By Aly Kamadia, Editor-In-Chief of iDose

Quite the election, wasn’t it?

Almost half a decade ago (Oct. 2015), a younger good looking Justin Trudeau pulled an upset and claimed a majority government. Coming from a background of almost unparalleled privilege, his victory seized the world’s attention by virtue of his name. His late father, Pierre Trudeau, was successful in attaining celebrity status, as his son later would.

Four years later, Trudeau’s (junior) image had been transformed.

After being involved in two ethics inquiries, the blackface scandal, leading a not-so-progressive government, forceful allegations that Trudeau was a fraud and an unrecognizably different personality behind closed doors (the latter was an accusation that even NDP leader Jagmeet Singh made throughout his campaign) throughout an extremely hostile election campaign, Trudeau’s political brand had been destroyed.

Amid this reality, a peek at the headlines the day after the election revealed a Canada suffering from sharp divisions.

The Toronto Star’s Chantel Hebert penned a piece titled, “Election results reflect a divided nation”; The New York Times, “Justin Trudeau’s Re-election Reveals Growing Divide in Canada; The Washington Post, “The urban-rural divide is defining politics worldwide. Canada is proof”; The Financial Times (London), “Trudeau faces challenge of uniting a divided Canada.”

The international image of Canada as an inclusive multi-cultural heaven had been shattered (at least temporarily). For Canadians living in a bubble who hadn’t received the memo, the evidence was everywhere. One such example was the fact that Trudeau had to fight for his political life only to maintain a minority government.

For a nation being tested, what could be done?

“Leadership” was a buzzword that much of the elderly had grown allergic to (through a natural result of being exposed to politicians for more years than their younger fellow citizens), despite the undeniable vacuum of it.

On one hand, Trudeau’s team understood some vital priorities, such as re-branding his image and Canada’s. Though the past four years of a majority government hadn’t even come close to seeing the ‘real change’ that Trudeau had promised. On a vast number of major issues such as affordability, wealth and income inequality (to name a few), the Liberals had absolutely no accomplishments to show off. 

And since I had yet to come across any evidence that Trudeau had the distinguished gift of being both an intellectual and shrewd practitioner (I hadn’t come across any evidence that he had either of these traits), I was waiting to see if the 2019 election had slapped his mind straight into bringing in new blood. Veins where new thinking flowed were desperately needed.

Rather than presenting the public with new faces that played follow-the-leader, harbored ideological fantasies and/or recycled world views from their discredited mentors, the historical moment called for astute leaders – characters who remained rare even in a world of 7.5 Billion people.    

I was also paying attention to see if there was any evidence of the bold progressive vision that Trudeau had promised. Even Andrew Scheer and the Conservatives had used the line (and fact) about the economy serving the super-rich at the expense of everyone else. 

Yet I hadn’t seen any sound policy to resolve the systemic economic issues that Canada faced. One hardly needed to be a progressive (or on the ‘left’, whatever the hell that outdated thinking meant) to recognize that some of its bolder policies could alleviate much of Canada’s unneeded suffering.

Indeed, history would have taken note of both commitment and courage to a progressive vision if the Liberals reached a serious accommodation with the NDP.

History would have also felt less nervous if politicians took a deep breath, and at least once a minute, repeated to themselves, “Don’t do stupid sh$t!”

A familiar line to anyone who had followed the Obama years and its foreign policy, ‘Don’t do stupid sh$t’ actually became an informal guiding principle. Since Trudeau was apparently fond of the much brighter Barack Obama (who certainly had intellectual traits, though was by no means a wise practitioner during his presidency), perhaps this guiding principle would have served as a nice reminder?

For instance, some of my friends on the ‘left’ had to be reminded that it was the height of insensitivity to tell someone that their job and entire means of living had to be taken away in the name of climate change, without a reasonable remedy. Those involved in industries that were negatively impacting the planet needed to be immediately offered a dignifying alternative job if society was about to erase their existing one. And to talk about ‘retraining’ people in their 50’s and 60’s without such a guarantee bordered on psychotic – at least insofar as inconveniences such as morality still concerned us.

Finally, political leaders from all over the world had to reminded to stop serving the super-rich at the expense of everyone else, because the last four decades of neoliberal economic policy were largely to blame for bringing us to this state of affairs (you can thank the “Reagan-Thatcher revolution”, whose ideology Canada not-so-wisely imported in the 80’s). Policies based on delusional economic “theory” had ushered us into an era in which our very institutions and our way of life (at least in the West though not limited to it) were being tested.

Leadership, new thinking, bold policy that addressed systemic issues and not doing stupid sh$t were four overlapping areas that required attention. And as an engaged citizen, this was no time to sit around and simply cross my fingers. I was doing much more. Were you?

Update (later on Oct. 23rd): Prime Minister Trudeau has unequivocally stated in a press conference that he will not be entertaining any ‘formal’ or ‘informal’ accommodation with any other party. This includes the NDP. Many progressives will see this as Trudeau initially rejecting a serious commitment to a progressive government.    

Aly Kamadia is Editor-In-Chief of iDose. To read more articles by Kamadia, click here. To read the Editor’s message, click here.