TORONTO — Justin Trudeau, leader-in-waiting of the Liberal Party of Canada, made a rare appearance in the House of Commons on Thursday, standing to ask a question of the prime minister on plans to centralize job training.“Mr. Speaker, Canadians are worried about their jobs and their MPs who stay silent,” he started. “It is time the members opposite learned that they were elected by Canadians to represent the views of their … ”This was too much for the Conservatives across the aisle, who felt Trudeau, whom they rarely see, was being hypocritical, so they drowned him out with catcalls and boos.
After the speaker quieted them, Trudeau posed his question, and the prime minister rose to reply.
“Mr. Speaker, I welcome the minister, or the member for Papineau …” said Harper, and stopped amid jeers and laughter.
The speaker quieted MPs and Harper continued.
“I welcome the minister, er, member for Papineau,” he said, again calling Trudeau a minister.
The prime minister actually stuck out his tongue and grimaced at his error before taking his shot at Trudeau, welcoming him for “showing up and making the views of his constituents known for a change in the House of Commons.”
Trudeau hasn’t been in the House much lately because he’s been travelling the country, packing them in to halls from sea to sea to sea.
You see the pictures on Twitter. Hundreds of people gathered in towns you’ve never heard of, wanting to see the dauphin.
Something is happening, something simple and deeply irritating to Conservatives: People are drawn to Trudeau.
The former substitute drama teacher with the short resume, impressive mane and decent jab can fill a room like nobody in Canadian politics.
It doesn’t matter that he has virtually nothing to say about policy. He makes people feel good. They feel like they know him, and he’s a happy, cheerful presence, almost dashing, especially in comparison with the middle-aged nasties running the Conservatives and the NDP.
It may all evaporate in a burst of overwrought third-person hyperbole, but for the moment Justin is connecting. He has signed up 170,000 supporters and has raised around $2 million.
When politicos gather in Ottawa, these days talk always turns to Justin, as everyone tries to figure out how dauphinmania will play out.
On Thursday, TVO anchor Steve Paikin, a long and careful observer of the business, wrote a blog suggesting that the prime minister might pack it in rather than face Justin on the hustings in 2015.
That seems premature, but on Friday a National Post poll showed that Trudeau would lead the Liberals to a an election victory, which is galling to people in other parties.
Harper and Tom Mulcair have both got to where they are the old-fashioned way: working diligently and doing unto their rivals before their rivals could do unto them.
Trudeau, on the other hand, got where he is largely by virtue of his birth. While Harper and Mulcair have had to push hard to make their names, Trudeau, like a Kennedy or a British royal, was born famous.
He deserves credit for winning his riding from the Bloc and tirelessly travelling the country, signing up members, but his political success is largely built on near-universal name recognition, quite a head start.
That doesn’t matter, though, to the people who come out to see him in droves. In politics, you waste your breath telling people how they ought to feel.
What you can do, though, is try to convince people to see someone differently. The Conservatives are past masters at that dark art, having made Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff into walking punch lines through the diligent application of attack ads.
If the Conservatives are as nervous about Justin as the prime minister’s slip of the tongue makes it seem, then they are surely cooking up a plan to convince Canadians that the dauphin is a narcissistic, empty-headed brat. It would be foolish to bet against them, given their track record, but people already know Trudeau, so it may be challenging to define him as easily as they defined Dion and Ignatieff.
The Conservatives delivered one effective bodycheck to Trudeau in November, helping them win a Calgary byelection, when they rolled out old interview footage in which Trudeau griped about Albertans running the country.
There is a lot more footage out there, and given the stakes, Conservative researchers can be expected to take extraordinary steps to dig up information on Trudeau that might sway voters.
After he wins the leadership in April, there are two and a half years until the election. Trudeau’s opponents are highly motivated and have a lot of tools at their disposal.
It’s not always pretty, but that’s the great thing about our system. By the time we go to the polls, in October 2015, we ought to know what Trudeau’s made of.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Stephen Maher
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