Canada's Trudeau problem runs deep!
Canada's Trudeau problem runs deep!
Canada is really a single party state where political parties have been stripped of their identities and integrity by the neoliberal agenda, present for the last half century.
Canada, what used to be my homeland the true North some what strong, and some what free, has turned into a pretentious recluse hiding from the world behind locked doors and shuttered windows. It is the land of many pretenses populated with over paid under employed political groupies. It is vastly over-governed by under-talented politicians, members of parties practicing petty partisanship and pettifoggery whose only allegiance is to their next paycheck and the vested interests controlling them. The biggest “vested interest” being the empire next door who regard Canada as a powder monkey to fight and finance its wars.
When Pierre Trudeau, the father, pirouetted behind the late queen’s back in 1977 it was caught on film and caused something of a stir. Yes, the father was a bit of a prankster, but he also had the credentials, charisma and competence of a long standing politician and capable Prime Minister.
Enter the son forty years later and he turns out to be more prankster than politician, or prime minister. His tenure in office has been an eight year political honeymoon where he stumbles from one scandal to another, one ethics violation to another, and the endless derision of his peers and the populace. He is mocked and pilloried in the national and international media.
His own father cautioned him against going into politics. At the time he ran for the leadership there were national journalists and others warning he had his father’s name but not his talents. But the son had the brand name which won him the keys to the PMO .
The son is not the problem, he is just a by product of the slothful political system, and broken democracy that sustains him. And, it is not just a problem unique to Canada, it is common to many erstwhile Western democracies having lost their ability to effectively renew their leadership.
Under the present Canadian system his party could have voted him out as leader; but they won’t as long as the Trudeau brand gets them elected. His continued presence is also an indictment of the indifference and political illiteracy of the electorate.
The prime minister refuses to change a crippled first past the post(FPTP) electoral process to a more democratic form of proportionate representation. The reason being the present crippled system allows him a majority government with as little as 35% of the popular vote. In the present government the main opposition party has a higher popular vote, and far fewer seats, and we call this democracy !
Canada is really a single party state where political parties have been stripped of their identities and integrity by the neoliberal agenda, present for the last half century. Canada has the trappings of democracy; but very little actual democracy.
In the interval between father and son Canada has gone through many changes left unaddressed, simply shoved under the carpet.
The world now is going through immense change and power shifts, in preparation for a new multipolar world. Canada is AWOL.
Even so, the country appears content in its cranky state of abdication.
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In case you missed it:
The main reason I moved away from Canada (with heavy heart): neighbouring US of A. Not that it makes much difference today...the US meddling all over the globe.