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Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Liberal superhero Justin Trudeau is not immune to the forces of Trump

Donald Trump & Justin Trudeau LENGUAJE CORPORAL Análisis

But a now series of scandals -- and a new neighbor in the White House -- have ushered in a good dose of gloom.

"He has enjoyed an historic and exceptional honeymoon," pollster Nik Nanos of Nanos Research said. "Now, the shine is off."

From bouncer to Prime Minister

His jobs have varied from nightclub bouncer to teacher. A married father of three, Trudeau is an avid athlete who runs, skis, surfs, boxes -- he"s even mastered yoga. And from his shirtless encounters with strangers to an official visit with a blushing Catherine Duchess of Cambridge, Trudeau has charmed the world one selfie at a time. Elected to Parliament in 2008, he became Canada"s prime minister in November 2015 with a liberal message of inclusion. At age 43, he assumed the office his father, Pierre Trudeau, held decades earlier.

Not so "sunny": Elbowgate, Castro and chopper rides

The afterglow burned for months. Then came Elbowgate.

It was a jaw-dropping counterpoint to Trudeau"s carefully cultivated image of calm. And it was all caught on camera.

In May 2016, while debating a contentious piece of legislation on assisted suicide, Trudeau "manhandled" a member of Parliament and elbowed another, apparently swearing as he went.

He apologized, twice, and the negative attention was mostly limited to Canada.

No such luck for Trudeau"s next misstep.

As the world reacted to the death of Fidel Castro, Trudeau said in a statement that the Cuban leader had been a "larger than life leader who served his people." He left out any mention of Castro"s record on human rights and his history of oppression.The criticism poured in. #TrudeauEulogies started trending, with mock tributes to despots past and present. In the end, Trudeau agreed that Castro was a dictator.

Even before that ruckus could die down, Trudeau found himself in the middle of yet another scandal. His office confirmed that the Prime Minister spent his winter holiday on the private island of the Aga Khan -- and used the billionaire religious leader"s private helicopter to get there. An ethics investigation is underway.

And no sooner had the new year begun than tragedy struck in Quebec City, where a local college student allegedly shot to death six men at a mosque. It was one of the worst attacks to target Muslims in a Western country.

Make Trudeau great again

Trudeau used the massacre to double down on his message of inclusion. "Muslim-Canadians are an important part of our national fabric," he said.The attack came as Trudeau, aware of his waning popularity and aiming to shed the label of "limousine liberal," embarked on a cross-country town hall road show.

He got grilled, heckled and yelled at.

But some commentators saw it as a successful act of contrition after several weeks of damaging missteps.

"That"s why he did this incredible tour of the country that no one"s ever seen before," said Craig Oliver, chief political commentator for CTV News.

"He"s authentic," said Oliver, who has known Trudeau since childhood. "He has real good instincts about people and about politics."

"Sunny ways" still under threat

As he works to dig out of his domestic rut, Trudeau faces new threats to his progressive politics. There"s still a strain of nationalist populism that runs deep in Canada.

Oh, and then there"s Donald Trump.

Former Vice President Joe Biden suggested weeks before he left office that Trudeau, along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, would inherit the liberal mantle from former President Barack Obama.

"The world"s going to spend a lot of time looking to you, Prime Minister, as we see more and more challenges to the liberal international order since the end of World War II," Biden said.

But is trudeau up to the task?

the prime minister is an avowed feminist, free-trader and self-appointed cheerleader for diversity. And just a week before Trump was sworn in, Trudeau issued a thinly veiled swipe at his new American counterpart.

"There are things that we hold dear that the Americans haven"t prioritized," he said at a town hall event. "And I"m never going to shy away from standing up for what I believe in -- whether it"s proclaiming loudly to the world that I am a feminist, whether it"s understanding that immigration is a source of strength for us and Muslim-Canadians are an essential part of the success of our country today and into the future."

After the Trump administration announced its travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, Trudeau tweeted, "To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada"

"Almost everything that Trump represents, Trudeau resents," Oliver said.

Face to face with Trump

As Trudeau preps for his meeting with Trump, some say he should remember the words of his late father, who in the 1960s said that living next to the United States was like "sleeping with an elephant" -- every "twitch and grunt" affects you.

"Agitating the President of the United States is not a good strategy especially when the President is Donald Trump because he has such a thin skin," pollster Nanos said.

Trudeau and Trump are sure to agree on some issues, including support of the Keystone XL Pipeline. But for Trudeau, nearly every facet of his country"s economy could be affected by his relationship with Trump.

"There"s just so much riding on it," Oliver said. "You know, 75% of Canada"s goods are sold in the United States. That border has to stay open for business."

For his part, Trudeau said as much last week during a public appearance ahead of his White House visit.

