When Canada’s prime minister declined to campaign with the Ontario premier prior to this year’s provincial election, there was no mystery why Justin Trudeau wasn’t willing to publicly hug Kathleen Wynne.
Wynne was about to be rejected by Ontario voters, and Trudeau, with his own political future on the horizon, would be wasting personal capital waving a “Vote Wynne” placard at motorists who had just dropped a C-note into their gas tanks — motorists who knew Trudeau’s plan was to rummage for loose change remaining in their pockets, were he returned to the parliamentary corner office.
Wynne’s attempt at electoral victory was, as we witnessed, crushed. The people of Canada’s most populous province gleefully snatched the key to the premier’s office and handed it to Doug Ford, the man Liberals and New Democrats, with equal parts derision and arrogance, had tagged “Canada’s Donald Trump.”
Ah yes, Donald Trump. President of the United States of America. A man who utterly stunned and who continues to stun the U.S. left, ever since the night of Nov. 8, 2016.
That was the moment the left-wing media, who had begun the evening’s coverage giggling and projecting how Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party would sweep Trump and the GOP off the electoral map, morphed from sneering to confused, pitiful whining.
A “basket of deplorables” had set Clinton’s best-before date to Nov. 7, 2016.
Since that unimaginable (to them) night, the American left has continued to predict the end for Donald Trump, pinning their hopes on supposed Russian election meddling being responsible for delivering the White House to the president they despise.
Politicians and media talking heads lead weep-ins while calling on any deity available to engineer Trump’s ouster. Instead, the president remains in the Oval Office, the U.S. economy is roaring forward, and unemployment is a largely forgotten problem.
Canada’s left appears happily convinced Justin Trudeau will be returned a majority government on Oct. 21 of next year, but why? Consider Trudeau’s baggage and self-inflicted damage, from attempting to persuade a dubious electorate that a $10.5-million cheque to settle Omar Khadr’s lawsuit against Canada was only being respectful of this nation’s Charter and bank balance. Safeguarding Canadian citizenship for dual citizens convicted of terrorism and projecting returning ISIS killers (one self-confessed and roaming Toronto untroubled, he tells New York Times bloggers) will perform positively for Canada.
Canada is the world’s first post-national state, Trudeau stated happily to the New York Times. Oh, and our country has no core identity. Canada’s military veterans? They are being fought in court by the Trudeau government. Veterans want too much, he told an Edmonton audience. The Canadian prime minister was talking about Canadian veterans who had lost limbs while fulfilling their Ottawa-defined military mission.
Publicly, Trudeau appears caught groping for answers, or perhaps ineffectually apologizing for groping.
Following next October’s federal election, Canada’s left may well be imitating that of its U.S. counterpart at present. At least that’s what I hear from callers and social media correspondents across the country.
European nations are electing “far-right” conservative parties, argues the mainstream media — an appellation delivered as condemnation. A guilty verdict at a trial of human decency, except conservative or right-wing parties are elected by the people of their respective nations.
Which brings me my interview with Ken Stern, which aired Sunday.
Stern is the former CEO of NPR (National Public Radio) in the U.S. — arguably the American version of the CBC, although NPR isn’t funded involuntarily by taxpayers. Stern argues the media is very much left wing and liberal in its leanings. A Pew Research poll found that liberals outnumbered conservatives in media by a margin of five to one. Stern believes the media has a very important role to play in our societies, but it must do so by experiencing both the left and right of the political and philosophical spectrum.
Stern has completed the conversion journey from the philosophical left to the right.
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