HOPEFULLY, WHAT HAPPENED IN CANADA WILL RUB-OFF ON AMERICA

…The new Canadian Prime Minister: Justin Trudeau

 

Canadian Conservatives get trounced in the latest national election.

 

The recent landslide election win in Canada of the Liberal Party’s Justin Trudeau tells a story that I hope will be told here in the US.

 

It must be said that the previous liberals that had led the Canadian government were “middle-of-the-road” liberals, and their budgetary prudence gave Canada nine straight budget surpluses.  Then, when the conservatives took over the leadership in 2006, they ruled the nation, as one would expect from conservatives, with little or no investment in the country.  Therefore, Canada’s national infrastructure and the nation’s educational programs have been continuously eroding over the past decades.  (Sound familiar?)

 

Some people have tried to say that the reason that the conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Canadian Parliament lost to the Liberals in this election was a backlash against religious and ethnic minorities.  This was around the issue supported by Harper such that Muslim women should not wear their veil while being sworn-in as Canadian citizens.

 

Yes, this petty point was an on-going conservative social issue that was continuously debated.  But in reality, it had virtually nothing to do with the landslide election win for the Canadian liberals.

 

The real explanation for the liberals winning was for a very different reason, and one that I am hoping becomes a similar situation here in the US.

 

The new 23^rd Prime Minister’s name might sound familiar to some.  That’s because, Justin Trudeau is the eldest son of the former 15^th liberal Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, first elected in 1968. 

 

The Canadian voting population has now turned to this young, energetic politician.  This latest Trudeau won by stating that his focus is to invest in what is important for the nation’s future generations, and he wants to invest in the nation’s infrastructure.

 

This new prime minister actually ran his campaign on promising to NOT pursue having a balanced budget and a budget surplus. 

 

Yes, he actually won in a landslide using that statement in his campaign speeches.

 

Trudeau is a rare politician and one who came right out and promised to run on fiscal deficits. Granted, he claims they will be modest deficits that will run around 10 billion Canadian dollars (that's~ $7.6 billion US) annually over three years.  The prime goal of this approach is to provide jobs by rebuilding Canada’s infrastructure.

 

Canadian Liberals actually ran by popularizing the campaign term “infrastructure deficit”.  Young Canadian voters, in rapidly growing urban areas, they agreed that with today’s low interest rates, it was exactly the right time to invest in the nation’s future. This hefty swing toward the Liberals’ way in Canada’s metropolitan areas powered their sweeping win.

 

As in the United States, the conservative party in Canada is growing more gray and is shrinking.  This latest choice of a young liberal PM was because after the election, the previous conservative Parliament went to 189 liberal vs 44 conservative, after all the votes were counted.  That’s a 180° change.

 

The Canadian point that I was hoping to also happen in the US is based on exactly how this young liberal party leader ran for the office.

 

The focus of today’s liberals in Canada is that even the fiscally responsible liberal Paul Martin, a former Canadian PM, he has now become a supporter of the new generation of Canadian liberals.  Martin himself endorsed the new emphasis on infrastructure investment. “You should be investing to pay for the kinds of things that are going to give your children a better life,” Martin said in defense of the new PM. “And that’s what infrastructure is, what education is, it’s what research and development is.”

 

Another liberal winner, Chrystia Freeland, who won overwhelmingly in her Toronto district stated, “Economic policy is about the facts and the circumstances.”

 

The fact for Canada has been under the conservatives, also as it is in the US, a slow recovering national economy has seriously strengthened the case for Trudeau’s liberal approach.

 

When the Canadian campaign’s started 11 weeks ago, there were three primary parties:  Conservatives, Liberals and the New Democrats.  Initially, Trudeau was running in last place.  But Trudeau turned himself into the candidate of, “Real Change”.   “Real Change” then became the Liberals campaign slogan. 

 

Trudeau then started offering proposals to push against growing income inequality.  He even offered a tax plan that would pay for a middle-class tax cut by raising taxes on those earning more than 200,000 Canadian dollars (That’s ~$152,000 US) per year.  He also proposed a substantial increase in child benefit support for the poorest Canadians.

 

The liberal support became so strong in Canada that a major publication in Canada stated that “Trudeau had to go big, or the Canadian voters would send him home.”

 

Today in America, it is accepted as a true statement that for the first time since FDR took office during the Great Depression, “America’s next generation will be worse-off than their parents.”  Actually, based on today’s level of poverty in America and the number of homeless on the streets, we may already be worse-off with today’s generation.

 

It is my hope that as a nation we begin rejecting the latest statements by some conservatives that say “we should be satisfied with less” and that “getting better just isn’t possible.”

 

To me, that thinking is totally un-American.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2015