Justin Trudeau - Suffering from Foot in Mouth - Canadian Style

[ronthecivil]

And should in the unlikely event that Marc Garneau should win the Liberal leadership perhaps we should expect this sort of attack ad from the Conservatives...

Marc Garneau: He didn't come back for you

[inane]

Except when people 'flip flop' on things like, oh, omnibus budget bills. Then it's just smart.

[Tearloch7]

Conservatives have consistently used personal attack ad's to smear anyone in any Party who is deemed a threat .. so watch for Conservative negative ad;s and you'll know who the Liberal front runner is .. or who they are "skeered" of ..

[TOMapleLaughs]

Harper flops on Elections Canada controversy, one day later:

March 8 - Conservatives about-face, now support NDP move to boost Elections Canada's powers

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives, in a sudden flip-flop, have revealed they are prepared to support giving more investigative powers to Canada's chief electoral officer.

The development occurred Wednesday, when Harper told the House of Commons his party will support an NDP motion to be debated by MPs Thursday. The motion calls for legislation within six months to provide strengthened powers to Elections Canada.

Just a day earlier, the government had adopted a different position, insisting that its MPs on a parliamentary committee had blocked a move to give new audit powers to Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand because it would add expenses to the elections agency's budget.

Mayrand had sought new powers to force parties to verify their election expenses with detailed records and receipts — a responsibility the Tories said should instead rest in the hands of private-sector compliance auditors hired by the parties themselves.

But as the robocalls controversy continues to dominate debate on Parliament Hill — and as Elections Canada conducts an investigation into complaints of electoral fraud in last year's election — it has become clear that Harper wants to amend a public perception that he is obstructing the elections agency.

[Wetcoaster]

Trudeau is taking hits from all sides on his long gun registry comments.

From former Liberal Justice Minster Martin Cauchon:

Martin Cauchon, who is still pondering whether to run for the leadership himself, told The Canadian Press that leadership contenders need to show they'll stand up for Liberal principles and values.

And he said the controversial registry, created by the government of Jean Chretien in which Cauchon served, is an important part of the party's legacy.

"I believe that we have to update our policies and make sure that next election we're going to be able to show leadership to Canadians," Cauchon said in an interview.

"But, you know what, I believe as well ... that a candidate running should have the backbone to respect and stand for the principles that we have always stood for."

Cauchon said party renewal shouldn't mean Liberals have to turn their back on accomplishments such as the Charter of Rights, official bilingualism or even the gun registry.

...

Cauchon also blasted Trudeau for the guns-as-culture comment.

"The point is pretty simple. We're not living in the (United) States," where Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms, Cauchon said. "We're building a different society."

BC NDP MP Nathan Cullen:

The NDP's Nathan Cullen, who represents a rural B.C. riding and opposed the registry, said the comments smacked of insincerity. He said it was a strange position to take for someone who had been a passionate defender of the registry.

"As somebody who represents and lives in rural Canada, it seems to reduce us down to people who simply own guns," Cullen said.

"This is not who we are. We are many things. And people can smell pandering when they see it. Canadians can tolerate quite a bit from their political leaders. Hypocrisy is, generally speaking, not one of those things."

Justin Trudeau tried to spin his comments - not all that successfully - much like his anti-Alberta comments it seems that Quebeckers are just different from the rest of us rubes. And Trudeau has decided the term "failed public policy" needed a re-write - Justin style.

Justin Trudeau has scrambled to explain his stance on gun control with the politically polarizing issue providing an early test in his Liberal leadership campaign.

The fallout from his sudden disavowal of the long-gun registry has required the front-running candidate to deal with a controversial policy debate just days after the flareup over unflattering remarks he once made about Alberta.

Trudeau handled it Monday by trying to appeal to both sides.

He spent a news scrum with reporters handling questions over an issue that resurfaced over the weekend with his description of the Liberals' registry as a failed policy.

Trudeau explained that he hadn't actually flip-flopped on the gun registry. In fact, he said, he always supported it, and still does support it in principle. But he said that now that it's gone it's too divisive to try bringing back.

In the next breath, however, Trudeau added that he supports Quebec's effort to bring it back in that province because he said the measure is not controversial there.

Finally, he offered his explanation of how the long-gun registry fits into his definition of a "failed" public policy.

"I voted to keep the firearms registry a few months ago and if we had a vote tomorrow I would vote once again to keep the long-gun registry," Trudeau told reporters.

"However, the definition of a failed public policy is the fact that the long-gun registry is no more... The fact is, because it was so deeply divisive for far too many people, it no longer exists." He repeated that definition of public policy, in both English and French.

...

A Quebec reporter asked Trudeau about that province's legal fight to keep its portion of the registry and he replied:

"I find it's a very good idea. Because in Quebec it was not at all as divisive as it was elsewhere in the country," Trudeau said.

"Perhaps a solution is to let provinces find different solutions. What's important is protecting Quebecers from gun violence."

YIKES. Every time he opens his mouth he just digs himself in deeper. A definite lack of intellect shining through.

