It's now been two years to the day since Canadians gave Justin Trudeau a crushing majority.
And he sent Stephen Harper packing...
And into the garbage can of history.
Who can forget what a magical night it was?
And who can forget what the Cons looked like once it was over.
Or for that matter how Stephen Harper must have felt after being squished like a bug by the man he claimed for years wasn't ready.
Everything in Mr. Harper's political career from his early days as an assistant in Ottawa was directed at undoing or diluting as much as possible of prime minister Pierre Trudeau's vision of government and Canada. Now, to be crushed by Mr. Trudeau's son Justin, someone Mr. Harper considers intellectually weak and, worse, a chip off the old man's block, must cut the Conservative Leader to the core.
But what Harper never understood, like many old Cons in this country still don't understand today, was the power of change.
Time for a change is the oldest and most powerful force in a democracy. The Conservatives, as happens to a party long in power, ran on more of the same, whereas the country wanted something different.
And it's that power of change that will almost certainly propel Justin Trudeau to victory again in the year 2019.
For although Trudeau's polls have been battered a bit by the relentless assault of the filthy Cons and the grubby Con media, all of them still show that he is by far the most popular leader.
Nanos tracking has Trudeau as the preferred choice as PM at 41.9 per cent of Canadians followed by Scheer (22.5%), Mulcair/Singh (8.7%) and May (5.3%). Twenty per cent of Canadians were unsure who they preferred. (Note: this was the second week that Jagmeet Singh, the newly elected leader of the NDP was included in the tracking).
More than six in ten Canadians (60.0%) believe Trudeau has the qualities of a good political leader while 38.9 per cent believe Mulcair/Singh have the qualities of a good political leader. One in three Canadians (32.7%) say Scheer has the qualities of a good political leader, while 35.5 per cent believe the same about May.
And they suggest that the sinister Andrew Scheer is going to share the same fate as his Great Fallen Leader did.
For what Scheer and his Rebel gang don't understand, is that they can attack Justin Trudeau like rabid
But as Donna Dasko points out, to judge the Trudeau government at mid-term you have to look at the big picture.
First, Canadians usually reward even a modestly competent government with a second term. The Chrétien-Martin Liberals won four election victories; the Harper Conservatives won three. So unless the Liberals are exceptionally inept, and there is no sign of that, history will work in their favour.
History is on their side, so is a strong economy.
But the most important factor, especially with the millennial generation poised to become the biggest voting bloc in the next election, is once again the power of change.
And not just the power of changing policies that the Trudeau government has successfully delivered...
The policy changes have been significant. The Liberal promise to run a deficit of $10 billion (now $17 billion in 2016-17) and spend it on infrastructure and other programs represents substantial change from the Harper Conservatives. Carbon pricing, legalizing marijuana, the child tax credit, and ending income splitting represent significant change. The first act of the new government was to bringing back the long-form census. There are many other examples. There can be no doubt that we have policy change.
There is also the power of change itself...
But there is more. The entire demeanor, tone, presentation and language of this prime minister are different, representing a huge break from the past. Half the cabinet is female. The look and feel is vastly different. Words like gender and feminist would never be uttered in the previous government but today are commonplace. The change has been profound.
Harper didn't understand that force, neither do Scheer and his religious fanatics, bigots, racists and homophobes.
And sadly neither do some of the dotards on our side...
Who are too dumb or too senile to understand what's happening.
And who fear the future for obvious reasons.
But isn't it great to know that they will soon be just a bad memory?
That the universe is unfolding just as we thought it would.
And that the future belongs to us...
51 comments:
Simon, I hope you call out the ndp for the con lickers that they are. Cullen is the worst one, he sabotaged electoral reform and now he is trying to sabotage tax fairness. A career politician bringing down a good and successful man in Morneau.
"Who are too dumb or too senile to understand what's happening.
And who fear the future for obvious reasons."
Nothing like a bit of ageism in the morning.
Old man Justin’s going to lose the next election. The NDP actually have a youthful leader, not some silver spoon pretty boy.
