Recently, in a French Language interview, Justin Trudeau said he thinks every day about quitting his “crazy super tough” job as Prime Minister of Canada but is determined to hang in there. There are those around the country upon hearing this, who surely echoed that famous line uttered by Oliver Cromwell centuries ago, “In the name of God, Go!”
Although they likely have a year and a half or so to recover, even the most Liberal-leaning polls show that the Trudeau government is in deep trouble with the Conservatives in high double-digit points ahead of them.
The question then is why? Is it because Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre and his policies are so popular? That, of course, may be part of the answer. But the bigger answer is that the Trudeau government, aided and abetted by Jagmeet Singh and his New Democratic Party, has swung the political pendulum too far to the left.
Most Canadians, in my view, whether on the left or the right, prefer to be closer to the middle of the political spectrum, rather than at the extreme ends. But, when a pendulum swings too far in one direction it tends to swing to the extreme opposite end before finding its place somewhere in the middle.
We live in an era now where almost anything goes. What is right or wrong seems to depend more on where we stand politically than on the rule of law.
For example, Ontario Premier Ford’s less-than-wise comments about wanting like-minded judges received wide and critical coverage. But how much have we heard about the disclosure that 73 per cent of federal judges appointed by the Trudeau government were donors to the Liberal Party of Canada before their appointment?
As for the rule of law, across this country pro-Palestinian mobs, many antisemitic in nature and prone to vandalism, go almost unchecked and in some instances, such as the recent Avenue Road blockade in Toronto, are encouraged by police bringing refreshments to protesters.
Not long ago, a Rabbi in Victoria B.C. who was blocking an intersection to prevent pro-Palestinian protesters from entering it, was cautioned by police that it was illegal to block roads. He asked why pro-Hamas protesters were allowed to block roads and he was told “We can’t arrest 500 people”.
This week a dinner being held for the Prime Minister of Italy had to be cancelled because of pro-Palestinian protesters blocking exits and threatening safety… and on and on. No guts and no leadership.
Another indication that the pendulum is swinging toward the right can be found in a recent Nanos poll which indicated that most Canadians are uncomfortable with schools not notifying parents when a child wants to go by a new name or pronoun. They were also uncomfortable with hormone therapy for those under the age of 18 and with transgender people participating in organized sports with people of their current gender identity.
Taking that further, a New Democratic member of Parliament, Randall Garrison, recently said, “There is no such thing as parental rights in Canada.”
Really? Then why are parents held responsible when their children do something wrong? As for children’s rights, one commentator observed, “Apparently children’s “rights” don’t apply to drinking or driving, smoking, voting, or working. Just to life-altering hormone treatment or surgery.”
In my view, the importance of family over the years has become more and more diluted. I believe that parents not only have “rights” but they also have responsibilities in regard to their children who are underage. Within the law, barring exceptional circumstances, parents, not the government, are best suited to decide what is right and what is wrong for their children.
On top of all this, Canadians are waking up to the reality that public spending, and consequently Canada’s debt, is way out of whack and becoming unmanageable and a real danger to future generations.
Is it any wonder that many people are concerned about what is happening to Canada?
So, what does all of this add up to? In my view, it means that over the last eight years or so the political pendulum has swung too far to the left. Many Canadians no longer have faith in Prime Minister Trudeau and believe it is time for a change.
I continue to believe that, notwithstanding what he now says, Justin Trudeau will step aside before the next federal election. If he does, that could be a whole new ball game.
But if things continue as they are, with or without a new Liberal leader, many Canadians will jump on Pierre Poilievre’s bandwagon. It won’t be because they are all enamoured with some of his policies, but rather because they believe our political compass needs serious correction.
At the moment all polling indicates that were an election held today the Conservatives would win a massive majority, more so than Mulroney or Harper. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is a matter of speculation and conjecture. What we are learning from the polling, however, is that more Canadians are prepared to give the Conservative Party a chance to govern than they are willing to leave things in the hands of the current government.
Just watch the pendulum
Hugh Mackenzie
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 of Muskoka and as chief of staff to former premier of Ontario, Frank Miller.
Hugh has also 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.
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox three times per week!
Click here to support local news
As Rick Salin(sp?) has stated in the Toronto Star (I am paraphrasing here)- it is time to face climate change costs as adults (vis-a-vis hiding the costs). The carbon tax is one and only one component of approach to this issue. Personally, the rebate has not been well-communicated to the public, in my opinion. We received over $800. in rebate just recently.