And a prominent gun control advocate who survived the Montreal Polytechnique massacre by gunman Marc Lepine ( the event that was instrumental in the long gun registry being put in place) was not buying the spin and took Trudeau to task:

The performance earned him a scathing rebuttal from a prominent gun-control advocate.

A survivor of the Montreal polytechnique massacre, which occurred 23 years ago this week, Heidi Rathjen pushed for the creation of the federal registry. On Monday she blasted not only Trudeau's gun policy but also his broader approach to leadership.

"It's just political garbage," she said of Trudeau's policy.

"He's basically saying that the registry is a good thing only where it's popular, but that's not what a political leader does, that's not how you lead — by implementing a public safety measure only where's no controversy...

"It's not clear, it's confusing and I think it's a cop-out because he wants to please everybody and then he ends up pleasing nobody."

Time for Justin Trudeau to shut up, smile and look pretty because when he engages his mouth he clearly is not engaging his brain (assuming that he has much of one to engage)... and hope no one asks him any tough questions because when that happens he is completely at sea.

[Wetcoaster]

John Ivison writing in the National Post had a couple of quite humorous observations about the clown car campaign being run by Justin Trudeau titled - "John Ivison: Trudeau’s incoherent gun registry position is a gift to his Liberal rivals"

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/12/03/john-ivison-trudeaus-incoherent-gun-registry-position-is-a-gift-to-his-liberal-rivals/

First an Conservative attack ad is imagined should Justin Trudeau win the leadership:

Sometime between now and the 2015 election, expect to see a Conservative Party attack ad featuring a YouTube clip of a rookie MP debating the long-gun registry with some university protesters on the steps in front of Parliament.

“The registry saves lives,” argues a young Justin Trudeau, passionately.

Cut to an interview on the Liberal leadership campaign trail. “The long-gun registry, as it was, was a failure and I’m not going to resuscitate it,” says a slightly older Mr. Trudeau.

Cut to a still picture of Mr. Trudeau looking like he’s about to drive off in the getaway car, accompanied by a Conservative Party voiceover: “Justin Trudeau will tell you whatever he thinks you want to hear, whenever you want to hear it. He’s not a leader.”

And that will likely be the ball game.

The best attack ads crystallize that nagging feeling people have about a candidate – that deep-seated concern that turns brows bleak as voters have their worst fears validated.

They work especially well when they throw the candidate’s own words back in his or her face.

And then on positioning himself on the right wing of the LPC to separate himself from other leadership candidates:

For Mr. Trudeau, it has the added benefit of continuing to position him on the ideological right of many of his leadership rivals — a blatant pander to those right of centre voters who may have become disillusioned with Stephen Harper.

It’s perfectly valid to move into the Progressive Conservative space and take clear positions that annoy Liberals like the former justice minister, Martin Cauchon, who said Monday that candidates “should have the backbone to respect and stand for the principles that we have always stood for.”

But it is quite another thing to put forward incoherent policy positions. When he was asked about his new position in Montreal Monday, Mr. Trudeau said he voted to keep the firearm registry a few months ago and “if we had the vote tomorrow I’d vote once again to keep the long gun registry.” Eh? The one you just said was a failure? The one you have no interest in recalling to life?

And it exposes him to attack and ridicule from political opponents including other Liberal leadership hopefuls:

It invites his political opponents to portray him as a weather-vane, as the PCs did with former Ontario Liberal leader Lyn McLeod, or a windsurfer at the mercy of the prevailing breeze, as the Republicans did with Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

The attack only works because it is grounded in reality. Like him or not, Mr. Harper could never be accused of being pliant. When he is asked a question, he runs down his mental checklist of where he stands on any given subject and produces an answer that is invariably consistent with his previous public statements.

And my favourite ROFLMAO line in Ivison's column:

Mr. Trudeau doesn’t appear to have such a core set of beliefs. If he does he is flexible in their application, as if they were a Groucho Marx joke – here are my principles; if you don’t like them I have others.

[inane]

You seem to have a strange obsession with tearing him down.

[Tearloch7]

You seem to have a strange obsession with tearing him down.

[TOMapleLaughs]

Conservative fear of and subsequent attack on JT after that poll is understandable. What i find ROFLMAO-worthy is the NDP reaction. 'Hey! Remember us!? Over here! We're not dead! We're NOT!'

No, it's not just the 'fair and balanced' National Post playing-up the fact that JT had flip-flopped on gun registry. Other outlets see Harper and the Cons treating JT as a very serious threat now, and that's why they are in full attack mode. Certainly, this is nothing out of the ordinary. It just seems fairly early in the game this time, as JT isn't even Liberal leader yet.

Yes, the Cons should be afraid, esp. when JT voters don't even care about gun registry. Or whether or not Alberta has hurt feelings.

If and when JT wins, regardless of how many insignificant flips he performs, it will be the ultimate humiliation for Megamind Harper.

[Tearloch7]

Conservative fear of and subsequent attack on JT after that poll is understandable. What i find ROFLMAO-worthy is the NDP reaction. 'Hey! Remember us!? Over here! We're not dead! We're NOT!'