I had been an NDP supporter for years, but found there was a gradual switch to the right under Mulcair, which I found disturbing. While Trudeau is getting a lot of undeserved criticism, and it is hard to fight corporate media, the Liberals really need to get their message out there- small business tax changes are getting rid of unfair loopholes designed to reward the top of the heap- electoral reform was cancelled due to the provision of a superfluous referendum with FPTP included- Morneau complied with ethical procedures as far as his business dealings, etc. As for Singh, I have heard very little about him, although it appears he is very competent- but just reading the news and opinon pieces, there appears to be a slight current of racism towards him. I am hoping he is able to weather at least one election while his policies and personality becomes more familiar to voters.
I love those two dotards. You should check out the Lorne one today, he's going wild finding every anti-Trudeau story he can find. I don't know why him and the other hairy old baboon don't go and blog for the Blogging Tories.
Holy shit, I see what you mean, he is going crazy. He must really hate Justin. I hope the RCMP are keeping an eye on him. That old banana should get a job at The Rebel, Levant would love him. MT
I remember that night two years ago as if it was yesterday. Justin Trudeau has made this country a much better place to live in. I find it hard to believe that anyone could argue the contrary, except of course the Conservatives. I look forward to teaching them another lesson in 2019.
NZ finally has their govt 26 days after the vote! the NZ First Party conceded graciously and agreed to a coalition. Wow,just wow. Woman,38,gorgeous etc. They got rid of FPTP in 1993, now MMPR. Take note Canada.
JLS
His only signicicant blunder was electorl reform. Lets hope it gets done in the second term and then we will never see the pork faces again
here here
made Canada great again, no doubt
A local Canadian veteran told me yesterday that NOT ONCE during Harper's 9 years and 9 months in office did he attend the fallen soldier ceremony of those who had served in Afghanistan, etc.
Thank you Simon for reminding me about the two year anniversary of the fall of the nasty Stephen Harper. I thought it was in November! I can't believe that anyone who claims to be a progressive can say that Trudeau is worse than Harper. They must be working for Trump or Putin!
Craig Oliver (CTV):
https://www.youtube.com/embed/zs8hkuEA3Q8
"…to compare him [Justin Trudeau] with Mr. Harper: integrity, trust, openness, tolerance, truthfulness. I have to say that Mr. Harper promised all of these words himself, and basically lived up to none of them. I know that many of you may feel that this is the night we should say nice things about Mr. Harper. But he was caught lying. He was caught cheating. He showed toward the end, incredible intolerance to Canadians who are Arabs and Muslims, which many will find always unforgiveable. The whole idea of a tip line, listen to your parents and to your neighbours, and report on some kind of practices you might… and call the Mounties--who wanted nothing to do with all of this. So now our challenge will be--my colleagues and I--to hold Mr. Trudeau to scrutiny, to make sure that he lives up to the words about honesty and truthfulness and openness in politics, that he is now talked about, because there are times when some of us wonder whether that is possible anymore in modern politics. We don't see very much of it. So Mr. Trudeau's words were inspiring, thoughtful, emotional, and he deserves all of the success he's got tonight."
Justin Trudeau's full victory speech (Oct. 19, 2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKWyk86yWsQ
Worth noting that in October 2019, when the next election is set to be held, Pierre Trudeau would have been celebrating his centennial had he lived. Justin won victory in 2015 just a day after what would have been his father's 96th birthday. Next year marks twenty years since the tragic death of Michel Trudeau, Justin and Sacha's little brother. Their mother Margaret will be celebrating a bittersweet milestone 70th birthday next year too.
Both papa and baby brother, and now Gord Downie, are smiling from above the Northern Lights. I have an image in mind that Misha, like his big brother, welcomed little Alan Kurdi -- the 3-year-old Syrian drowning victim who didn't make it to Canada, but has certainly found his own place in the stars.
May the Force be with them forever and always.
Hi anon...like you I am absolutely disgusted by the way Nathan Cullen has been teaming up with the disgusting Pierre Poilievre to smear a decent person like Bill Morneau. Unfortunately Cullen is just another symptom of what is wrong with the NDP. They are supposed to be inspiring people, but all they know how to do is attack. And Cullen is such a bitter loser he is even sabotaging his new leader's attempt to do things differently. I will be writing something about all of this soon...
