Alberta takes the federal government that Ontario and Quebec give it and as campaigning begins for the October election, the odds favour Justin Trudeau.
Even the recent finding of the ethics commissioner that Trudeau broke conflict of interest law when he intervened for SNC Lavalin to get a deferred prosecution of the company’s foreign corruption and bribery charges, the Liberals may be re-elected as the governing party.
A slim majority of central Canadian voters are poised to forgive Trudeau and forget his unethical behaviour come election day.
Better Trudeau in Ontario than Andrew Sheer, a friend of Conservative Premier Doug Ford.
Better Trudeau than re-electing the swath of NPD seats in Quebec and where the Bloc Québécois is coming back from the dead, leading in a dozen seats – seats that the Conservatives could win as a toehold in la belle province.
Trudeau’s only first-term legislative achievement of note was the legalization of marijuana, a dubious distinction.
Nero fiddled while Rome burned and Justin Trudeau let Canada get high.
Important domestic problems have been neglected for the past four years. Foreign policy has been untouched except when bungled.
Conservative leader Andrew Sheer, the prime minister in waiting, has not broken through.
The NDP’s Jagmeet Singh has not emerged as a politically viable leader.
The clock has run out on the Green Party and Elizabeth May.
Compared to his rivals, Trudeau is just another political midget.
When Canadians look across the political landscape, they should ask, “where are the giants?”
Why do men and women of stature and repute no longer rise to the top in politics?
Why do they not enter the political arena in the first place?
An undisciplined, frivolous media shares some of the blame but in the past, good elected politicians lifted reporters, columnists, and editorial writers up to their level.
Now politicians, their media advisors, and the pundits are pulled down to the level of the press gallery.
Scholars and academics are thoughtful and probative but of little influence.
My career as a political journalist began in Alberta with Ernest Manning and Peter Lougheed and in Ontario with John Robarts and Bill Davis.
To my mind, there have been no larger-than-life prime ministers since Brian Mulroney. No national political characters since W.A.C. Bennett, Joey Smallwood, and Rene Levesque.
If the current rash of tweets and blogs define politics and politicians, what is needed in the media is deep drilling that has memory as well as interviews, academic papers, think tank studies and polls.
U.S. President Donald Trump, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and 40 per cent voter turnouts are evidence that democracy is running down as a force in the affairs of free nations.
Are free societies entering a new dark age of political, cultural, and economic deterioration?
Will it be an age of politics without giants of freedom?
Frank Dabbs is a veteran political and business journalist, editor and author.
