Canada had a perfectly good, maybe great, PM in Stephen Harper. He is not flashy, but is still a good orator. He is a rather shy intellectual economist who was able to win a minority government for the Conservatives back when the corrupt Liberals (dubbed at the time the Libranos) thought that their man, Paul Martin, was a shoo in. IIRC he won two more minority governments and then finally in 2011, a majority government. Unlike a lot of political leaders, he is not from a wealthy family. He has spent his life as a policy wonk. He loves hockey (he has written a book) and music. He has been known to spot a piano, sit down and competently play an impromptu song.
Canada is a large diverse country. The second largest province is Quebec which thinks it is a nation within a nation. This notion combined with the other differences makes Canada virtually ungovernable. As a conservative man, Harper wished he could have done more on many topics, but that was always balanced against keeping his party in power. Compromises were necessary. He won four consecutive elections and managed minority governments for longer than anyone else in the history of Canada.
Having defeated a series of Liberal leaders and the NDP's Jack Layton, Harper had shown some staying power. The Liberals recruited Trudeau who ran as a MP. He won election and I think put him right into the Liberal shadow cabinet. Too soon, they needed another leader and the Liberals pushed Justin forward in the hopes there would be some name recognition. He won the leadership, but did not distinguish himself as the leader of the opposition.
By the time of the 2015 election, the left leaning media had cast Harper as a mean spirited man that was too hard on the social issues and the green movement, calling him a climate change denier. Central and Eastern Canada began to believe this, especially the millenials. The main challenger was perceived to be the NDP, who are pretty much socialists now. The Conservatives effectively campaigned against their leader and destroyed his chance for the NDP to win. The Liberals were now the contenders and their campaign slogan was that Justin was real change. The Conservatives campaigned that Justin "Just not Ready".
About August or September, I felt the Harper campaign manager should have been fired. The transition from fighting the NDP to the Liberals was not smooth enough and the communication was not clear to the average person. Unbelievably a lot of people felt the message that he just wasn't ready was mean to Justin.
Anyways, Justin won and we have been paying the price since. 2019 can't come fast enough.
Justin Trudeau is a part time drama teacher. He is from an extremely rich family. He is a trust fund baby. His father was PM for a long time and was a mean SOB who started Canada's decline. His mother was a flakey flower child about 30 years younger than his father. Pierre dabbled in communism in his youth and Justin has said he admires China's form of government. The family are longtime friends with the Castros of Cuba. Justin's wife is an entertainer in Quebec, meaning she has zero profile in the rest of Canada. Justin is a social justice warrior and a greenie. He is advised by his brother Sascha, and a close friend who is a militant Muslim. His chief of staff is Gerald Butts who is a rampaging greenie.
Trudeau is everything you don't want in a leader. He is a poser and an empty shell who has no original thoughts of his own. He is Obama lite. Except Obama was smarter and a better orator. Without his hair, his looks and his family name, no sane person would elect Trudeau as a manure shoveler.
Hopefully we stop depriving a village of their idiot next year.
Last edited by AB2506; 06/11/18.