Hi anon 10:16 AM...nonsense, I'm directing my criticism to two well known dotards on Progressive Bloogers. One is a homophobe and a misogynist who believes that Justin Trudeau should be raped in jail, and the other is his shameless groupie. And my opinion of them has always been clear. If they believe that Justin Trudeau is worse than Stephen Harper they ARE either really dumb or senile...
He may, after all one of the reasons he himself stated (albeit not verbatim) was that he didn't want to rock the boat what with the great American earthquake of 2016 causing tremors and shockwaves all around the world. At the time Trump was first sworn in, countries were fearful of a Trumpmania engulfing the West like Hitler and Mussolini's fascism cannibalized Europe and then the Soviets expanded into the Eastern Bloc. Now that things seem relatively stable -- May has been neutered, Macron starting to prove himself (and the French, for all their fickleness and nationalism, rejecting Le Pen no matter what), and despite an inevitable shift to the right due to the unsettling breakthrough of the AfD into the Bundestag, Merkel right now is holding strong.
So there's always a chance he may pick it up again now that the right-wing dotards have been revealed for exactly what they are. Justin even said he didn't want to see Kellie Leitch have her own party. Well, Leitch is yesterday's fake news and Scheer keeps showing himself to be a fascist on par with the stampeding, rabid elephants of the GOP. Scheer is on the wrong side of the border and the wrong side of history. Singh is daft and has no platform besides demographics, the "Canadian Obama" meme. He's just not ready and Scheer will never be.
Justin's hit some rough and rocky patches and even made some wrong turns here and there, but overall I'd say he's definitely steered a steady ship. Especially when compared to the cluster-fuddle-duddle below the 49th parallel. Trump isn't "fired," of course, but he's about as influential and respected now as hemorrhoids. Perhaps even less so. He's a dementia patient, frequently covfused and irritable, but one who seems to think that Justin is one of his sons. Which of course, couldn't be further from the truth. Trumpmania will be a blip on the radar because Cons everywhere have nothing to run on but hate. The Force is with him and the Sith are on the retreat. Even ISIS is losing bigly and so are their American equivalents!
Wow. How deplorable. Even as he's the one who put them there in the first place because he couldn't wait to suck at the spigot of Bush's oil crusades. The Gipper Party and the Crapper Party, two peas in a pod (or pod people and pee hookers, whatever).
Fuddle-duddle the Cons and the GOP too.
HI anon 10:30...did you see that poll? Did you read that Star article? I realize you're a Con hoping that Jagmeet Singh will split the vote, but it's just not going to happen. I'll explain why in a post soon. And I'll try to keep it as simple as possible so hopefully you can understand what I'm saying. Weren't you one of those who thought Nenshi was definitely going to lose? How did that work out for you? And when will you accept the simple fact that in Canada at least, Cons are born to be losers...
Hi anon 12:17...I think I'll pass if you don't mind. I think the Internet has driven him crazy and he is obsessed about attacking Justin Trudeau. It's a sordid sight, but what do you expect? His BFF thinks Trudeau should be raped in jail, so he has to do something to impress him *Shudder*
They very well might be. Have a look at Jill Stein's contacts to Russia and also the so-called "progressive" bloggers like Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept and Amy Goodman of Democracy Now.
Bernout Sandals never left the sixties, and he probably never finished his honeymoon in Moscow either. That purity cult with their Blac Bloc shenanigans and navel-gazing obsession with role-playing as revolutionaries is what, in part, got us Nixon in 1968, Bush in 2000 and now, Dotard in 2016.
It's horseshoe theory: they're just as bad as the cons they play useful idiots for, and bigoted in their own way too despite claiming to "march for social justice." They latch onto the right's favorite derogatory moniker for Trudeau, that he is "Hillary in a dress." I <3 Justin, and recoil in horror at the homophobic hatred and conspiracy theories being flung at him and everyone in his family from "many, many sides."
