Pubdate: Tue, 27 Aug 2013
Source: Kingston Whig-Standard (CN ON)
Copyright: 2013 Sun Media
Contact: http://www.thewhig.com/letters
Website: http://www.thewhig.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/224
Author: Stephen Skyvington

TORIES RISK GOING UP IN SMOKE

While the Tories are looking tired, arrogant and predictable, Justin
Trudeau is rocking the vote

"It serves Canada well to have a politician who can be known for his
honesty and forthrightness." - George Takei, who played Mr. Sulu on
the original Star Trek TV series

To boldly go where no Canadian politician has gone before. That's what
Liberal Party of Canada Leader Justin Trudeau has done by admitting
he's not only in favour of the legalization of marijuana, but has also
smoked pot "five or six times"- including once as a sitting MP.

What might at first seem like an act of political suicide-akin to
stepping on the "third rail" of Canadian politics by coming out in
favour of a parallel private health care system-it's really quite a
brilliant strategy.

Like his father before him, who introduced a piece of legislation in
1968 as justice minister legalizing all forms of sexual activity
between consenting adults, young Trudeau has set himself apart from
the other parties and their leaders by tapping into a growing
resentment among citizens against our ever growing and encroaching
"nanny state."

"There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation," Pierre
Trudeau said 45 years ago, by way of defending a bill that for all
intents and purposes struck down years-old statutes which made
homosexual acts illegal in Canada. When he became prime minister later
that year, Trudeau went even further by promising a "just society."

And while it was never clear just what exactly that just society
entailed, as a campaign slogan it was masterful. Pierre Trudeau won a
huge majority in 1968, riding a wave of popularity rarely seen for a
politician-think JFK meets the Beatles and you have some idea of what
it was like. If there was one word you could use to describe Trudeau
1.0, that word would be "different."

Trudeau 2.0 seems to be taking a page out of his father's playbook
with his stance on marijuana. Not only has he managed to differentiate
himself from Prime Minister Stephen Harper and NDP Leader Thomas
Mulcair, he even upstaged the prime minister's annual photo op in the
Tundra during the dog days of summer-no small feat.

The Conservatives' response was as pathetic as it was predictable.
Peter MacKay, the newly minted minister of justice, scolded young
Trudeau for showing a "profound lack of judgment." "It's currently
against the law to smoke dope. I think most Canadians expect that
their member of parliament will obey the law," MacKay added.

Too bad the Senate doesn't seem to be operating under the same rules,
Mr. MacKay. But I digress.

What really counts here is not the issue itself, but what young
Trudeau's bold stance on the legalization of marijuana means for
Messrs. Harper, Mulcair and Trudeau in 2015. As I pointed out during
my criticism of the Conservatives sad-sack attack ads, which hit the
airwaves moments after Justin Trudeau was crowned leader of the
Liberal Party of Canada last spring, the political spectrum in this
country has undergone a seismic change. A new generation has been
turned on to the potential of politics. And the leader of this
movement is Justin Trudeau.

And before another person tells me that young people don't vote, let
me jump in here and say: "You're right. Young people don't vote. But
they're going to in 2015." I've said it before and I'll say it again.
Justin Trudeau is not the leader of a political party. He's the leader
of a movement. The sooner conservatives catch on to this, the better.

One need look no further than south of the 49th parallel to understand
what I'm talking about. Barrack Obama was elected President of the
United States in 2008 in no small part because of the youth vote.
Obama "rocked the vote" and it made a difference. But more than that,
he was elected because he tapped into something the conservatives have
so far been unable to figure out-both south of the border and here in
Canada. People are tired of being talked down to. They're tired of
being taken for granted. They're tired of tired ideas and tired
leaders and tired governments who have forgotten how to listen.

And while Stephen Harper has been a good, solid, dependable prime
minister-dare I say it, one of the top four or five we've ever been
privileged to have-he runs the risk of being thrown to the curb by
voters not so much enthralled with either of the other two choices,
but by those who are fed up with the current government's arrogance
and indifference.

We have a saying in our business: "Opposition parties don't win
elections. Governments lose them." If Stephen Harper and the
Conservatives don't soon wake up from their zombie-like trance, we may
well find ourselves-in two years or less-at the mercy of Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau and his band of merry men and women.

And that's not just the pot talking.
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MAP posted-by: Matt