Trudeau's Performance

From the BBC:

"Justin Trudeau: How is the new Canadian leader doing?"

 

Two months ago, Canadian Liberal leader Justin Trudeau won in a dramatic election that unseated Conservative Stephen Harper after nearly a decade as prime minister. The son of former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau promised "sunny ways" for Canadians during his victory speech.

He has had a busy first 10 weeks in office:

• The environment: Attended Paris climate conference and pledged a framework focusing on reducing emissions targets within 90 days
• Gender parity: Appointed women to 15 positions in his cabinet. Asked why, he said, "Because it's 2015"
• Syrian refugees: Pledged to bring 25,000 refugees to Canada by the end of 2015 but later pushed date to February 2016, running into logistical issues and stymied by the Paris terrorist attacks
• Air strikes: Withdrew Canadian fighter jets in the campaign against the so-called Islamic State
• Aboriginal relations: Pledged to open up an investigation into 1,200 missing or murdered Aboriginal women

We spoke to three Canadian pundits about how Mr Trudeau and his Liberal government is doing so far.

 

Rachel Giese, editor-at-large, Chatelaine Magazine

"So far, so good. But also, so far, he hasn't really been tested. A year from now, we can make a proper assessment."  "He said it was very important for him to be outside the bubble of Ottawa," said Ms Giese. "He said it's not good for a leader to be stuck talking to other politicians."   Ms Giese said this attitude is starkly different from the "tightly-controlled" image of Mr Harper. He knows a lot about symbolism and image and knows how to take advantage of social media and understanding pop culture, perhaps taking a cue from US President Barack Obama, she said. Symbolism is one thing, but substance is another. Has Mr Trudeau kept his campaign promises? "I think he's done a couple of things of real substance, and a couple of things about the style and tone of government going forward," she said. "He's established very quickly out of the gate that his government will look very different."   Mr Trudeau is certainly ambitious, and so critics are wondering if he can deliver. There are concerns about the economy, the Canadian dollar is in bad shape, oil prices are low and Canada is seeing a lot of household debt, said Ms Giese. His decision to withdraw fighter jets from Syria has drawn some scorn, too, especially after the Paris terrorist attacks carried out by the so-called Islamic State which killed scores of people. The scaling back of the Liberal government's promise to bring 25,000 refugees to Canada by the end of 2015 disappointed some as well.

 

Evan Solomon, political talk show radio host

"Justin Trudeau is going to be on a long political honeymoon," he said. Mr Trudeau has done more interviews in the last two months than other politicians had done in years, he said.  He has made his entire cabinet available publicly available and made their mandate letters, which detail policy objectives, open to read to the public. "His agenda is probably the most ambitious we've seen in generations," said Mr Solomon. "He's stored up an enormous amount of political capital to get this agenda done… it's going to be more complicated than saying good words." The first evidence of that has been the scaling back of the refugee intake, but Mr Trudeau's greeting of refugees at the airport in Toronto was "not insignificant", he said. "That was a very powerful image, and the Trudeau government understands how powerfully resonant this kind of image is. That's soft power," he said. "The problem is, when you look under the hood, it's a little less effective."

 

Nik Nanos, chairman of the Institute for Research on Public Policy

The Institute for Research on Public Policy in Canada recently conducted a survey of 1,000 Canadians, finding that Canadians are largely feeling positive about their government and country since Mr Trudeau took office. "The economy is weak, the price of oil has collapsed and the loonie is doing a swan dive, but Canadians are remarkably happy with the performance of the federal government," a release from the organisation says. The country is "moving in the right direction", 63% said, and a little more than half surveyed said federal provincial relations have improved under Mr Trudeau. "For him, it's almost like the campaigning has not stopped, but now he is campaigning as prime minister," said Mr Nanos.  The prime minister's biggest challenge will be sticking to his promise of running the government on a $10b (£4b) deficit, he said. Because his administration has been so transparent, Canadians are accepting him running the government on a deficit, but if the deficit goes beyond that number, it "could be a political risk". "He has the ability to grab people's attention, and he's using that to engage Canadians in politics on the environment and social justice and so forth," said Mr Nanos.

 

 

 ^ It seems that most people believe Justin Trudeau has star power (he does know how to work the camera) but they are still waiting for him to face real challenges as so far what he has done has been purely cosmetic. The cosmetic (ie transparency) part is the easiest part to accomplish. What's important now is to see how he handle the real tests. He said Canada is not going to bomb IS and after he said that there were the Paris and California terrorist attacks so we need to see if he continues with his pledge or if world events make him back-track. You can't make blanket promises because things change. Obama made that mistake when he promised to withdrawal US troops from Iraq (which he did) and that allowed IS to take over large parts of Iraq and then Syria and become an even bigger threat and Obama had to admit he was wrong and fix his mistake. Of course I hope Trudeau will do great things for Canada, but for now it is all words, promises and make-up and too early to know for sure what kind of leader he is (or isn't.) ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35238732