I'm sure it unsettles and hurts him too, but he is strong enough to rise above it. He won't sink to the dark side. He's Mister Brightside. :)
"Nothing like a bit of ageism in the morning."
How about a bit of missing the point? There's always outliers, but Simon is going by polling statistics which say that millennials are by far the ones most likely to vote against the Cons and also to support the Liberals and Trudeau as a leader. Cons and Republicans alike tend to be concentrated among the middle-aged and old. I don't know if you have "Nielsen ratings" in Canada, but down here behind the Orange Curtain, it's a well-known and not alternative fact that the average age of a Fox News viewer is 68. Grouchy oldsters telling those meddlesome kids to get off their lawns.
The young tend to look toward the future, while the old want to "conserve" the past. The only nostalgia millennials are experiencing is halcyon reflections upon the Obama era. They weren't alive for Pierre Trudeau and they certainly don't know the optimism that carried JFK, other than maybe in their history books.
So no, it's not ageism if you're going by the aggregate for a general analysis. No group is a monolith (there's obviously a disturbing number of millennial cons among the Rebel/4chan cohort), but every stereotype has a grain of truth.
Singh doesn't even have a seat in Parliament, and plans on spending the next two years on a "Jagmeet-and-greet" tour instead of actually landing a riding. He's got the runner-up Guy Caron "pinch hitting" for him on the floor, and therefore isn't going to have any experience in Parliament whatsoever by the time the election comes. He has no idea what he's doing, just wants to be the "progressive" version of Trump, in hitting a walk-off home run for the Blue Jays his first time at bat despite never so much as having played tee ball or Little League. At least Justin served eight years as MP for Papineau and, whatever your opinion of the whole "family legacy" model in politics, can't have been completely ignorant to the ins and outs of his father's job even while still a young boy. But Singh wants to be Wayne Gretzky without ever so much as having learned to skate.
He has no coherent platform besides sucking up votes like the NDP always do and a copy of a copy of the Obama demographic-precedent enthusiasm. He appears to be overtly religious and not just because of his turban. That's a nonstarter in Québec, where laïcité is a very French thing and understandably popular. The oil patch is con country, and certainly aren't going to vote for a bearded brown guy in a turban who the "base" believes is a "terrorist." They'd vote for Trudeau, stay home, or do a write-in for Brent Gretzky if Scheer wasn't in the race or the cons didn't exist.
A vote for Singh is a throwaway that goes by default in the Scheer column, not for Canada's Barack Obama but for Canada's Ralph Nader and Bernie Sanders. 2023 may be a completely different landscape, but right now the most competent and "ready" in the race by far is none other than Justin Trudeau. Singh is just not ready and Scheer obviously thinks the current year is 1915.
uHi anon 12:25...Jesus I see what you mean. He is going crazy. I have to confess that I sometimes enjoy winding those dotards up, but of course there is a serious side to my criticism. None of them will give Trudeau any credit for standing up for women's and gay rights, or having improved the image of this country in the eyes of the world. I have tried to reason with them, but their hatred is pathological, so it's just a waste of time...
Hi anon 12:52...yes it was a special night wasn't it? As far as politics go, it was the happiest night of my life. I spent almost ten years totally involved in the struggle to try to defeat Harper. I considered it my and Canada's lost decade, so when I saw that Trudeau had won a MAJORITY I was so so happy. And like you, when I see some so-called "progressives" claiming that Trudeau is worse than Harper, I think those people must be mentally ill...
Hi JLS...here's to New Zealand and viva Jacinda!!! It's always good news when progressives come together to depose right-wingers, for we are in a global struggle, and every victory counts. I think Canads will eventually have electoral reform, and we might have had it if the NDP hadn't agreed with the Cons that a referendum was necessary. Which of course was nonsense, since a referendum would almost certainly have been lost, and buried electoral reform for a generation. Oh well, hope springs eternal...
Hi Steve....please read what I said above, and then help bury that myth. If we want electoral reform the Liberals and the NDP need to agree on a formula, and then just do it...
Hi David....I'm not surprised. Harper like to dress up and play King Chicken Hawk, but it was always a cheap cabaret act, and the way his government treated soldiers and veterans was always disgraceful...