There have been many costs to Canadians from a global pandemic (?still not a believer?, count the bodies); there are many residual effects to economics, health, mental health for all generations. As others point out, it takes time to recover.
In your view, Mr. Mckenzie, PP may be proving himself to be qualified as opposition leader, but I do not see more than that in his style, rheotoric. The Conservative machinery has always been there.
Ms. Tanaka, Ms. Schroer, and Mr. Holland, thank you so very much for your significant contribution to this discussion, much, much appreciated.
With the pollsters all but writing off the Trudeau/Singh, or Liberal/NDP government alliance, what do we think we will be getting? Trudeau never represented himself as anything other than a wealthy dude with lots of friends, both personal and inherited. Poilievre came on the scene as a preppy who speaks in sound bites. He’s been visually rebranded but still likes the little audio clips. I hope he has friends, rich or otherwise.
It has been mentioned that PM Trudeau has an ego! Don’t we all? And I find it beyond belief that Poilievre would have none. I think we all carry as much ego as ours knees can handle. Some are able to keep it in check. Others just have stronger knees.
A comment here on Doppler suggests that with a PC win we will get accountability, acknowledgment of any (future?) wrongdoing and attention to helpful policies. I would rather have no wrongdoings and the “helpful policies.” Not just the attention to them. But helpful policies will be a start. And I hope we will be beyond the years of incessant apologizing.
We “Axe the Tax”. I’ll appreciate that little snippet’s demise. To be replaced with what? I do believe this earth of ours is in distress. Will there will be any change from our flogging the world’s dirtiest oil ?Apparently bills must be paid. And Alberta’s already a tad ruffled.
Hugh MacKenzie suggests that PC policies might be more popular than those of the present government That may be so. We know about CERB: too much and too fast. We know about the proposed dental plan, the proposed pharma care plan, the carbon tax. ArriveCAN!! The Phoenix pay program. Will all these be erased or repaired? If we only knew what the PC policies were……
Will there be a toning down of “pro-Palestinian mobs” and more support for that B.C. rabbi? Hopefully by election time that tragedy will be behind us.
Can we really hope that a lot of the animosity and BS displayed in government, and I mean from all parties is to change, in or after this upcoming election? Couldn’t hurt eh!. What will be the timeline for the transformation? Four years and then the promise again? Then we will have been ‘had’ again.
I worry there will only be the same s$$t, just a different dude. But “hope springs eternal” and we are only human.
My family moved to this beautiful country from Germany in 1954 when I was a little girl.
My late father was rescued on the front by a Canadian soldier. He had been injured having been shot twice, once in the face and once in a leg. As he was lying there thinking he was going to die this young Canadian soldier helped to get him to a British field hospital. He survived but spent 4 years in a British prisoner of war camp, where, by the way, all prisoners were treated with respect.
We are, he was, so grateful for Canada and all it has given my family.
I agree with Hugh Holland. Check out all the positives and try to support all the good this wonderful country is offering us.
martina
How confident are we that the swinging pendulum will not come back to hit us in the back of the head, or lower down? Certainly, Poilievre is a very effective critic. He has always been known for that. But he continues to come up short on ideas that actually solve problems, especially the most important global problem, which is climate change. If we don’t solve that one, nothing else will matter much to our grandchildren. 300,000 Canadians lost their homes to wildfires in 2023 and the number has been increasing almost every year. That doesn’t help our housing shortage.
The global pandemic and recent wars have left people everywhere in an ugly and critical mood, but jumping from the frying pan into the fire will not solve our problems or make us happy. A little easy research shows Canada continues to rank among the top countries on every measure of human development including housing. Canada remains one of only 10 countries to have a AAA or AA+ credit rating by all 6 global credit rating agencies. Check it out. We must be careful what we wish for.
The reason Justin Trudeau keeps insisting he won’t quit is that the moment he announces he won’t be running in the next election, the spotlight will shift from him and onto his successor as party leader. Trudeau’s ego can’t take that. He needs that spotlight.
I’m with you, Hugh, in thinking that Justin Trudeau will not be leading the Liberals in the next election. But he won’t announce that until the last possible minute. He’ll cling to the spotlight until the very end.
