As soon as I saw Justin Trudeau on the cover of Rolling Stone, I groaned loudly, and cranked up the music in my ears, because I knew exactly how the Cons would react, and that it would be ugly.
And sure enough it was. They wailed like banshees, they ground their teeth until they sounded like cicadas, and some no doubt screamed:
"We've got a new leader and he's SEXIER than Justin!!!!!!!"
Or whatever...
But who could have predicted that the story would drive the Con clown Lisa Raitt off the deep end?
And that she would scream hysterically that the Rolling Stone cover could jeopardize the NAFTA talks !!!!
Conservative deputy leader Lisa Raitt said the Rolling Stone cover story on Mr. Trudeau – which asks “Why can’t he be our President?” – could have an adverse effect on trade dealings with the “mercurial” Mr. Trump, who has been known to act “on a whim.”
“This is a serious misstep by the Trudeau regime. They should have just taken a breath and not sought out this publicity this time because I don’t think it’s helpful to the overall goal of our country, which is a free-trade deal,” she said in an interview.
Which has to be the stupidest thing Raitt has said, since she called cancer "sexy."
Especially since Justin Trudeau did not use the interview to bash Trump.
As we chat, he smiles and locks in with his blue eyes, but Trudeau, whose mother's side is of Scottish descent, swats away all Trump-baiting questions with a look that says, "Not today, laddie."
And the only reason Raitt is complaining is because like all the other Cons and Trudeau haters in this country, she is green with envy at Justin's popularity in Canada, and all over the world.
And she's desperate to try to make Canadians forget how the Cons have been trash talking our country in the United States.
Trying to provoke Trump in what can only be described as a foul act of treason, by a leader more American than Canadian.
Who is clearly trying to whip up bigotry for crass political purposes.
While Trudeau inspires hope in a country, where these days it's a scarce commodity...
And has a different vision for our country, than Trump or Scheer does.
In the hall, a couple hundred kids hold signs that say "Hope" and "Respect." They grab his sleeve and then skitter away wearing giant smiles. It would have been corny if it had not been so goddamned beautiful. This is Trudeau's vision of what a country can be.
His land races toward inclusion, while our nation builds walls and lusts for an era of vanilla homogeneity that ain't coming back. At this moment, Justin Trudeau's Canada looks like a beautiful place to ride out an American storm.
Which is something to celebrate.
Oh sure, I realize this country is full of grumpy old people for whom a glass half full is always a glass half empty. And I pity them, for they are more dead than alive.
Just like I pity the Con clown Lisa Raitt, because she is half right: the Cons are cancer.
But as I found out when I travelled through Europe recently, Trudeau is a beacon of hope in a very dark world, and he has made Canada look better than it ever has before.
So sorry America, he can't be your president.
We are with you as you fight your cancer.
But he's OUR prime minister....
14 comments:
I cringe every time I see something like the Rolling Stone cover and the fawning Trudeau receives from pop culture sources. He needs to be taken seriously as a political leader, not just as a pin up model for the ladies. My wife hates him and she's a die hard liberal; she just doesn't feel he's up to the task of running the country. Her term for this is "empty suit". Every time she hears him talking, she mentions her disdain for him. Now I have to agree with his speech patterns (too stunted with gasps of breath taken in), he needs someone to help him with public speaking but I have to remind her that if it wasn't for Trudeau, we might very well have had another 4-5 years of the Harper government and that he'll grow into the job. My wish is that the Liberals would get their act together and start making good policy, avoid the missteps and broken promises and prove they belong in a leadership role. I'm not seeing much of that right now unfortunately and Justin will not be able to just get by on his charm in 2019. The Liberals need to return to the good govern ship they displayed during the Chretien years. The last thing we need is for the hateful and divisive politics to gain any more momentum in Canada than it already has.
The Liberals expanded CPP, reduced the age to 65, engineered the biggest drop in child poverty in our history with the cctb, made significant reforms to bill C-51, have tabled a bill to legalize weed, and, and, and, we are leading the G7 in economic growth. It's funny you mention Chretien, he is exactly like Chretien, right down to breaking shitty promises that he should not have made.
With the festering wound that is taking over the United States, I really don't give a damn about speech patterns or socks or hair or classic Canadian tall poppy syndrome.
He belongs on the cover of magazines like that. Puffy, unserious magazines for a puffy unserious man.
Unserious man leading the G7 in growth. Move to Russia if this upsets you.
Right on Simon the Cons are cancer, and this country is lucky that we have a PM like Justin Trudeau. Canadians have not forgotten the Harper years and are not going back there.
