Wetcoaster Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 This subject has been touched on in the David McGuinty thread but it seems to have taken on a life of its own... hence a separate thread dedicated to the Justin Trudeau the little fop who flips and flops. Watching the latest misadventures of Justin Trudeau reminds me of a the trials and tribulations of one Willard Mitt Romney when he showed distressing symptoms of Mitt in Mouth disease as with the 47% comments. Justin Trudeau has been stumping the country and particularly Western Canada telling us rubes in the West how he has vision of a unified Canada with the West as full partner. Asked at a campaign appearance in Edmonton what he thought of reported remarks by David McGuinty telling Alberta MPs to go back to Alberta and run for provincial or municipal office because they do not represent Canada, Trudeau would not comment directly but stressed his priority is national unity. "My entire campaign has been about bringing people together, about not pitting region against region and about being a strong representative and a voice that says the same thing in Chicoutimi as we say in downtown Calgary as I'll say in Toronto as I'll say in B.C.," said Trudeau. "That's the kind of politics that I am trying to do here." But that does not square with his remarks he made in a recorded interview in November 2010 where he said he thought Albertans who were in charge were ruining Canada and it would be best to have Quebeckers running things. In November 2010, Trudeau told a Quebec television show that he was tired of Albertans running the country and that, whether it was Jean Chretien or Brian Mulroney, Canada is better off when Quebecers are running the country. "Canada isn't doing well right now because it's Albertans who control our community and socio-democratic agenda. It doesn't work," Trudeau said in French to interviewer Patrick Lagace on the Tele-Quebec program Les francs-tireurs (The Straight Shooters). Lagace then asked Trudeau if he thought Canada was "better served when there are more Quebecers in charge than Albertans?" Trudeau replied: "I'm a Liberal, so of course I think so, yes. Certainly when we look at the great prime ministers of the 20th century, those that really stood the test of time, they were MPs from Quebec... This country - Canada - it belongs to us." Trudeau specifically named prime ministers Pierre Trudeau, Chretien and Paul Martin but also included Progressive Conservative Mulroney on his list of great Quebec prime ministers of the last century. http://cnews.canoe.c...2/20377596.html And the response when he came under fire for those comments? Trudeau and his strategists have apologized and tried to spin the comments. Liberal leadership contender and Montreal-area MP Justin Trudeau says he is sorry for controversial remarks he made in an interview about Alberta politicians. “I’m sorry I said what I said,” The Globe and Mail reported him as saying Friday. “I’m here to serve.” In a six-minute scrum with reporters in Vancouver, he said he made a mistake in associating the Harper government with a specific region of Canada, according to media reports http://www.edmontonj...1092/story.html And he released this statement on Facebook and to the media he fell back on the time honoured excuse that his comments were taken out of context - sort of hard to maintain when the quotes are in fact considered in the context of the interview and follow-up questions. And then followed up by the misdirect... "The Conservatives are using out-of-context statements made years ago in a long interview. They are clearly concerned that they are losing the byelection in Calgary Centre and are resorting to smear campaigns to stop their slide," the statement said. "Justin knows that Calgary, Alberta and all of Western Canada are at the very heart of Canada's future. That's a message he has taken to every part of the country, from the beginning of the campaign. We need to get beyond the divisive politics of the Conservatives and include all Canadians." Here again is the context for Justin... perhaps he is unfamiliar with the generally accepted definition of "context"??? : "Canada isn't doing well right now because it's Albertans who control our community and socio-democratic agenda. It doesn't work," Trudeau told interviewer Patrick Lagacé. When asked whether he thought Canada was "better served when there are more Quebecers in charge than Albertans," Trudeau replied, "I'm a Liberal, so of course I think so, yes. Certainly when we look at the great prime ministers of the 20th century, those that really stood the test of time, they were MPs from Quebec.... This country, Canada, it belongs to us." http://www.cbc.ca/ne...rta-quebec.html And it is not the first time Justin Trudeau has pushed his Quebec first view and tried to hang it on those who do not share his particular view of Canada that is not socially progressive like Quebec. In February 2012 he talked about a Canada governed by Harper and the CPC as not his sort of Canada and that the best thing to do would be for him to leave with a separate Quebec. His father must have been turning over in his grave at that statement. In a French-language interview in February, Trudeau took issue with the social