Navonim - The Ramblings of Garnel Ironheart

Navonim - The Ramblings of Garnel Ironheart
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Tuesday 20 May 2014

The Dictator In Waiting

Many Canadian voters don't seem to remember Pierre Elliot Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada from 1968-1983 (minus 9 months somewhere there in the late 1970's).  For those who don't it's worth recalling who the man was. 
PET, as he was unaffectionately known, was a very intelligent man.  Unfortunately he also had a good dose of narcissism and the belief that he was not only very smart but was the smartest man in the country.  He balanced this with a sense of comptent for all those who were less intelligent than him; his cabinet ministers, his caucus, and the great unwashed masses of voters who were, unfortunately in his eyes, necessary to ensure he remained prime minister because, after all, no one was as well qualified as him for the job.
Those of us who actually remember his rule and aren't dependent on the hagiographizing the CBC did after he left power and turned him into some kind of saint remember that his rule started with "Trudeaumania" and ended with corruption, binge government spending and a sinking of Canada's reputation in the world.
His was the government that introduced mandatory bilingualism into the civil service, thus ensuring French Quebecois dominance of that area.  He is remembered for effectively fighting the separatist forces in the 1980 Quebec referendum but, as author George Jonas as noted in The National Post on more than one occasion, that was because he was trying to deliver the whole country to the French, not just one province.
He was also morally corrupt, seeing virtue in mass murderers and autocratic thugs like Mao Zedong and Fidel Castro which heaping disrespect on American presidents and the Queen of Canada, Elizabeth II.
And now, decades later, we in Canada are faced with the possibility of another Trudeau ascending "the throne", as it were.  PET's son Justin, the current leader of the Liberal party, is currently sitting pretty in the polls.  There is no federal election scheduled until next year but if the current numbers hold there is a good possibility of him becoming the next prime minister.
What do we know about Justin?
Well, unlike his father who had an actual long-term career before entering politics Justin really hasn't accomplished anything.  He taught here and there for short periods of time and.... well that's about it.  No prior history of leadership positions.  No real deep experience with national policy making. 
Then there's his beliefs, something he's very happy to share.  He has let us know, for example, that he admires the Chinese government because they can inflict their policy on the population without having to waste time with such annoyances as consulting that population.  He sees tremendous potential for this model when it comes to implementing environmental policies, for example.  Democracy, it would seem, is as much an annoyance for him as it was for his father.  It's silly to rely on the general voting public because they might not make the right decision, ie. the one he wants to make.
He's also very selective on who he thinks a real Canadian is.  He looks to Quebec and its famously permissive and moral simplistic culture and has opined, again publicly, that if the rest of the country develops a more conservative bent then Quebec would be justified in seceding from Canada so these liberal values of theirs aren't affected.  In other words, he's a loyal Canadian only as long as Canada reflects his values.
There was his publicity stunt in which he fired all Liberal senators from his party in order to show his seriousness on Senate reform.  Now, for my American reader(s), it is important to understand that the Canadian Senate is not equivalent to the American one.  It is a house of patronage, a place media celebrities and failed politicians go to retire and suck off the public teat until their turn 75.  It rarely does anything productive and if it disappeared into a giant sinkhole its absence would take weeks to be noticed. 
On the surface, then, Trudeau's stunt was a good one.  We don't like senators, so his party no longer has them.  Unfortunately he made this decision without telling any Liberal senators, some of them good party members since his father was prime minister.  Few of them agreed and they still call themselves Liberals and feel they're part of the party.  A great stunt that changed nothing.
Finally there's his most recent announcement.  Again, for my American reader(s) it's worth noting that Canada has not had any laws regulating abortion since the late 1980's when the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the existing ones.  Any attempt to bring up the discussion of some kind of regulation or at least oversight brings out the usual crew of harpies who scream "You hate women!  You're all fascist arseholes" and the like.  In this regard I'm jealouse of the USA.  The discussion there may be heated but at least there's a discussion.  In Canada no one wants to bring up the subject because they don't want to deal with the histrionics.
And Trudeau is fine with that.  So fine, in fact, that he announced that anyone who is pro-life is persona non-grata within the Liberal party.  Yes, he clarified that he doesn't expect people to change their personal beliefs.  Pro-lifers can still join the party but once they are members they must publicly support abortion just like he, a good Roman Catholic, does.
All this before the man has achieved an ounce of power.  Can you imagine the demagogery he'll unleash once he actually does?

7 comments:

David Kavanagh said...

"Well, unlike his father who had an actual long-term career before entering politics Justin really hasn't accomplished anything. He taught here and there for short periods of time and.... well that's about it. No prior history of leadership positions. No real deep experience with national policy making"

Ah, I see career politicos are not just a UK thing.

"Pro-lifers can still join the party but once they are members they must publicly support abortion just like he, a good Roman Catholic, does."

I'll never get why RC's who support abortion don't get excommunicated or rebuked by the RCC- the RC's I converse with on line are to a person AGAINST abortion in ANY circumstances, but this gets overlooked by officialdom when it comes to prominent politicians . But regardless, surely this is a matter of personal conscience which shouldn't be part of the party whip? In the UK all of these 'moral' issues (abortion, gay marriage, assisted suicide) are left to free House of Commons votes, which has to a degree avoided the politicization of the culture wars of the US (so you get Conservative & Labour Pro-lifers and visa versa) .