No, it's not just the 'fair and balanced' National Post playing-up the fact that JT had flip-flopped on gun registry. Other outlets see Harper and the Cons treating JT as a very serious threat now, and that's why they are in full attack mode. Certainly, this is nothing out of the ordinary. It just seems fairly early in the game this time, as JT isn't even Liberal leader yet.

Yes, the Cons should be afraid, esp. when JT voters don't even care about gun registry. Or whether or not Alberta has hurt feelings.

If and when JT wins, regardless of how many insignificant flips he performs, it will be the ultimate humiliation for Megamind Harper.

[TOMapleLaughs]

Dec.1 - TO Sun - David Akin, Parl. Bureau Chief

ALFRED, ONT. - After following Justin Trudeau's Liberal leadership campaign tour around eastern Ontario Friday, two things stood out.

First, Trudeau's supporters really like to touch him. Their relationship with their candidate is a tactile one. They grab his arm. They hug him. He is the Liberal plush toy.

Second, Trudeau considers the long gun registry to be a dead issue. Should he win the Liberal leadership and should he lead a government he will not be reviving the long gun registry.

That first observation may not come as much of a surprise. His popularity has been taken as a given in this race but the depth or intensity of the enthusiasm Trudeau can command really has to be seen to be believed. It is an unqualified political asset.

Here in Alfred, a tiny Franco-Ontarion community that is just about halfway between Ottawa and Montreal, one woman in her 60s arrived 30 minutes early for a lunchtime chat with Trudeau and promptly announced she couldn't wait to jump up and kiss him.

But that second observation, about Trudeau's comments on the gun registry, says something about the political smarts many of his opponents refuse to acknowledge.

Trudeau was speaking about the registry because he was challenged on it by one of the blue-collar, punch-the-clock guys who works at the helicopter parts factory that Trudeau toured Friday.

Trudeau meandered a bit in his response but he did answer. Though he voted in Parliament to keep the long gun registry, he will not resurrect it. Instead, Trudeau wants to use the gun registry debate to make a point about how the Harper Conservatives used the issue to divide Canadians who, he said, are united in their concern to protect traditional ways of living and reduce gun crime.

His answer is crafted to simultaneously win over the "law-abiding duck hunters" the Conservatives all but own politically as well as the inner-city urban single moms worried about gun crime, a demographic that makes up a healthy portion of Trudeau's own working-class riding of Papineau in Montreal. It might be naïve to think you can win both but at least he's making an intelligent pitch for them.

Trudeau's political opponents dismiss him as all fluff and no substance. After the factory tour in Hawkesbury, a 15-minute drive east of here, Trudeau went to a senior citizens home where a supporter asked what he and his team were going to do to counter attacks that he's a political airhead.

The short answer from Trudeau: Not a thing.

"It's a question I haven't spent a lot of time worrying about," Trudeau replied.

And why should he? He doesn't have to prove he can win. Consider this: In 2007, he won a hard-fought battle to win the Liberal nomination in Papineau. The Liberal establishment was cool, at best, and hostile, at worst, to the idea of Trudeau becoming an MP.

Having secured the nomination, Trudeau then proceeded to knock off a popular incumbent Bloc Quebecois in the 2008 general election. Then, in 2011, when the Orange Wave was sweeping Quebec, the blue-collar, slightly sovereignist Papineau riding should have been the first to jump on Jack Layton's bandwagon. Instead, Trudeau increased his margin of victory while many other Liberals were swamped and defeated.

Notably, Marc Garneau, seen as the best hope to prevent Trudeau from becoming leader, lost in the 2006 general election to a BQ candidate in a suburban Montreal riding that should have been much easier to win than the one Trudeau picked.

After 2006, Garneau inherited Westmount-Ville Marie, a downtown Montreal riding that has been Liberal for just about forever. And he only took that inheritance - unopposed - after threatening to walk out on the Liberals unless they gave him that safe seat.

In the next general election, the Liberals will have to scrap and fight for every seat they can get. There is nothing in the otherwise impressive resume of Garneau to show he can win a tough political fight. But look past the hairdo and the flashy smile, and you'll see a successful political street fighter in Justin Trudeau.

[Common sense]

Those who can, do .. those who cannot, belittle .. Wet is fearful of Justin stealing the Conservative's Realm ..

[hockeyfan87]

I consider the Federal Liberal party to be the closest to my own ideological view point but I don't think I could vote for them if Trudeau becomes leader. I know I'm not indicative of the masses who are swept in by his name, curls and airy fairy discourse but could anyone really see effectively representing Canada's interests on the international stage?

[Wetcoaster]

I consider the Federal Liberal party to be the closest to my own ideological view point but I don't think I could vote for them if Trudeau becomes leader. I know I'm not indicative of the masses who are swept in by his name, curls and airy fairy discourse but could anyone really see effectively representing Canada's interests on the international stage?

[aGENT]

[Tearloch7]

Young Justin really has some folks scared it seems .. gonna be fun watching the Con's and their ilk try to smear him effectively ..

[Wetcoaster]

Young Justin really has some folks scared it seems .. gonna be fun watching the Con's and their ilk try to smear him effectively ..

[TOMapleLaughs]

[TOMapleLaughs]

[TOMapleLaughs]

If that's not scary enough, then try this:

lol