THANK HEAVENS THAT’S OVER
My regular readers know that I’m a political junkie, so much so that I enjoy leadership conventions and elections as much as a final World Series or Stanley Cup game. I also used to enjoy federal election campaigns; but not this one.
With one exception for Justin Trudeau and two for Jagmeet Singh, the leaders of the three major parties generally just hurled insults at each other and consistently evaded answering questions by stubbornly sticking to talking points, with Trudeau and Andrew Scheer at times actually engaging in outright lying. The exception for Trudeau was his eventual apology in Winnipeg for his goofy blackface indiscretions (but even then he egotistically used his “privileged upbringing” as an excuse). Singh’s two exceptions were his admirable reaction to Trudeau’s blackface shenanigans and his calm, adroit response to the bigot who suggested he would look more Canadian if he took off his turban. It’s a sad testimony that Andrew Scheer’s high point in the campaign was his opening zinger in the English language TV debate, when he accused Trudeau of being a fraud and a hypocrite.
The National Post’s Andrew Coyne summed up Trudeau’s and Scheer’s pitiful performances best when he opined that anyone who couldn’t beat the ineffective Andrew Scheer didn’t deserve to be prime minister, and neither did anyone who couldn’t beat Justin Trudeau when he was clearly on the ropes if not down for the count.
The other three leaders, Elizabeth May, Maxime Bernier, and Yves Francois Blanchet were never going to be factors nationally; Blanchet because the Bloc Quebecois had no candidates outside the province of Quebec, Bernier because he was nothing more than an annoying distraction, and May because she’s a one-trick pony with no idea of what the running of a country actually entails.
Then there was the truly dreadful English language TV debate referred to above. I’ve already blogged about it, so all I’ll add here is that it’s unimaginable that it could have been any worse.
WILL THERE BE LEADERSHIP CHANGES
Maybe one.
As long as Atlantic Canada and the greater Toronto area remain enthralled with Justin Trudeau he’s perfectly safe (and there is no indication that their slavish idolatry is waning).
Under the Conservative party’s constitution, Andrew Scheer, even though he increased the number of his party’s seats by 26, and led the popular vote by almost a quarter of a million over Trudeau, has to face a leadership review in April. He’s in trouble.
During my career I spent a great deal of time dealing with strong, effective leaders in the worlds of business, sports, entertainment, and broadcasting, which gave me a lot of exposure to what the perceptions and attributes of leadership are, and Scheer doesn’t have them. He should have been able to mop the floor with the flawed and struggling Trudeau, yet he failed to do so, and was far too often on the defensive himself. Also, should they be interested, there are two strong leadership candidates in the wings in the persons of Peter MacKay and Rona Ambrose. (In fact, if the “geniuses” who ran the last Conservative leadership convention had waived the rule preventing Ambrose from running, both Scheer and Bernier would have been also-rans and we’d have a Conservative majority in Ottawa today.)
It’s laughable to observe Jagmeet Singh basking in the media’s glowing misconception that he was an effective leader; he lost 15 seats. He’s perfectly safe, though, because there’s no heir apparent
Elizabeth May is even more laughable than Singh when she brags about increasing her party’s number of seats by fifty percent. She increased it by one, from an insignificant two to an equally insignificant three. But, like Singh, she is perfectly safe for now because the other two Green MPs are a BC member whom I challenge you to name and a rookie from New Brunswick.
After increasing the Bloc’s number of seats by 22, Yves Francois Blanchet, too, is perfectly safe
It remains to be seen whether there’s even going to be a party for Maxime Bernier to lead.
WILL THERE BE A SNAP ELECTION
Not for at least two years, because that’s how long it will be before the MPs who were first elected in 2015 qualify for their very rich pensions.