The Carbon Tax. At 400 PPM CO2 is .04% of our atmosphere. That is 4 molecules per every 10,000 nitrogen and oxygen. Why do we think an increase to 5 or 6 molecules / 100,000 will cook the world ? Look at history. There is no long term relationship
between CO2 and temperature. Millankovich tells us we have a 10,000 year warm period after a 90,000 year ice age. Maunder’s Sun Spot Cycle created the Little Ice Age.
Look up the 20 – 30 year Pacific Decadal Cycle. Never heard of El Nino ?
The campaign vrs. CO2 is absolute lunacy and needs to stop.
How many of us can remember back to when you frequented a certain business, not just because you could get what you needed there. You went because you knew that if there was a problem, you could count on some attention and service.
Locally, businesses such as John Cross, Hern Hardware, Wardell and Co., Huntsville Planing Mills, Flotron’s. All delivered service after sales. We had an MPP, Stan Darling, who with the lady in his office would be all over your problem like a rash. Today we wonder where the ‘service’ is gone. You bought it, it’s yours. Please don’t bother us again.
I think that same problem has established itself in our government bureaucracy. Too many fools have been kicked ‘upstairs’. Governments can change but the incoming regime inherits the same civil servants doing the same jobs. I’m not saying that some of these people are not capable, but there are some that make me wonder. Why is it so difficult to get a passport?
How do you explain the Phoenix pay system. 120,000 workers affected. Wonder how quickly it would be fixed if not a single politician drew a single paycheck ’til it worked?
In 2007, Canada bought 75 MRAPs. (Mine resistant ambush protected) RG31 patrol vehicles for our troops in Afghanistan. Then we withdrew and left them all. We abandon about 100 million dollars worth of logistics to the Taliban. Who thought that was a good idea?
In 2011, Irving Shipbuilding was issued a 25 billion dollar contract to deliver Arctic patrol vessels to the Canadian Navy. There was also to be a further contract for building a number of CSCs (Canadian Surface Combatant), a hybrid type of destroyer. The new Arctic vessels have myriad problems. The major problem is they leak! I don’t think a ship should leak. But the gov’t has decided to pay Irving another 463 million to refurbish their facilities to make the CSCs. I imagine the problem with these boats will be they can’t be taken out of sight of land! In the meantime, the contract has cost over 84 billion dollars. And we still haven’t finished paying. Nor got all the boats.
Now there is the confused mess of ArriveCAN. Recently on the National, both Chantal Hebert and Andrew Coyne commented on the necessity of change in the civil service. The next government is going to have to deal with an embedded problem.
Buy a chair and get a whip PM Trudeau or PM Poilievre. The mess needs to be dealt with. It will be dangerous territory. As the ancient mapmakers proclaimed. “There be Dragons.”
Is it because foolish people believe Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre’s lies?
Seems like it.
As bad as Trump.
Search “Energy minister says Poilievre ‘should stop lying to Canadians’ about carbon tax.”
80% of Canadians get more back with the carbon rebate than they pay in the tax so it’s a net benefit to Canadians that Poilievre wants to take away.
Not a political scientist so only qualified to personally comment as a visible minority, seniorage woman who has lived for twenty plus years in a very conservative very Caucasian northern Alberta small town. What I feel in my skin is that things have been loudly moving ” to the right” for some years, away from anything like common good and away from real truth and reconciliation, regressing to more of the same old colonial, European extractive mentality to the earth ‘s natural resources, even water and air, and horrifying opportunistic use of human beings. More more more money is not living a good life. Gives me great joy, when I encounter kindness and openness and generosity of spirit. No right or left, just open hearts, open minds and open eyes to the beautiful world we share.
This week’s Leger poll reports 70% of Canadians believe that the country “is broken”. 43% of respondents identify as Liberal voters. One has to imagine that in Katie Telford’s office at Langevin they’re at DEFCON 1. There simply has to be a new costume that can get them out of trouble! Chewbacca socks have been tried already, is it time for the Jar Jar socks? No matter how bad things get, there are certain strategies that can never be attempted to right the ship, namely accountability, acknowledgement that they’ve done wrong, and serious attention towards policies that would actually help Canadians. They already tried a beard as well, perhaps some sort of funny hat? Trudeau’s meagre legacy will be legal weed, and a fiscal record that even Bernie Madoff would blush over. Until we are rid of this fool, Canada will continue to suffer.