conservative policies of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government and indicated he would be in favour of Quebec separating if they continued. “I always say that if, some time, I believed that Canada was really the Canada of Stephen Harper, and it was going against abortion, and it was going against same-sex marriage, and that it was moving backwards in 10,000 different ways, maybe I would think about making Quebec a country,” said the Montreal-area MP in the weekend interview with Radio-Canada. ... “When Quebec is not involved in the governance of this country, this country moves too much toward the right,” he said in the radio interview. “It’s not necessarily that Canadians don’t have the same values as us Quebecers. It’s that there’s a way of seeing social responsibility, openness toward others, a cultural pride here in Quebec that’s necessary for Canada and it saddens me a great deal (to see what’s happening now).” http://www.edmontonj...1092/story.html And his defence at that time? Trudeau later sought to defend himself in a bizarre press conference in which he spoke in the third-person. “The question is not why does Justin Trudeau suddenly not love this country because the question is ridiculous,” Trudeau said. “I live this country in my bones in every breath I take, and I’m not going to stand here and somehow defend that I actually do love Canada because we know I love Canada.” The arrogance and entitlement just shines through, eh? And it seems when he becomes frustrated he fails to engage his apparently limited brain power before putting his mouth in gear as occurred in December 2011 when he swore at Environment Minister Peter Kent in the House of Commons and had to issue another apology. Are we seeing a pattern yet? Liberal MP Justin Trudeau said he lost his temper in the House of Commons during question period when he swore at Environment Minister Peter Kent, which he later apologized for. "I lost my temper and used language that was most decidedly unparliamentary and for that I unreservedly apologize and withdraw my remark," Trudeau said once question period had concluded Wednesday. And why should the Conservatives not use his own words to hoist him from his own petard? And they will undoubtedly do so if he becomes the Liberal leader. The fact Justin Trudeau is an intellectual lightweight without much experience nor much of a record just makes it much easier. And then when he utters such statements with,out thought he simply presents an inviting political target that have been the downfall of much more experienced and qualified past Liberal leaders. Sounds like just more of the same old, same old from the Liberal party of Canada as Matt Gurney of the National Post writes in an article titled "Anti-Alberta Trudeau interview reminds Canadians why the Liberals were voted out": Mr. Trudeau’s interview was given to Patrick Lagace, host of Les francs-tireurs (The Straight Shooters). And shoot Mr. Trudeau does … right at Alberta. He magnanimously lists Brian Mulroney, a Progressive Conservative, as a successful prime minister, but his other examples of good Quebec leaders — his father, Chrétien and Martin — aren’t just Quebecers, they’re Liberals. And according to Mr. Trudeau, Canada belongs to them. It doesn’t really matter if he was referring to Quebecers or Liberals. The comment reeks of arrogance either way. This certainly won’t help the Liberals in Alberta, particularly in the upcoming Calgary Centre byelection. Harvey Locke, the Liberal candidate there, is probably wondering what he needs opposing candidates for, with Liberals like Messrs. Trudeau and McGuinty blowing up his campaign. But the comments by both senior Liberals will resonate far beyond Alberta’s borders, and help to remind Canadians why it was they turfed our former natural governing party from office six years ago. It wasn’t any particular scandal or policy, but mostly because the entire party had come to embody a sense of entitlement, and the Liberals weren’t even trying to hide it anymore. They clearly felt they were owed not just cushy jobs and patronage posts, but the entire country and its collective identity. It blew up in their face, of course. Millions of Canadians who might have gone for the Liberals’ policies found they didn’t much like being told that Liberal values were Canadian values, and that’s that. How could those who didn’t happen to support the Liberals conclude anything other than that their government didn’t consider them legitimate citizens? Such phenomenal arrogance cost the Grits at the ballot box. In case anyone is having difficulty remembering how that turned out, in a space of eight years, the Liberals went from expecting a 200-seat majority under Paul Martin to earnestly wondering if they can survive anything less than a drastic reinvention. Liberals have groused ever since that millions of Liberal voters have “stayed home” during the last few elections. Maybe it’s simpler than that. Maybe their ego simply drove millions of people out of that big tent the Liberals are so eager to talk about. The Trudeau camp responded quickly to the revelations. In a statement put out on Thursday afternoon, they said, “The Conservatives are using out of context statements made years ago in a long