Justin Trudeau is being marketed to Canada as the politician of youth. He has 150,000+ Twitter followers. He wears his hair long and flowy. He displays a penchant for swearing in the Commons and beating the crap out of opponents in the boxing ring. These attributes, the theory goes, resonate with young Canadians in a way no other politician in this country does right now (this despite the fact he's third-generation Polish, from a very wealthy family and is married to a model -- not exactly your Everyman pedigree).
The fact is he is indeed unlike any other candidate, or at least any high-profile candidate, in Canada at this very moment. And that is a very good position to be in for him. At this very moment.
There is the possibility that Trudeau will galvanize young voters, force the other political parties to develop new stars who are also young and also give the appearance of being in tune with these times. It is possible, as well, that he will reverse the fortunes of the Liberal party and even rouse the entire nation in a way we haven't seen since, yes, his late father.
But I have my doubts, and it has nothing to do with his political acumen (which is mostly still unknown, beyond the fact he clearly understands the value of his family name) or even his ability to one day to be prime minister. It has to do with the very young people he is aiming to woo. They will destroy Justin Trudeau and there likely isn't a thing he can do about it.
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Today's youth are not programmed to believe in politicians, much less honour them -- political movements, yes, but not the men and women who sit in government, who travel across the land shaking hands and kissing babies, who get paid very good money (more money than most young people today can realistically hope to make) to wear custom suits and lob carefully rehearsed ideological grenades at each other across the floor of an old building day after day after day. To say politicians don't resonate with young people is an epic understatement; the practice of being a politician seems completely nuts to them. It makes no sense at all.
What role do politicians serve when every one of us can debate the relative merits of this or that national policy direction ourselves online? What purpose does Question Period serve when it's always question period in the Twitterverse? What do these people add when access to information, and every possible viewpoint, is just a click away? There is, in short, no point to having politicians around, much less paying them for their efforts, even mucher less showing respect for their authority.
Ideology is as important as ever, perhaps more so, but the men and women who fling it at each other for a living have been rendered extraneous because that's what everyone does, all the time. The entire exercise is ridiculous, all the more so since -- and here's another result of social media and always-on news -- politicians manage to get caught screwing up with such regularity.
To a certain extent, pushing politicians off their pedestals has always been part of the game, but to young people it is the game. These are not leaders, they're jesters, and even if someone has to sit in the Commons 100-and-some-odd-days a year because that's how things have always been done -- tradition and so forth -- well, that only adds to the black comedy of the whole exercise.
This is what awaits Justin Trudeau. The young people to whom he is playing will dump him sooner rather than later because that is what they do. Youthful positivity is ultimately no match for youthful cynicism, and there's far more of the latter than there is of the former these days.
Which is not to say this is a bad thing -- quite the opposite, actually: never before have politicians been held to account to the extent they are now, and this makes the process of governing much, much more open (though it is certainly still muddied). If Trudeau Jr. is to become another casualty of young voters' insatiable appetite for political skepticism, chalk it up to a youthful, smarter electorate hell bent on making sure politicians work for them, not the other way around.
Follow Yoni Goldstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/yonigoldstein
LOL - are you an example of the above, yoni? and if this is so (which is most certainly isn't), why do we have an embarrassment of dolts (read: cons) in power in Ottawa?
not even good filler, hp.
Who will the young turn on Trudeau for? The fact we are inheriting a country at record debt, worst job market for new graduates and the cheerful promise of a upward spiral of healthcare costs for sick n dying parents, and no politician addresses this is reason enough to be worried about the young voter. We will all swing to the one person that will show us a path through this baby boomer baggage.
Trudeau is our best shot
No thinking person could cast a vote for Harper unless it was for naked self-interest tied in some way to monetary gain.
Harper is only about wealth redistribution, regressive social conservatism, and international support for Israel. His entire government (fiscal, social, and international) rests on three planks.
Two points for author:
1. Perhaps now is the time to read early political years of Pierre Trudeau and how youth - not just as a vote block - did for his status.
2. The article would improve on credibility if in fact a single politician was referenced as an example of someone who courted youth vote and then got burned. Let me clue you in on something - there isn't one.
But, hey, keep drumming...
I happen to have live in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia where the ultra-Conservative and tight-end people are not enamoured with the name Trudeau. After all, Pierre gave the middle finger to protesters in Salmon Arms. Therefore, I do not expect the West to kiss Justin’s ass.
But, I would not neither dismiss Justin nor the youth so soon.
Dr. M. H. Rajabally
Kelowna
I remember Lester Pearson, his Nobel Prize, and as the architect who put Canada on the international scene. Now under tricky Dickey Harper, we are ignored and denied a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Wow!
I am a Liberal, but I would choose the candidate I consider to be the best in whatever riding I reside. Pierre Trudeau, had his faults and even arrogance; he was a risk-taker and he knew the Battle of the Plains of Abraham was alive, especially in small Anglo-Saxon enclaves. Come and visit the Okanagan and you will see an Eighteenth Century mind alive and kicking.
Justin Trudeau should not be dismissed so easily and the best person had not always ended up winning a leadership contest.
A very long time ago, I was one of the first who labelled Stephen Harper as the first Canadian dictator, and he has castrated his cabinet and back benchers. Do you want him as prime minister?
The NDP has been resuscitated under the late Jack Layton and now Mulcaire is carrying the torch with much younger supporters. Don’t you think we need to move into the 21st Century?