"We both got elected on commitments to strengthen the middle class and support those working hard to join it," the Prime Minister said. "And that"s exactly what we"re gonna be focused on in these meetings -- making sure that the millions of good, middle-class jobs on both side of our borders that are dependent on the smooth flow of goods and services and people back and forth across our border are reinforcing the deep connections and friendship between Canada and the United States."

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/12/politics/justin-trudeau-donald-trump-us-canada-pm/

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Justin Trudeau, Canada"s dreamy prime minister, explained for Americans

Justin Trudeau Singing Work by Rihanna

Justin Trudeau, Canada"s recently elected prime minister, is visiting the US this week. Thursday evening he"ll be dining at the White House the first official state dinner for a Canadian leader in roughly 20 years.

People are excited. And I meanreally excited.

"Seriously, with his looks, heart, and mind, hes dreamy," an anonymous senior Obama administration official told Politico. The official went on to refer to Canada"s leader as "my new political crush."

This hilariously off-message Obama official is far from alone: Trudeau-mania is definitely a thing. Since Trudeau swept to power in October elections, his good looks, charm, and earnestly left-wing politics have made him into an international celebrity. Think Obama in mid-2008, before all the partisanship and bitterness.

And, like Obama, the celebrity is backed up by a pretty substantive policy agenda. Trudeau"s election has ushered in major new policy shifts on issues ranging from Syrian refugees to marijuana legalization.

So here"s a brief guide to Canada"s new dreamboat prime minister: where he comes from, why he"s become such a phenom, and what his agenda actually is.

Trudeau is a scion of a major Canadian political dynasty (Boris Spremo/Toronto Star/Getty Images) Pierre Trudeau in 1974, with then-wife Margaret and son Justin at a Toronto Maple Leafs game.

Though Trudeau"s persona resembles Obama"s, his background is closer to George W. Bush except imagine if W had been Ronald Reagan"s son rather than George H.W."s.

Trudeau"s father, Pierre, was prime minister for a huge stretch of time: from 1968 to 1979, and then again from 1980 to 1984. He remains the towering figure in the history of Canada"s Liberal Party and Canadian liberalism, rivaled only by his predecessor, Lester Pearson.

"Progressive modern Canada was created largely under the rule of [Pearson and Trudeau]," Guy Lawson writes in the New York Times. He continues:

The earliest major political initiative of Pierre Trudeau in the late 60s was to decriminalize homosexuality. The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation, he said. In rapid succession, Trudeau legalized abortion, funded the arts and promoted a race-blind immigration policy.

Trudeau wasn"t just accomplished; he was also a media sensation. In 1981, after he had separated from his wife, the actress Kim Cattrall (you know her as Samantha in s*x and the City) called up Pierre to ask him out.

So, if anything, even the Reagan/Bush comparisons understates Justin Trudeau"s family legacy: His father was both a towering historical figure and a cultural icon. Almost a cross between FDR and JFK.

Trudeau"s political rsum is extraordinarily thin

Early in life, Trudeau didn"t seem particularly interested in the family business. After attending McGill, Canada"s most prestigious university, he worked as a snowboarding instructor, a bouncer at a bar in British Columbia, and a high school math teacher.

He started getting national political attention in 2000 after giving a moving eulogy at his father"s funeral. He won a parliament seat on the Liberal ticket in 2008, and ultimately became the party"s leader in 2013.

During this time, a lot of Canadian political observers dismissed him as a lightweight a somewhat ironic label, given the fact that Trudeau had beaten a Conservative legislator in a televised boxing match in 2012. Yes, seriously:

What was I saying? Ah, yes, lightweight. The knock was that Justin traded on Pierre"s legacy but had no real experience or command of the issues.

The incumbent Conservative Party, for example, ran an ad in the 2015 election where a fake "hiring committee" looked at Trudeau"s rsum for prime minister. They decide that despite his "nice hair," Trudeau was too inexperienced to be trusted with power. The ad ends with what became a major anti-Trudeau slogan: "He"s just not ready."

It wasn"t clear whether Trudeau would ever surmount this perception. For most of their campaign right up until the end, in fact Trudeau"s Liberals trailed either the Conservatives or the left-wing third party, the New Democratic Party (NDP).

So when the Liberals actually won the October 19 vote outright, largely on the back of anti-Conservative sentiment, a lot of people weren"t really sure what they"d be getting from a Trudeau-led government. What came next seems have surprised almost everyone.

How Trudeau became not just prime minister but a celebrity (Justin Trudeau/the Toronto Zoo) I mean, COME ON!

There are basically two parts to Trudeau"s rise to international celebrity: the toxic legacy of his predecessor, Stephen Harper, and the fact that he"s just too d**n charming for words.

For the Canadian left, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper"s defeat in 2015 was an extraordinary relief. Harper first took power in 2006 and had governed in a nasty, fairly divisive fashion. He cast himself as the champion of "old stock" (read: white) Canadians. He exploited wedge issues, like prejudice against Muslim immigrants, to hold on to power in an overwhelmingly liberal country. His Conservatives managed to govern for more than a decade by taking advantage of splits between Canada"s left-of-center parties, winning a series of elections without ever securing the loyalty of the median Canadian voter.

