10 Comments

For the sake of saving the Liberal Party, Trudeau should step down IMHO. Hanging on for dear life with the current state of unrest will not endear him, and if anything will work against him. The time is now or never. Some say there is no one other than Trudeau who can lead the party but I believe that is disingenuous. There are several capable candidates in the party who could weather the storm and stop the bleeding. Trudeau, despite the howls that may ensue, is NOT our savior. There is nothing special about the man - at all. Do us all a favour and take that walk. For me, it'll mean that I might regain the party I stopped voted for in 2019. Each of us has our own reasons for our motives and our opinions and I respect that so I am not dissing anyone who feels differently. I simply don't want to see the Liberal party decimated which I do believe is a possibility at this point.

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It can't go on like this. It's not only the dissatisfaction of voters. And, yes, of course, the attacks from the Cons are simply opportunist, we know that. But that doesn't change the fact that Trudeau has lost the people, and they're not coming back. People's disenchantment, anxiety and anger are real and ignoring them is foolish. True, Trudeau's not responsible for most of the ills he's accused of, but he has committed and continues to commit the unforgivable sin: he stopped listening. He never was good at it, but once he could play the crowd, even if the numbers were diminishing. Now the secret is out that he's not listening to his own caucus. Many MPs must be furious that their leader is likely to lose them their seat in the next election. Trudeau's not known for his loyalty, to his team or to his word. It's come back to bite him.

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Oct 22·edited Oct 22

Life isn’t always fair and neither is politics.

Perhaps the smart thing is to find a new leader and go on the counter attack with a new face at the top of the party. I have serious doubt about the viability of this, but reasonable people can disagree about this.

However, there is something in me that I would like to see everybody dissing Trudeau’s chances being completely wrong. Trudeau has faced a non stop barrage of accusations and attacks. Most of them entirely untrue or unfair. The latest examples are postmedia and globe and mail attacking Trudeau for the detoriation of the relationship with India.

Deep down, I am hoping that Trudeau comes out of the caucus meeting with a re-united caucus behind him and the gloves are off vis-a-vis the opposition and the media.

PS what are the chances that this mysterious letter does not exist and that it is another torqued story?

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How many people are influenced by opinion writers for Postmedia or the G&M? I'm thinking the number is pretty small. Too many people believe that Trudeau is condescending & tone-deaf. That's the real issue IMO. Attacking the opposition & the media isn't going to change anything. Learning to listen to people who don't agree with him might help, but it's probably far too late for that.

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Why are people thinking he is tone-deaf or condescending? I honestly do not see a justifiable reason for this.

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Oct 23·edited Oct 23

If you want to know Christy Clark beyond her false advertising that she's a federal Liberal supporter - which she has never been, the Tyee has a record of everything she has ever done. https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2017/04/04/BC-Liberal-Falsehoods-Scandals-Clark/

Who did she vote for in BC? Rustad. Like Gordon Campbell did. He publicly announced this. Gordon Campbell, the BC Liberal premier who preceded Christy, is also a conservative. What you have to understand about the "BC Liberal" brand or name is that it was never what it claimed to be. They were PC, heavy on the C. BC Liberal was a rebranding from the ashes of Social Credit. BC United is a rebranding from the ashes of BC Liberal. Christy Clark hired Stephen Harper staffers. She was aligned with Harper and she was aligned with Alberta conservatives. She also contemplated running for the federal Conservatives.

Christy Clark couldn't win the seat she inherited from Gordon Campbell in 2011 and had to "buy" one in conservative Kelowna. She basically asked the winning candidate for it and gave him a plum appointment for it. Christy Clark in the 4 years she had power, destroyed the reputation of the BC Liberals. Link above for the list of scandals.

When Justin Trudeau campaigned in BC in 2015, he avoided Christy Clark like the plague. Under Christy (and Gordo), BC had the highest child poverty rate in Canada for ten consecutive years. Christy created rent inflation by ending the requirement for landlord to prove they needed to increase the rents and just giving them annual increases at a rate of the inflation rate + 2%. Her cruelty to children in care, especially Indigenous children, should be jailable offenses. Beyond that, too many scandals and boondoggles to count. The NDP crushed her party in 2017 because people had had enough and the BC Liberals were forced to rebrand once again because no one trusted them anymore.

Christy Clark is corrupt small C conservative trash and the federal Liberals would be nuts to let her in the door.

I don't know where Scrimshaw lives but if he's not interested in doing the research on someone like Clark and actually thinks she's liberal, he should probably stick to writing what he knows. And if anyone in the Liberal Party is extending a hand to Clark, those people are traitors undermining their party.

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Was I wrong?

PS what are the chances that this mysterious letter does not exist and that it is another torqued story?

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Surprised there are not more candidates lining up to take the job. The general consensus is that any possible short term successor to Trudeau if he decides to step down is a kiss of death to one’s political career. Yes he or she is probably going to get clobbered n the next election. But who in their right mind is going to turn down the chance to be Prime Minister for a year, live in 24 Sussex, be on the international stage and enjoy all the trappings of power. Besides it’ll provide an endless source of bedtime stories for the grandkids. (“Grandpa tell us the story again how you passed a supplemental budget!”)

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Much consternation has been posted around the lack of an obvious Trudeau successor, but I think it’s entirely overblown. If Trudeau was hit by a bus tomorrow, a few months from now we’d be wrapping up a leadership contest and a credible leader would have been chosen. That we can’t currently predict who it would be is beside the point. The process isn’t any different if it’s a metaphorical political bus that Trudeau gets pushed in front of

I’m also curious how Carney will do once the rubber hits the road. Highly qualified candidates with zero electoral experience don’t have a very strong history. Retail politics is its own thing. I could very well see him make a big splash initially, only to be run over by unexpected candidates who are in it to win it. Maybe he proves a knight in shining armor winning the tournament on his first attempt, but I would be completely unshocked if he dribbles into a third or fourth place finish

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As a progressive, I'm ready to head out to the Carneyville.

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