After any federal election there is always speculation as to which leaders should stay and which should go. In that regard, this most recent election is more interesting than most because no party leader was completely successful.
Justin Trudeau failed to get his majority. His Liberal Party is no better off than it was before the election, which cost Canadians more than $600 million. But Trudeau did again win the most seats in that election, and he will form another minority government.
Will there be a move by people in his own party to push Justin Trudeau out before the next election? Probably. Liberals are far more subtle than the Conservatives in disposing of their leaders. They do it mostly behind closed doors but, nevertheless, the machinery behind those doors will begin to crank up.
Mark Carney, former head of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England saw the writing on the wall and wisely resisted pressure to run as a star candidate for the Liberals in this election. Nevertheless, he is standing in the wings and not burdened by any negative aspects of Trudeau’s record.
And then there is Chrystia Freeland, who also wisely stayed out of the election turmoil. As someone who enjoys profile and popped up on social media as soon as the election was over, she was conspicuous by her absence. She wants to be prime minister so badly she can taste it. There are others too, of course, and pressure will begin to mount as Liberal insiders begin to question whether Trudeau has reached his best-before date.
In my view, Justin Trudeau should stay the course. In our Canadian way, where we trust the electoral system, he has won the right to govern. He should not be removed before another election. But there are things he needs to do if he wants a government led by him to survive.
First and foremost, Justin Trudeau needs to respect Parliament. He has described it as a “place of obstructionism and toxicity.” If it is, he has made it so. Under our system, the prime minister is not a dictator. Parliament is the basis of our democracy and the place where government is held accountable. The prime minister needs to work with Parliament and not against it and he needs to stop suing the speaker of the house when he does not get his way.
Sound fiscal management has not been a strength of Prime Minister Trudeau or his government. To the astonishment of many, he has indicated that “monetary policy” is not a concern of his. It had better become one. As the pandemic recedes, Canadians will become more and more conscious of our almost uncontrollable debt and the serious effect this will have on our ability to remain a prosperous country to the detriment of our children and grandchildren.
As well, Justin Trudeau needs to act in the best interests of all Canadians, not just in the narrow interest of those that elected him. The more he governs in a “my way or the highway” fashion, the more likely he is to fail. He needs to protect free speech and freedom of expression, and actually work with Parliament to find ways to carry through on many of the commitments he has made. He needs to recognize that compromise and accommodation is the art of minority government. If he does, Justin Trudeau just might survive.
As for the Conservatives, there is nothing closed doors about them. They like to stab their leaders in the back right up front. The move by some, mostly dissenters from the recent leadership race, to get rid of their freshly minted leader, Erin O’Toole, started even before the election was over. Social media is all over it.
Erin O’Toole ran a solid campaign. There were mistakes, of course, but one should remember that at its start, the Trudeau Government was headed for a solid majority that they did not achieve, in part, because Canadians began to know Erin O’Toole. As important, O’Toole worked hard to reestablish the Conservative Party moderately to the right.
In my view, if Erin O’ Toole is to stay as leader, as I believe he should, he needs to continue that movement. It was hard to do during the election when he needed to win every seat he could get. But now he needs to be tough with his caucus. No more talk on social issues that were settled a long time ago. Get vaccinated or get out. Support the leader or get out.
Most members of the Conservative caucus will support tough leadership. Even if O’Toole loses two dozen members by laying down the law, they will never vote with the Liberals and he will still be leader of the Opposition. He has nothing to lose in the short term, and in bringing the Conservative Party back to the middle of the political spectrum he will earn the respect of many Canadians who believe in basic Conservative principles without the far-right activism. That will bode well for his party in the next election.
Erin O’Toole is by far the best bet to form the next government, whenever that occurs. If you have any doubt about that, just read the liberal Toronto Star. Every single edition since the election has contained material designed to either discredit the Conservative leader or encourage his removal. The reason is simple. Erin O’Toole has emerged from this election as prime minister material. The Star and its left-leaning, government-subsidized cohorts don’t want him around for the next election. Conservative back-stabbers should think about that.
As for the other party leaders, Jagmeet Singh may hang on by his fingernails, but he has failed in two elections to significantly improve his party’s standings. They may enjoy their ability to prop up the Liberals again, but without a new leader that is the most they can ever hope for.
Annamie Paul will not survive as leader of the Green Party. Either she will resign, as well she should, or they will throw her out in their continuing road to oblivion. Sad, though, because in my view Annamie Paul was one of the bright lights in this election, the kind of politician we need in Parliament. I hope she finds another home.
The other two leaders will, sadly, probably not go away soon. Bernier will be excited about the uptick in far-right zealots that voted for his party so he will stick around like a bad smell. As for Blanchet and the Bloc, in my view, they are little more than separatists and shouldn’t be in Parliament in the first place.
Many people believe that this election has not changed anything. It will be interesting to see if that turns out to be true.
Hugh Mackenzie has held elected office as a trustee on the Muskoka Board of Education, a Huntsville councillor, a District councillor, and mayor of Huntsville. He has also served as chairman of the District Muskoka and as chief of staff to former premier of Ontario, Frank Miller.
Hugh has served on a number of provincial, federal and local boards, including chair of the Ontario Health Disciplines Board, vice-chair of the Ontario Family Health Network, vice-chair of the Ontario Election Finance Commission, and board member of Roy Thomson Hall, the National Theatre School of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada. Locally, he has served as president of the Huntsville Rotary Club, chair of Huntsville District Memorial Hospital, chair of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, president of Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and board member of Community Living Huntsville.
In business, Hugh Mackenzie has a background in radio and newspaper publishing. He was also a founding partner and CEO of Enterprise Canada, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm established in 1986.
Currently Hugh is president of C3 Digital Media Inc., the parent company of Doppler Online, and he enjoys writing commentary for Huntsville Doppler.
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The idea that Trudeau could be a statesman is laughable. Off the top of my head, there’s the India trip fiasco, kowtowing to the Iranian minister after they shot down that plane, photos with Joshua Boyle, black face, groping etc etc etc. Seriously, can anyone provide an example where he acted like a statesman? Freeing the two Michaels doesn’t count, that was 100% Biden’s doing
Greg, that didn’t help then and it doesn’t help now,
. What we need is statesmanship.
Mr. Holland, please excuse my ‘oh shit’ moment. I never meant it to be you mentioned in my comment yesterday; it was Hugh Mckenzies’ mention of debt to which I was referring (damn spell check). I apologize (I feel like Justin), but you will have to deal with Mr. Reuvekamp on your own.
But since I’ve got this thing warmed up, could I take a moment to say that I am happy that two of our citizens have been released by China. Unhappy that we now have nothing to trade (Meng Wanzhou) and there are still others detained there.
It is ironic that our government allowed the transfer of about 90 tech. patents, from Blackberry to Huawei, the very company Meng was an executive of.
It was obvious that this was meant to be a learning experience for us, China admonishing us to ‘draw lessons’ from the case.
But it should also be received as a lesson from our southern neighbor. If the deal was there to be made and it obviously was, why did it take 1000 days? The US could have called it off at any time, allowed Meng to say sorry and the thing would have been over. But we aren’t that valuable an ally ( not a partner in the latest 3-eye alliance), and our attention to self-defense is not near what it should be.
I think the overall lesson here is that if you are careless around the big dogs, for sure you are going to get bit. And nobody is going to sympathize too much if we whine.
Mr. Poilievre is simply continuing the same good work started by Mssrs Boudria, Tobin, Nunziata and Ms. Copps back in the 1980’s. Funny though, I don’t remember Sheila ever asking Mulroney how much his wife, brother and mother received in cash payouts from government lobbyists. Cheer up though Mr. Holland, as Randy Boissonault is returning to the HOC. He ought to do a bang up job of returning civility and mutual respect to the proceedings there (insert Borat *NOT* here, Lol)
Regarding the negative comment above on Pierre Poilievre, readers should know he was reelected in his Ottawa area riding of Carleton with 50% of the vote, the same percentage as Justin Trudeau, and 10% more than Jagmeet Singh and 4% more than Erin O’Toole won their ridings by. He was also the only Conservative MP elected in a major urban/suburban area outside of the prairie provinces. Perhaps the CPC needs more strong vocal MP’s like Pierre Poilievre who aren’t afraid to call it as they see it.
If conservatives really want parliament to work and if they really want to be seen as a fair-minded party that could govern in the best interest of everyone in all parts of the country, then they need to put a muzzle on their pitbulls whose default setting is to savagely oppose everything Trudeau, good or bad. Pierre Poilievre. would be a good place to start.
Might I suggest that we all become partisan when we make our X on the ballot. But like Nadine Gingrich, I would like to see a parliament that works together and works for the persons who made those Xs. I am an advocate of proportional representation, but wonder if I will ever see it.
To believe what politicians say when mining for our votes was best summed up years ago in a cartoon. Charles Shultz?
“Do all fairy tales begin with ‘once upon a time?’
“No. Quite often they begin with ‘if I’m elected.’
Hope I attributed that to the right person!
Left or right leaning views are not necessarily meant to change our opinion; in some of us, that opinion is deeply rooted and ten men with sharp sticks won’t shift it. But, form opinions we will and every once in a while, we take them out for a spin. Maybe someone will select a nugget of information from what they hear and become partisan.
As for Mr. Hollands’ assessment of our debt, the cost of Covid plus this last little tantrum (right leaner?), I wonder if it is manageable at all. Hang on to your wallets folks, because SNC Lavalin won’t be the only ones with an interest in our money. We have to pay for all this: not ‘them’, ‘we’.
Triggering another $600 million dollar ‘run for the roses’ is never off the board. It is amazing how assuming some of these people can be.
Trudeau did not singlehanded create a toxic environment in Parliament. The ridiculous partisanship imported from the US has meant that one party’s ideas are immediately rejected by the other side, not because they are bad ideas but simply because of where they came from. Everyone is bemoaning the fact that this election got us nowhere and cost $600 million. I suggest that no one will want to be the goat who triggers another election. Maybe, just maybe, we are in for a Parliament that actually co-operates and doesn’t just react in a knee jerk fashion. Perhaps our media could do the same. Hugh is big on condemning the Toronto Star’s left leaning attitude when his is totally right leaning, and he wants us to think that is acceptable. Sorry, no.
Erin O’Toole made pie in the sky promises: he was going to create 1 million jobs and build 1 million houses. Nice round numbers, but where? For whom? How? O’Toole’s promises faded in the light of day.
I hope that partisanship dies a natural death. RIP, partisanship.