Hi Filcher....I had the same problem with the NDP under Mulcair. I thought he did a good job snarling at Harper, but the way he allowed Justin to outflank the NDP on the left was truly bizarre, and the way he snarled at Trudeau as if he was another Harper was both absurd and disgusting. The parties I support are those that appeal to the better angels of humanity, and I have very little time for cheap partisanship. I thought Morneau, who by all accounts is a decent and honest man, even if he is a millionaire,, was treated shabbily and made to look like a crook by people like Pierre Poilevre who as we all know is the scum of the earth. What we all need to remember is that the Con media has declared war on the Liberals and doing all they can to elect the Cons. And if progressives fight themselves they could end up saddled nag us with a nightmare worse than Harper....
Hi anon...You're welcome, although I must admit that I had also forgotten the date. .i had started writing a post on another subject when I suddenly saw an article referring to the anniversary, and I dropped what I was doing and started writing this one. And yes, I don't have a problem with anyone criticizing Justin Trudeau, but I will never accept the nonsense that Trudeau is worse than Harper. It's an assault on reality and decency...
Hi David....thanks for that quote from Craig Oliver. It reflects how I and millions of Canadians felt about that ten year nightmare, And when the disgusting Con media complains about Trudeau, somebody should be reminded that Harper treated them like dirt, and the chances to ask any questions were few and far between. I can understand so-called ordinary Canadians forgetting that but not our shameless Con media. Their behaviour these days is simply outrageous and giving new meaning to the word "bought."
Right on, everybody, music to my ears!
hi anon 6:47 PM...it infuriates me when people accuse me of being an ageist, since I like people of all ages, and believe in a great progressive alliance of the young and the old. But as you point out, statistics show than many older people do tend to favour the Cons and/or put down the young, so those people deserve to be criticized because they should be caring about the future. But that doesn't mean that older people should be tarred with the same brush since many of them are outstanding progressives. Oh well, what can I do? Thank you for sticking up for me...
hi anon 7:01 PM...I think Singh is making a big mistake by not running for a seat, because the NDP will continue to be defined by the fanatical Trudeau haters like Nathan Cullen, who is teaming up these day with Pierre Poilievre in a Con version of Abbot and Costello. When I see both of them on TV I have to leave the room lest I spontaneously combust. ;)
About Electoral Reform: Strikes me that since both the Cons and NDP chose the ranked ballot for their leadership votes, they probably accept it's the best option for voters. So if it's true ranked ballots are also Trudeau's preference, replacing FPTP with the ranked ballot could be another positive change for Canada.
hi anon 6:31 PM...I'm in favour of electoral reform, although I believe a ranked ballot would be he best option since it would elect either the Liberals or the NDP, and we wouldn't have a pizza parliament full of Nazis and religious fanatics. But most of all, and beyond electoral reform, I'd like to see progressives unite, which would eliminate the Cons for good. And until that happens I will sit on my cloud and whistle... ;)
About Election Reform: strikes me that when the Cons and NDP BOTH chose the ranked ballot for their leadership votes, they likely accept its as very good solution. So if it's true Trudeau's own first choice is also the ranked ballot, the way to replacing FPTP could be surprisingly clear.
I am heartened because I see a lot of this sentiment on social media. A lot of people made this observation. in 2015 that the ndp was attacking the Liberals and not the cons and it was disgusting. Cullen is the worst type of career politician whereas Morneau should have done more, but has implemented good policies as FM.
Simon, my parents are boomers and they are the ones who always say the young need to vote so that politicians don't end up serving greedy boomers
Happiest night of my life too. Let's keep fighting the good fight.
Well, it was a poignant night for me as I was volunteering at Alexandre Boulerice's campaign office. Of course I was happy to see Harper gone, but would have hoped for a better vote for the NDP, and NOT because of any love for Mulcair, but because of the bright, generally young and deeply progressive MPs swept away.
In general younger people are more progressive, but that was true when we baby boomers were young too. Also remember that Sanders and Corbyn aren't exactly spring chickens...
