introduce him to people — as many as they can, nationwide.
We know already, based on what he has said so far, that Trudeau will preach optimism, respect and inclusion, darts aimed at Stephen Harper’s heart; and an end to regional polarization related to resource extraction, which is a javelin aimed at Tom Mulcair’s.
Beyond that major theme, though, what can we surmise about Trudeau’s likely policy direction from the composition of his team? Its pivotal figures, though some might dispute such a characterization, are Butts, Telford, McNair and Sacha Trudeau.
As a group they are progressive, environmentalist and internationalist, but with a pragmatic tilt. If “youthful over-achiever” were a political party, all four would be charter members.
In Mississauga Thursday, Justin Trudeau drew an audience of more than 1,000 to an event that had been planned for between 300 and 400. In his speech, a variant of the one he gave Tuesday in Montreal and Wednesday in Calgary and Richmond, B.C., he predicted the blaze of interest in his candidacy will soon fade, as he begins to engage with smaller groups in smaller towns.
“The lights will dim and the cameras will disappear,” he said.
Having witnessed the last five days, his rivals — in his own party, and beyond — are doubtless hoping that’s true. Whether Trudeau has in fact launched a “movement,” as he says in his stump speech, remains to be seen. But without question, the people closest to him believe it’s a movement. That is something we’ve not seen in a while.