Prepare three letters
Prepare three letters
What would Justin Trudeau say today if he were running for the first time?
Whenever I start to feel sad about the non-answers I get from the Trudeau government, I take solace from the answers they give other reporters. The Toronto Star’s many qualities include frequent reliable glimpses of the stories Liberals tell themselves when the world turns scary. The Durham by-election went poorly? Here is one Liberal saying that’s ominous. He or she is outnumbered by others hunting diligently for silver lining.
“This is a red alert,” says the pessimist; the others manage to find the Snooze button. “They cite ‘very low’ turnout,” the Star’s Tonda MacCharles writes. Translation: Well, you can hardly expect us to win when nobody’s going out to vote for us. One Liberal “said wryly that at least the Liberal vote share was better than the NDP’s 10 per cent.” That’s… wry? Another says “the party’s voter identification system didn’t fail; it did identify Liberal voters at the door.” This is especially impressive, I guess, given that there were so few Liberal voters to find. Our voter ID is so powerful it can actually find Liberals in the 519. Although that’s easier than finding New Democrats! He said wryly!
“Trudeau and his advisers are counting on time, two more federal budgets, and hopes for an improving economy to recover their political fortunes.” One wonders what will be in those two budgets that will reverse a trajectory set by the first seven. As for time, the prime minister has used half the time he bought when he struck a deal with Jagmeet Singh nearly two years ago. Given the results, surely his adversaries hope he will take more time.
There’s a weird moment in Tonda’s story when somebody says they expect “the gloves to come off” soon in Trudeau’s conflict with Pierre Poilievre. Hey, I have a question. Why do they have gloves on now? Do they suppose Poilievre is wearing gloves? I guess that’s two questions.