interview … We need to get beyond the divisive politics of the Conservatives and include all Canadians.” Problem: It was Mr. Trudeau himself making the divisive comments, saying Canada didn’t work when Albertans have power, and that the country belongs either to one province, or just Liberals from that province. Mr. Trudeau may feel the quotes were taken out of context, but they still [ital]sound[endital] astonishingly divisive. You can’t accuse someone else of playing the politics of division when your own party, twice in two days, has treated Albertans as somehow unfit to hold office in their own federal government. These comments just don’t sound divisive (though Lordy, they do). They also sound achingly familiar. This is exactly how many Canadians suspect the Liberals really feel, deep down inside: The only good Canadian is a Liberal. Everyone else is either an American or an Albertan (one suspects that, to many Liberals, this is a distinction without a difference). The Liberals can embrace the oil sands all they want. Until they stop treating the people who live in the general vicinity of the oil sands as enemy aliens out to rob the Grits of their rightful, if temporarily interrupted, rule over Canada, they’re not going to improve much on their third-party status. Yes, the comments are from a couple of years ago, which may help partially offset the oh-so weak response put out by the Trudeau team (though we’re not talking unearthed university-era debate club stuff here — this was Trudeau speaking in his capacity as a Liberal MP only two years ago). And the Liberals have been doing okay lately. Polls show they have a shot to come back to second place. Maybe even compete for government. It could happen. But they’ll need more than a new leader and some new policies before that can happen. They need a full-on attitude adjustment. Despite all their talk about renewal, it’s not clear that’s in the making. http://fullcomment.n...were-voted-out/ With the federal by-election being held Monday in Calgary Centre and the Liberal Candidate polling strongly in what seemed to be a tight race before the McGuinty comments and revelation of Trudeau's earlier interview with a less than stellar Conservative candidate, this has got to hurt. The Liberal candidate must be wondering whether he should be fighting those within the LPC and not his electoral opponents. With friends like David McGuinty and Justin Trudeau, who needs enemies???? And if Trudeau and other members of the self-proclaimed Natural Governing Party do not get it, fellow Liberal leadership candidate Martha Hall Findlay gets the the weakness exposed by such remarks. Fellow leadership candidate Martha Hall Findlay even launched her campaign in Calgary. “Launching in Calgary was very much to make a point to Albertans, Canadians and members of the Liberal party,” she said in an interview Thursday. “It’s not that the Liberal party has become irrelevant to a lot of western Canadians. But I would say that western Canada increasingly seemed irrelevant to the Liberal party.” ( ) … Meanwhile, the party’s decision not to hold any debates in Alberta or Saskatchewan during its leadership campaign has also prompted anger and frustration. Liberal spokeswoman Sarah Bain says the omission was not meant as an intentional slight to those provinces, but came down to date and venue availability. That hasn’t sat well with some leadership candidates and their teams, a number of whom have said they’ve asked the party to reconsider. Hall Findlay said it’s one thing for Liberals to show up in western Canada, it’s another to actually include western Canadians and look out for their interests. “People are skeptical, and rightfully so,” she says. “The challenge for us as a party is to walk the talk.” http://www.canada.co...l#ixzz2Czzu7Pbl The problem it seems is that the Liberals are in fact talking the talk and walking the walk... and it is the same old entitled talk they have been peddling without much success in the West as of late. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthecivil Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 The conservatives are grasping at straws if this is the best they can muster. Who cares if Trudeau truly deep down thinks Quebec is better than the rest?. So does everyone in Alberta that for being a bunch of tough individualists are suddenly acting a lot like a bunch of touchy left wingers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wetcoaster Posted November 23, 2012 Author Share Posted November 23, 2012 The conservatives are grasping at straws if this is the best they can muster. Who cares if Trudeau truly deep down thinks Quebec is better than the rest?. So does everyone in Alberta that for being a bunch of tough individualists are suddenly acting a lot like a bunch of touchy left wingers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wetcoaster Posted November 23, 2012 Author Share Posted November 23, 2012 So according to Trudeau leadership campaign strategists he intends to fight the anti-Alberta charges with deeds, not words, promising to spend a lot of time in the province during the next five months of the leadership campaign to show he has not written off the province. