Pubdate: Sat, 13 Sep 2014
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2014 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Chris Selley
Page: A6

TRUDEAU OFFERS UP ONLY OLD-TIME LIBERAL RELIGION

A Substantial Policy Platform Is Still Missing

On Friday evening in Markham, poor Justin Trudeau took the stage to 
address the federal Liberals' Ontario supporters trailing bad news 
behind him like a bunch of tin cans on a string. The Liberals' 
average polling number in Ontario fell four whole points in August, 
according to the polling aggregator threehundredeight.com. That 
shrinks their lead over Stephen Harper's Conservatives to a 
precarious four points in the province - and just seven points 
nationwide. Some serious morale-boosting was obviously in order.

I kid. Mr. Trudeau had a spring in his step, and the Friday night 
capacity crowd at the Hilton convention centre seemed to be in high 
spirits indeed. And why not? The Liberals are back on the cusp of 
power barely having broken a sweat. Until the campaign gets going 
next year, they may face no threat more dire than complacency.

Mr. Trudeau was all over that. "I've ... been asked a lot about the 
Liberal party's chances of forming the next government," he said. 
"Well I certainly hope you know the answer to that question." (He 
meant it's "yes.")

"But let's not get ahead of ourselves," he continued. "Because this 
isn't just about winning an election. ... We are here to earn the 
trust of Canadians in order to represent them and to work hard for 
them. The right to serve must be earned. My parents, your parents, 
taught you that at a young age."

Mr. Trudeau's opponents will roll their eyes at that last part. Just 
being around has been more than good enough for Mr. Trudeau thus far. 
Thomas Mulcair collects many plaudits for his Question Period 
performances, but his New Democrats have been stagnant in the polls 
for a year, stuck 10 or so points beneath their 2011 high. Neither 
Mr. Trudeau's inexperience nor his slim policy book seems to have 
held him back.

Indeed, it's arguable the latter has helped him - especially when it 
comes to the Conservatives. For months, they have been smearing Mr. 
Trudeau as a dilettante whose only priority is pushing marijuana on 
children. It could hardly bolster their Angry Men image any better; 
it makes them look more obsessed with marijuana than Mr. Trudeau. 
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney may have achieved peak idiocy 
this week on Twitter when he warned, "Mr. Trudeau's support for 
unregulated, unlicensed marijuana grow-ops in neighbourhoods will 
make drugs more accessible and put kids at risk." (One wonders what 
magic he could have woven with more than 140 characters to work with. 
All neighbourhoods? Neighbourhood playgrounds?)

But the honey moon shouldn't and can't last. The New Democrats 
released a bushel of policies during their caucus meeting in Edmonton 
this week - a federal minimum wage, a childcare plan modelled on 
Quebec's totemic $7-a-day daycare. Mr. Mulcair has pledged to give us 
his entire platform a year out from the election, currently scheduled 
for Oct. 19, 2015. The Conservatives will be unveiling their 
parliamentary agenda on Monday, when MPs return to Ottawa. They've 
already lowered employment insurance premiums for small businesses. 
Next year, with a balanced budget, they'll be offering Canadians the 
usual assortment of pocketbook-friendly baubles - and the opposition 
will be hard pressed to counter with bigger ideas, unless they're 
willing to have Canadians pay for them.

Mr. Trudeau offered no clue as to just how he's going to pull that 
off on Friday night - just old-time Liberal religion. He stressed the 
need for massive infrastructure investment, for example. Crumbling 
roads and bridges will only get "more expensive to fix the longer we 
wait," Mr. Trudeau said.

True enough, but it's a bloody expensive proposition today. On health 
care, he shouted out to Paul Martin's health-care agreement with the 
provinces and attacked the Conservatives for not making health care a 
"federal priority."

He implied, at least, that the taps would open in general. "Canada is 
a country with such talent and potential that it should be absurd to 
frame things like affordable housing and public transit as ambitious 
goals," he said (correctly). And guess whose fault he thinks it is: 
"That's what comes of having a federal government that just doesn't 
work well with others, and certainly not others who don't share their 
ideology."

That's all very well for a party rally, 13 months out from an 
election campaign. All very well to rally the troops - especially in 
Ontario, whose 15 new seats, not so long ago seen as a boon to the 
Conservatives, could in fact be stepping stones to a Liberal government.

But it wouldn't be all that surprising to see Ontarians (and other 
Canadians kicking the Liberals' tires) turn back toward the 
pedestrian, populist Conservatives, if Mr. Trudeau's inspirational 
talk isn't matched with a substantial platform and plausible, 
saleable ways to pay for it. Mr. Trudeau's retail appeal and 
kinder-gentler vision are firmly established. What Canadians need now 
are details - not so much how would Justin Trudeau govern, but what would he do?
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom