You would’ve called the election too
Justin Trudeau is, after all, a professional politician and he saw the chance to win big
Of course the fair-haired — well, the not-a-grey-hairon-his-head — one called an election.
Justin Trudeau is, after all, a professional politician and he saw the chance to win big.
Anyone shocked by Trudeau’s behaviour would do well to remember his first political photo opportunity was the day he was brought home from the hospital after his birth. Knowing how to play the game was a skill taught at the breakfast table.
After all, to paraphrase no less a professional politician than Newfoundland’s Joey Smallwood, the first, second, third and last job of a politician is to win an election. Otherwise, you just another person looking for a job.
Besides, you’d have called the election too. It seemed like a no-brainer.
Experts were falling over themselves offering up free advice — and we know what free advice is worth — to the prime minister in the spring and early summer saying he would be nuts if he didn’t call a vote.
“It feels very much like preelection,” Liberal strategist and Proof Strategies’ senior vice-president of government relations Greg MacEachern said in an interview with CTV News.
“I don’t think you’re going to see a government that can push this off to the fall now, there’s so much expectation. The government’s own communications, with the importance of passing certain bills within the last two weeks, speaks to the fact that they don’t seem to think that they’re going to be sitting this fall.”
The cost?
Oh, that $600 million? Hardly even a talking point. It was the inevitability of it all that captured the hearts of the political pundits and pollsters.
“For the Liberals, it’s the question of whether the current trends will hold into the fall,” polling whiz Éric Grenier was quoted as saying in POLITICO.
COVID-19 was a wild card, he allowed. But that polling was just SO tempting.
“The longer the Liberals wait, the more they risk squandering the opportunity to take advantage of the Conservatives’ polling numbers, which Grenier said are lower than those pulled by former leader Andrew Scheer in the lead up to the 2019 federal election,” added the website’s story helpfully.
Abacus Data was happy to pile on.
After all, it is, it describes itself modestly, “the only research and strategy firm that helps organizations respond to the disruptive risks and opportunities in a world where demographics and technology are changing more quickly than ever.”
And its findings? “While only a minority prefer an election now, the vast majority (83 per cent) won’t be upset at Mr. Trudeau if he asks the Governor General for an early election.”
Sure, the opposition would howl, but so what, when “38 per cent say they would be happy to have a chance to cast a ballot and help choose the government to take us forward, 44 per cent would prefer not to have an election but it isn’t something that would affect how they vote, while 17 per cent say they would be upset at Mr. Trudeau because an election seems unnecessary.”
That’s a green light in Trudeau-land.
Or this, from an editorial in the Waterloo Record, a news outlet in the heart of Canada’s electoral sweet spot, southern Ontario.
B.C., Newfoundland and N.B. all held take-advantageof-it-during-COVID elections, and won, it said.
“Now it is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s turn,” it added.
“A series of six recent polls gives the Liberals a lead of between eight and 12 points across Canada. Averaging recent polling (according to CBC Poll Tracker) gives the Liberals a lead of between five and six per cent.
“Impressive as those numbers are, a closer look shows even more reason for Trudeau’s optimism. The Liberals lead by 10 points in Ontario, by 20 in Atlantic Canada and they hold smaller leads in Quebec and British Columbia.
“So, as they saying goes, strike while the iron is hot.” And Trudeau did.
It looked dicey for a bit, then Canadian shrugged and said majority-no, minoritysure. Give it another go and we’ll see how you do. Oh, and nice hair. Don’t regrow the beard.