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1291789--justin-trudeau-faces-uproar-for-alleged-anti-alberta-comments-in-2010-interview HMMMM... was this not the same Liberal party that said forget what Stephen Harper has said about his government not passing laws bringing back capital punishment and restricting abortion while voting against such measures from backbenchers because he has a "hidden agenda". Sauce for the goose and all that, eh? So as a first step... However he needs to go with the "Full Harper" if he is to have any real impact: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthecivil Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 It seems that Justin Trudeau has a certain mindset that is being exposed. It goes to a sense of entitlement and that the Central Canada elite in the LPC knows best. Personally I find that attitude condescending and when it comes from a inexperienced and unaccomplished lightweight like Justin Trudeau, grating in the extreme. The Liberals did the exact same thing for years with Harper. Such is the blood sport that is politics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthecivil Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 So according to Trudeau leadership campaign strategists he intends to fight the anti-Alberta charges with deeds, not words, promising to spend a lot of time in the province during the next five months of the leadership campaign to show he has not written off the province. http://www.thestar.c...-2010-interview HMMMM... was this not the same Liberal party that said forget what Stephen Harper has said about his government not passing laws bringing back capital punishment and restricting abortion while voting against such measures from backbenchers because he has a "hidden agenda". Sauce for the goose and all that, eh? So as a first step... However he needs to go with the "Full Harper" if he is to have any real impact: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armada Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 Still believe he'll be one of the best PM's if elected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllHailSmyl Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jägermeister Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 However he needs to go with the "Full Harper" if he is to have any real impact: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wetcoaster Posted November 23, 2012 Author Share Posted November 23, 2012 Just once I would like to see a politician not dress up in whatever regional or ethnic dress happens to be the most effective for winning whatever vote of the day. It's an admin job not a dress up contest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wetcoaster Posted November 23, 2012 Author Share Posted November 23, 2012 Disturbing on so many levels... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jägermeister Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 Do you remember "Law and Order Harper" from The Murdoch Mysteries??? However many people are unaware he also auditioned for the part of Ernst Stavro Blofeld for one of the James Bond films: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Humble Rodent Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 It admittedly sounds pretty bad, but this is basically him trying to regain ground in Quebec, its unlikely that he was going to win any seats in Alberta anyways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wetcoaster Posted November 23, 2012 Author Share Posted November 23, 2012 Still believe he'll be one of the best PM's if elected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wetcoaster Posted November 23, 2012 Author Share Posted November 23, 2012 He is one unphotogenic man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aGENT Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 Based upon what... His lack of intellect? His lack of accomplishments? His lack of political experience and savvy? His ability to firmly plant one foot in his mouth? His surname? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armada Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 I'll give Harper one thing. He's done a great job with the economy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthecivil Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 Based upon what... His lack of intellect? His lack of accomplishments? His lack of political experience and savvy? His ability to firmly plant one foot in his mouth? His surname? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tearloch7 Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 Trudeau is running for leadership and Alberta voters will neither decide the leadership race NOR the next Federal Election .. many folks in Eastern Canada will drink that anti-Alberta kool-aid, and having the tar sand development as your national priority ala Harper is not real popular .. Consider Justin talking to his base .. when the Conservatives took over, the Liberals were running a surplus .. just saying .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aGENT Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 I'll give Harper one thing. He's done a great job with the economy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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