Simon, keep hammering away at it. Too bad you're not wider read because your CON cartoons are classic.
Oh, and it's good you let dissenting opinions like Joe above.
Would Rolling Stone ever have invited Scheer onto its front cover, or Kent, or Oliver, or Harper, or Raitt, or my unfortunate MP Leitch............ the answer is obvious.
Anonymous-A
Anon, you seem to have mistaken my comments as "dissenting". I am a liberal voter and was very happy when Trudeau was elected leader of the party. At the time I told my wife, "Harper's done in 2015." I do think he needs more seasoning but I figured he would be surrounded by people who know stuff and that would help with policy. It bothers me that the Liberals are more in the news for broken promises and questionable decision making rather than for good policy and action. I think he promised a little too much as evidenced by his inability or reluctance to follow up on some of them. While I do believe he will win re-election in 2019, I'd like to see him mature more in the coming years and really come into his own as a leader and not so much a pop culture icon.
hi Joe...there are some lines in that Rolling Stone article which would make anybody cringe, but the Justin Trudeau phenomenon is as serious as can be. Trudeau reflects generational change, and his is a campaign that fits the times. And since he is extraordinarily successful in beating down the Cons he deserves credit not contempt. No, he is not perfect, but who the hell is? Why do so many progressives seem to get off acting holier than thou, and spend more time attacking our leaders than they do the real enemy? It's time to climb down from our pedestals, and understand that we are in a war with Trump like Cons, and that if we don't destroy them, they will destroy us. Justin Trudeau has destroyed a lot of Harper's foul legacy in less than two years, and he has another two years to work on some of his other promises. There has never been a more feminist prime minister, and gay Canadians have NEVER had a friend like him. And until the day some other progressive candidate can do a better job than he can in keeping the Cons down, he is the only realistic choice, and everything else is fantasy...
hi anon 11:27 am... thank you for talking about the classic Canadian tall poppy syndrome, because that is a huge problem in this country. I used to think it made us more egalitarian, but now I think it makes us look like losers. A little people who can't celebrate our own, a still colonized people with a huge inferiority complex. Well I'm not like that. Like you when I see what's happening in the U.S. and how the same kind of poison is spreading here, I give thanks that we have the decent Justin to fight and beat the filthy Cons...
hi anon 2:10...Justin Trudeau has been on the cover of many magazines, some serious, some not so serious. But while travelling across Europe and Britain a few weeks ago what I can tell you is that he is enormously respected. At a time when people are shaken up by the rise of Trump and other fascists, he is seen as a beacon of hope, and in these dark times there is NOTHING more important than hope. Which is more than we we can say for your Cons, who once disgraced Canada almost beyond recognition, and are now acting like Americans, racists, and traitors....
hi anon 4:48pm...exactly, I don't know how many Canadians have forgotten the Harper years, but I'm not one of them. I remember it as a decade of darkness, and will do all I can to try to make sure that we NEVER go back there....
hi Anonymous A....yes, I will keep hammering away. I have less time than I used to have to blog, but I still enjoy it, and as I mentioned above, with the fascist Trumplings threatening to poison this country as well, it's a way to keep my fighting spirit up.
And you're right, would Rolling Stone have ever invited one of our Cons to grace its cover? Never, never, never. It's easy for some Canadians to dismiss that Rolling Stone story, but I was genuinely moved by the comments of many Americans, especially younger ones, who found it inspiring. We are lucky, they are worried, and if Trudeau can make them feel better, I am both happy and proud....
hi anon 2:57 pm...Don't let those Cons get to you, I get dozens of those drive by idiot comments from Cons every week, and I really enjoy deleting them. If the Cons want to seriously debate an issue I am all ears, but if not they can take a hike....
Don't take this drive-by as an attack. It's just a reminiscence that often comes to mind during parade season.
When gay Canadians were looking for a friend thirty-five years ago, the candidate I was working for was the only one they could find in the province. And he wasn't a Liberal. They weren't willing to take the hit on a no-win electorally poisonous issue. I can't blame Justin for that, but the ones our guy took while the Liberals stood smiling with the PCs in the shadows still burn my ass. After we got out of the bedrooms of the nation, I guess friendship was just too big a step beyond. Well, better after a couple of generations when it's too easy than never. I guess that's generational change.
The cons have got to find somebody that Rolling Stone would put on its cover. Then maybe a lot of the voters who deserted them will start loving them again. The Europeans might even take note. (Isn't that excellent Trump/Rolling Stone mockup a little unsportsmanlike? Or just another illustration of generational change?)
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