It was the kind of campaign that has people quoting Gramsci. “This is like that quote from Gramsci,” a wise friend said to me over lunch. This actually happened.
When it was revealed, in the second week of the campaign, that a young Trudeau used to slather on a load of blackface on his way to just about every fancy dress party, the worst thing about the news was how unsurprising it was. I mean, the details were surprising, but the general notion—the neediness, the eagerness to shock—that part was familiar by now. Andrew Scheer, it emerged, is part American. The Conservative leader is 40. He’s been a politician for half his life.
National? Global. The world’s a mess. The U.S. House of Representatives has finally launched an impeachment investigation of Donald Trump, but Trump still found time to hand northern Syria over to Turkey. Britain’s departure from the European Union seems at last at hand. China. Kashmir. Good luck with all of it. In the middle of this crisis, Canadians picked a government. If there was a common thread to the commentary on Election 2019, it’s that the tone was uniquely negative.
But it would have been nice if the discourse of Campaign 2019 had borne some resemblance to the context, if so much of the debate hadn’t been premised on the apparent assumption that big things aren’t happening in the world.
In May, Peter MacKay became leader of the Progressive Conservatives by promising not to negotiate union with the further-right Canadian Alliance. By December, the PCs and the Alliance had merged to create the new Conservative Party. Like Layton’s NDP, it would win more seats and votes in each of the next four elections.
The oil price shock of 2015 ended the career of Alberta Conservative Premier Jim Prentice, as fine a consensus politician as you could imagine, unprepared as perhaps anyone would be for the evaporation of consensus. Pick your own set of game-changing events. And spare a little pity for the leaders who have had to navigate these new waters. Another thing I felt as this campaign wore on was growing guilt at having the easier assignment: it’s way easier to sit here and type clever columns about how our leaders don’t have answers to the current mess than it must be to come up with answers.
He won't. In his warped little mind he doesn't make mistakes...everybody else does!!!
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