Prodded by the media and his
pride as Canada’s first astronaut, Liberal leadership candidate Marc Garneau has let out the word: it’s no longer hands-off Justin
Trudeau, the front-runner. In tomorrow’s 9-candidate debate, he’ll insist that
Trudeau “take a stand.”
Instead of taking on what
Trudeau has been saying, Garneau will complain that he’s failing to spell out a
concrete vision. The front-runner will demur; he’ll suggest there’s still
plenty of time and wonderful ideas out there to consider before the 2015 national
election.
Opinion polls reported this
week that Trudeau is the most popular politician in Canada, the one Liberal
that could beat both Thomas Mulcair and Stephen Harper. Also, we’re told that
he’s made a good living in Canada as an "inspirational speaker." Is this the
week to suggest that his campaign messages are too thin and won’t impress
voters?
Unless the polls collapse,
Liberals will go with Trudeau—win or lose, it’s their nature.
Nevertheless, Garneau could
make his Party and their next leadership debate more productive if he forced Trudeau
to explain in more detail what he’s already been saying in outbursts.
On foreign investment, oil pipeline
approvals, and Senate and electoral reform, he’s taken positions well to the
right as well as to the left of Stephen Harper. As important, he has not been
saying what you’d expect to hear from a visionary young liberal.
They’re not timid statements,
just questionable.
For instance, on oil pipelines, he’s exclaimed, “Come to me with the best pipeline
plan and we’ll talk.”
Is he saying boss Harper
isn’t going far enough? Is he saying that the next Trudeau Cabinet should have
more flexibility than simply accepting or rejecting a public recommendation
from the National Energy Board? Does he think Western Canada wants that kind of
leadership from Ottawa? Was his statement really intended to be taken
seriously?
Not to sound like an old-fashioned liberal anywhere in the known liberal world, Trudeau has come out
against an elected Senate, in principle, and scoffs at Harper’s qualms about
further foreign investment by state-owned enterprises.
Garneau could make interesting a
discussion of contemporary liberal ideas if he’d apply his mind—and known
liberal traditions—to what Justin Trudeau has already been saying forthrightly.
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