The prospect of more than a decade of Harper in power was, for many Canadian liberals, unbearably terrifying. In American terms, it would have been like George W. Bush running for a third term in 2008 and having a serious shot at a victory.

So when Trudeau won in 2015, Canadian liberals were overjoyed. Even some leftists who voted for the NDP, and not the Liberals, were thrilled just to see Harper out.

Consequently Trudeau took power with a deep reservoir of goodwill. And then he proceeded to build on that by being absolutely adorable.

I don"t just mean handsome (though let"s be real: I do kinda mean handsome). It"s that Trudeau displayed an impressive deftness at picking up on left-wing social issues, the kinds of things his father also emphasized, and highlighting them in a way that made him seem compassionate, thoughtful, and open-minded.

Trudeau"s vision of Canada is one that appeals to many Canadians" sense of what their country, at its best, should be: an open, tolerant, progressive beacon for the rest of the world. As one young Canadian put it in an interview with Bloomberg, Harper "pushed Canada to act just like the United States. At least with Trudeau, we have our identity back."

While the Harper government messed with Canada"s asylum process to block Syrians from entering, Trudeau announced a plan to admit a total of 25,000 new Syrians by March. In December, he personally greeted the first batch of refugees on their arrival in Canada:

He committed to attending Toronto"s Pride Parade, the first such prime minister to do so:

(Toronto Pride)

He announced a commitment to do appoint a Cabinet that "looked like Canada," and then went on to appoint the most diverse Cabinet in the nation"s history:

(Geoff Robins/AFP/Getty Images)

He talks about feminism in compelling, meme-worthy bites:

Trudeau is the perfect prime minister for the social media age. He intuitively gets the kind of affirming identity politics that speaks to huge numbers of people on the internet.

And if you go viral, it"s often not just in one country. Trudeau"s inherent charming appeal his decency, tolerance, and cuteness made him into a global icon for cosmopolitan liberalism, especially in contrast to the increasingly foul politics you"re seeing in other parts of the world.

In a contest between Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau for the world"s heart, Trudeau wins in a knockout.

Justin Trudeau has an ambitious policy agenda (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/Getty Images)

It"s really easy, when you"re talking about Trudeau, to get distracted by the cuddliness of his politics and ignore the actual, er, politics. But it turns out that if you actually pay attention to Trudeau"s agenda, he"s taking Canada in a profoundly new and more liberal direction.

One personal priority of Trudeau"s, for instance, is nationwide marijuana legalization. He campaigned on it, and promised to get working on it "right away" after being elected. It"s a bit tricky to implement: His government has to get around international anti-drug treaties as well as some resistance from Canada"s provinces.

On economics, Trudeau"s government has already lowered taxes on the middle class while increasing them on the rich (people making $150,785 or more). Most radically, his government is considering creating a basic income a system wherein the government unconditionally pays every Canadian a certain amount of money per year.

His refugee policy has gone well beyond letting more Syrians into Canada. He"s already given an additional $75 million to the UN High Commission on Refugees, and fully restored a federal program (weakened by Harper) that would provide temporary health benefits to refugees in Canada.

Trudeau has also restructured Canada"s role in the fight on ISIS. He ended Canada"s participation in bombing runs against the group, which was quite minimal to begin with. But he stepped up Canada"s support role, tripling the number of Canadian trainers on the ground and committing Canadian special forces to help target airstrikes hitting ISIS targets.

This recommitment was celebrated by the United States.

"The Canadian announcement is the kind of response the secretarys been looking for from coalition members," Pentagon spokesperson Peter Cook said at a press briefing, "as the United States and coalition partners push to accelerate the campaign against [ISIS]."

The warm response to Trudeau"s ISIS announcement is emblematic of the current state of US-Canada relations. Under Trudeau, Canada and the US are on better terms than they have been in years.

Under Harper, US-Canadian relations were polite but not especially close. The ideological gap between Obama and Harper was just too large to breach.

Trudeau, by contrast, shares Obama"s generally progressive commitments. Shortly after his election, Trudeau reached out to Obama. They immediately struck up a warm rapport, partly based on Obama giving Trudeau advice about being young, exciting political phenom entrusted with power.

There was an air of mentorship but not in a paternalistic way, Ben Rhodes, Obamas deputy national security adviser, said to the New York Times. Trudeaus going to be on the stage for a long time. Hes got a ton of talent.

So tonight"s state dinner isn"t just a formality. It"s a celebration of a strengthened US-Canada relationship as well as Justin Trudeau"s bold, sexy vision for a new Canada.

Source: http://www.vox.com/2016/3/10/11193958/justin-trudeau-canada