CHARBONNEAU – Will Trudeau the younger go for a walk in the snow?

FORTY YEARS AGO, Justin’s father took a walk in the snow. He returned home and sat in his sauna for an hour and a half pondering his future. He went to his office the next morning, a rose in his lapel as always, and wrote a note to the Liberal party president saying he was resigning as party leader and prime minister.

One difference between the father and the son is that Pierre faced a revolt within. Members of his caucus openly called for his resignation. Justin has managed to hold his caucus together, perhaps because of his skills as a teacher managing a classroom of rowdy students?

The word “woke” wasn’t in common use back then but the label, in a positive sense, could have applied to Trudeau the elder.

In a massive bill from Pierre’s government,  homosexuality was partially decriminalized and  abortion allowed under certain conditions. A related bill decriminalized the sale of contraceptives, regulated lotteries, and tightened the rules for gun possession.

Pierre Trudeau famously defended the bill by telling reporters that “there’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation,” adding that “what’s done in private between adults doesn’t concern the Criminal Code.”

Woke, which originally meant being socially and politically conscious of injustices, is now used by opposition leader Pierre Poilievre to attack Justin Trudeau. No one is exactly sure what the pejorative meaning is, but when it’s delivered with a sneer it doesn’t sound good.

I thought one of Justin Trudeau’s boldest acts was to legalize cannabis. Canada is the first G7 country to do so. Since then, with the prodding of the NDP, his government has introduced a public dental plan and pharmacare. Child-care agreements with the provinces will see fees decrease to $10 a day by 2026.

Much of the glow has gone off Justin’s panache. International press was initially smitten by Justin. The starry-eyed New York Times swooned, praising the Trudeau government as “emerging as a moral leader of the free world.”

Now young voters are leaning towards the Conservatives. In a recent Abacus poll among voters 29 and younger, the Tories are ahead of the Liberals 36 per cent to 21 per cent.

Pierre Poilievre, the pesky pekingese yapping at the heels of Justin, is barking up the right tree in the failure of affordable housing. Young people have done the right thing, gone to college and university, played by the rules of the COVID pandemic, only to find themselves sleeping in their parents’ basements.

With Justin’s popularity fading, the only thing that might save a progressive government in the next election is the leader of the federal NDP, Jagmeet Singh.

Progressive voters have a choice between Justin and Jagmeet. In a recent poll, 73 per cent of Liberal supporters would choose Singh while 27 per cent  would choose Poilievre. The results for Bloc Québécois supporters are similar with 60 per cent favouring Singh while 40 per cent side with Poilievre.

Trudeau the younger will probably not take a walk in the snow and will form the next government with diminished MPs and the support of the NDP.

David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.