Simon last time I checked Trudeau had a majority goverment.
Simon, the dotard Lorne has written a post claims that you're a bully and that he should sue YOU!!! And the Mound of Misogyny claims YOU are off your meds!!! Those Trudeau haters really are out of their minds. don't let them intimidate you give them hell.
Hi lagatta...well I was a bit disappointed for a moment, since I also voted for the NDP. But my disappointment lasted about 30 seconds until I realized that Justin Trudeau was about to get a majority and blow the Cons to smithereens, which is all I ever wanted...
Hi anon...yes, one of my friends texted me at work to let me know. I wish he hadn't, because the less I know about those two smelly Trudeau haters the better. It's ironic that Lorne should accuse me of bullying, when the homophobic Mound once told him in a comment that LGBT people who complain about bullying should STFU. And he didn't dare stand up to that bully, and has continued to plant big wet kisses on that nasty man's big ass, even though I have informed him that his friend has sent me "anonymous" messages that are as anti-gay and as vile as I have ever seen, and whose origin has been certified by the police. He also claims that I have slandered him by claiming he said Trudeau was worse than Harper, when I have always made it clear that the Mound is the one who has said that over and over again, while Lorne went along with him and made it abundantly clear that he shared that opinion. All of the above which I have also documented to back up my case, and will soon be making public. Again. Finally, as for the Mound claiming I'm off my meds, I believe he is the only blogger at Progressive Bloggers who has had a very public hate mongering breakdown on his own blog. He deleted that post but not before I made a copy, And anyone who calls Justin a "bitch" and suggests he should be raped in jail, should have been confined to a mental hospital a long time ago. Both of those dotards deserve to be shunned by all decent people, but you can be sure that they won't intimidate me...
Well, you know we have different viewpoints on that issue, and I won't belabour the point. Of course I wanted to STOP HARPER, but no, that is not all I wanted or continue to want. (I also wanted to stop Mulcair, but that would have required a stronger delegation of left NDP MPs such as mine).
I think YOU shoul sue that dotard for twisting your words. You criticized him and his bigoted boyfriend very gently and humorously, but their comments are ugly and verge on violent. Take them to court and expose those Trudeau haters for who they are!!!!
Hi lagatta...yes we do have to agree to disagree on that one. ;) But although I also want to live in a left-wing paradise, in a dangerous time I know that I have to be realistic, Understand who can win or not, and make sure that we don't end up living in a right-wing nightmare...
Hi anon...Nah, I don't think so. Lorne isn't worth it, he's a very mediocre little man who is blinded by his hatred for Justin and your truly. I'm not ruling igetting my family's lawyers to intervene if he keeps twisting my words, and slandering me in such a violent manner. But for now I think I'll just lay out all the evidence and documents I have, and let my readers decide who is telling the truth...
.. well, ya gotta do what you gotta do' eh ? ..
As much as I'll always treasure your astonishing & brilliant effort defending Canada & Canadians during the destructive Harper/Novak era.. I do think you could ease back a tich re the Mound & certainly Lorne.
I know nothing of your history vis a vis Mound.. and plan to stay out of it.. same re Lorne..
But I do believe.. no I am certain.. the three of you pulled out your Louisville Sluggers.. and batted 1000 in defense of The Country Called Canada.. There may be some who don't 'get' what indy bloggers accomplished in that vein.. but I assure you, mainstream media picked up on it..
Remain calm Simon, be strong (be yourself.. haha.. as if you need that added advice) I sent the same message to Lorne this AM.. plus my wondrous older sister's advice. 'fight the battles you can win' .. Like yourself, Simon.. those two, Mound and Lorne are Canadian exemplars.. that's plain as day.. take it from me.. a farm boy kinda growed up.. watchin the way the wind blows..
I sent a similar message to Lorne this morning.. Mound I never worry about..
PS .. I'm a prolific reader.. can speed read with the best. Its a gift & a curse.. but can truly say, I have been reading your blogs, Lorne's, Mound's.. and so many of the indy bloggers who's eyes are wide open.. coherent and concerned.. Keep on keepin on dude.. !
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