"He's also very selective on who he thinks a real Canadian is. He looks to Quebec and its famously permissive and moral simplistic culture and has opined, again publicly, that if the rest of the country develops a more conservative bent then Quebec would be justified in seceding from Canada so these liberal values of theirs aren't affected. In other words, he's a loyal Canadian only as long as Canada reflects his values".

I'm personally reading up about this because the UK is in a similar situation; in September Scotland will vote as to whether or not to secede from the UK.

Incidentally, when I was last in Canada I did have a chance to go to Quebec (the city and province) and the tour guide pointed out Elliot Trudeau's house, which made such a lasting impression on me I've forgotten what it looked like. There also seemed to be an undercurrent of hostility, whilst the English speakers where extremely friendly (chatting about 'Coronation Street', in part I think because they recognised my 'Northern'- Yorkshire - English accent), the French speakers, where somewhat stand -offish. Could just be me being a bit oversensitive.

I kinda felt very guilty after learning about the battle of Abraham plains, Montcalm, Wolfe and the' wicked English occupation', via our entertaining Quebec tour guide, but then I did find the French difficult to follow as it was very different to European French.... I was sure à gauche meant 'turn left'. Except the coach driver kept turning right, whenever the guide said 'tourner à gauche'.

"heaping disrespect on American presidents and the Queen of Canada, Elizabeth II."

Anecdote here I also had the pleasure of visiting the Canadian Parliament. The tourguide showed us a picture of Queen Elizabeth II and asked who it was. Some America wiseguy said 'That's the Queen of England'; if looks could kill, there could have been blood on the floor.(apparently I was told that Canada doesn't have crown jewels, which is why if in an official painting Elizabeth II is seen without CJ, she is portrayed as the Queen of Canada, not the UK).

Temujin said...

Ah, I see career politicos are not just a UK thing.

Ha ha ha! No, no such luck for us, Mr Kavanagh. In fact, you may imagine Justin as a teenage-brained, testosterone-fueled pretty-boy chimera between your Milliband cipher and the Astounding Just-Call-Me-Dave abomination you folks over the big pond are yoked with.

One notes that Sir Ironheart didn't even touch on what a Justin regime would mean for the unprecedented Canada-Israel relations. Hint: Kowtowing to the "Palestinians," playing the "honest broker" by parroting every squawk by UN's General Rabble Assembly and joining the world in blaming Israel for everything under the Sun since the start of the Holocene. That omission, and the fact that Sir Ironheart also avoided a mention of the looming provincial election which threatens to keep a soulless aparatchik leader of a corrupt provincial Liberal party probably means that he is trying to watch his blood pressure by compartmentalizing disasters to bite-sized morsels.

David Kavanagh said...

Greetings Temujin,

ah indeed Cameron and Miliband are the same side of a different coin. My brother is convinced Miliband will bring back 'socialism' into the UK, but won't vote UKIP. And it seems a fellow Canadian- Mark Carney - is all that stands between a housing bubble and the deep blue sea (I'm getting out of property whilst the goings good).

I did note a while back that Prime Minister Harper gave a most excellent speech to the Knesset. I am at a loss as to why Canadians will not reelect him. As for this Trudeau, seems like a bit of a strange fellow, I don't think I'd trust him.

But then that is for the Canadian people to decide.

I trust that they will be better judges than the British people.

I remain yours

DK

Temujin said...

"Same side of a diferent coin"...Temujin likes that one, David K.

Briefly, PM Harper did a lot more than to reverse the once-depressing cant on Israel. He gently put out the fires of the climate madness, at least on Federal level and pushed real energy development; he tightened up immigration, especially by putting the brakes on the endless stream of unlettered and mendicant peasants taking advantage of the "family reunification" Pandora's box; and he kept our economy humming nicely while the other teenager, who somehow made it into the Oval Office (not once, but twice!) grabbed the family car keys and along with his delinquent cronies, drove his country's into the ditch.

But none of this matters apparently, as PM harper is seen as dull and conservative. The public wants a celebrity, thirsts for the poetry of "social justice" and the allure of the potty-mouthed punk. The nation now lusts for the Bad Boy and would rather go on a wild ride with him, even if it costs it the future and a few black eyes.

Atheodox Jew said...

Thanks for the education in Canadian politics.

if the rest of the country develops a more conservative bent then Quebec would be justified in seceding from Canada so these liberal values of theirs aren't affected.

The political flip-side of "Tea Party" calls for secession. Different "values", same childish behavior.

Law mom said...

Justin seems to have all the flaws and none of the virtues of his father.

To give a bit of credit where it's due, PET cracked down hard on domestic terrorists. With Justin, instead of his father's "just watch me" tough approach, we get this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/mitch-wolfe/trudeau-boston-bombings_b_3106351.html

He also made sure recently to tell a group of Iranian-Canadians that Harper only went to Israel to get Jewish votes, but he was unable to come up with anything to say about the Green movement in Iran.

Temujin said...

Law mom, thanks for that article link. Yuck! And to give credit to Justin as well, he actually managed to nauseate a Huff Post journo. What an unvarnished cretin, that man.

Content-wise, no big surprises there, apart from the fact that our potential future prime minister still thinks and talks like a high school jock punk dominating a grade 12 social studies class. Mind you, it just may be that his handlers have advised him that "this is what people want"...and the truly scary bit is that they are right. Heavens preserve us.