Trudeau's Squandered Opportunities

As Justin Trudeau nears the end of his government's first majority mandate it is lamentable how his government still follows in Stephen Harper's footprints.

That's the conclusion of an op-ed in today's Globe and Mail by Jocelyn Coulon, a researcher at the Montreal Centre for International Relations and a former senior policy adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Canada’s situation in the world has deteriorated. For the first time in its recent history, Canada now finds itself in an exceptional position: its relations are rocky, not to mention poor, with four of the world’s great powers: the United States, Russia, China and India. It was not supposed to be like this. 

During the previous election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had promised to restore Canada’s reputation on the international stage. According to the Liberals, during their decade in power, the Conservatives had refocused the international role of Canada, from that of an honest broker to that of a warrior nation, a country with a belligerent tone. Opinion polls had consistently shown that Canadians were uncomfortable with this new role for the country. 

Mr. Trudeau understood the gap between Conservative government policy and public expectations. He sought to restore the balance, providing voters with an ambitious election platform that skilfully combined tradition and innovation. Mr. Trudeau’s platform offered voters the prospect of Canada re-engaging with the United Nations, taking part once again in UN peacekeeping missions, and even looking to engage with adversaries such as Russia and Iran. 

Still, it is worth asking whether Mr. Trudeau walks the talk – whether his actions as Prime Minister correspond to his compelling words. What has become of the ambitious goal of restoring Canada’s role on the world stage? If the Trudeau government’s concrete actions are compared with its public statements, it is clear that the promise of bringing Canada back has not been fulfilled. On peacekeeping, on Russia, on the Middle East, on foreign aid, the Liberal foreign policy agenda does not represent a break with Conservative policies, but a continuation. 

After 2015, I'll be largely sitting out this election campaign. Justin has shown us that he'll tell us whatever he thinks we want to hear and then, if elected, will do whatever he damn well likes. Scheer is, at the very least, not one bit more credible than Trudeau. 

Again I fall back on the wisdom of Theodore Roosevelt who, in 1910, said this of deceptive politicians:

"A broken promise is bad enough in private life. It is worse in the field of politics. No man is worth his salt in public life who makes on the stump a pledge which he does not keep after election; and, if he makes such a pledge and does not keep it, hunt him out of public life."

Fortunately for Trudeau and for Scheer, Canada's voting public now have an acquired taste for political horse shit.  This ensures they'll be ladling out steaming bowls of the same horse shit we got during the Harper years and from Justin Trudeau in 2015 and their acolytes will, like Dickens' Oliver Twist, hold out their gruel bowl and ask, "Please, Sir, I want some more." Dull-witted twits.

Me? On voting day I'll visit the polling station, unsullied by the Liberal and Conservative chicanery, and simply vote Green.