The Canadian journalists we rely on to handicap the horse
races in federal politics underestimated Thomas Mulcair’s appeal outside Quebec
and just as badly overestimated Michael Ignatieff’s appeal in Canada. Second-hand stories about Mulcair’s bad temper and second-hand stories about
Ignatieff’s brilliance were unpersuasive.
Consequently, the national media today is playing a more
modest role in the roll-out of the Liberal Party’s presumptive front-runner,
Justin Trudeau. With that light touch the Canadian press employs for vacuous
British Royal visits, they’re helping to turn a do-or-die contest for Canadian
liberalism into a coronation.
The editorial pages of the Globe and Mail and the National
Post tell us to be objective and set aside half-backed clichés. Readers are
assured by the Post that Justin
Trudeau isn’t an “untested political dilettante” because he won two elections
in the riding of Papineau, Quebec. The
Globe reminds young Western Canada to not judge him by what they were told
about his father and that there is no ideal credential for political
leadership. They conclude that before we oppose Mr. Trudeau’s candidacy, we
should study his parliamentary record and “policy positions, once they’re
announced.”
This is all too coy.
As a young backbencher, Trudeau has no Parliamentary record
of his own. Inviting Liberals and potential liberal supporters to judge him, in
effect, by policy positions churned out by party professionals will only
confirm he’s a front-runner, not a competent future leader.
Winning a riding in which the Conservative vote is under
5% hardly hints at his ability to offer a credible, sustained
alternative to Stephen Harper, let alone rally progressive centrists who are now
favoring Thomas Mulcair.
It’s not mean-spirited to ask the national press to give
Justin Trudeau a rough ride—to be as hard on him as prudent Liberals must.
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