XPost: can.politics   
   From: gregcarrsober@gmail.com   
      
   “I’ll so offend to make offence a skill;   
      
   It seemed for the longest time that nothing could touch Justin Trudeau;   
   that his ascendancy was inevitable. But that may be beginning to change.   
   In April, for the first time since he took the Liberal crown, successive   
   national polls showed his support slipping. Across Canada the Grits are   
   now in a dead heat with Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, at 33 per cent   
   versus 31 per cent, respectively, according to poll aggregator   
   threehundredeight.com.   
      
   In Quebec, meantime, the Liberals now trail Tom Mulcair’s New Democrats   
   by one point, at 32 per cent versus 33, according to a new CROP survey.   
   It’s not a collapse, to be sure; but across the board, suddenly,   
   Trudeau’s numbers are moving in the wrong direction, if you’re a   
   Liberal. And the question, of course, is why. What has changed?   
      
   For months, running into years, the knock against Trudeau has been that   
   he is an empty vessel; young, good-looking, with a celebrated pedigree   
   and a bright smile, but void of substance, inexperienced, and — as the   
   Conservative attack ad puts it — “in over his head.” Each of his public,   
   verbal goofs — and there have a been a string of them now — has   
   bolstered that narrative.   
      
   Set against that, from the start, has been the strategic savvy on   
   display in, among other things, his choice of issues. The trend toward   
   greater income inequality is real; it is in place worldwide, and Canada   
   is not exempt. One can argue it is unwise for any politician to promise   
   to “fix” such a problem, let alone while ruling out a major wealth   
   transfer; but not, credibly, that inequality is make-believe. More   
   important politically, no Canadian party leader can ever go too far   
   wrong in championing the middle class, because the vast majority of   
   voters consider themselves to be just that.   
      
   Economic policy-wise, we now know where he’s headed; it’s in keeping   
   with the centrist tradition established in the Chretien era, but with a   
   John Manley-esque, almost Red Tory tilt. The first three priorities   
   named in Trudeau’s presentation to the Vancouver Board of Trade last   
   month were education, trade and resource development, in that order, the   
   latter couched in language not particularly different from that used in   
   the past by Jim Prentice, soon to be the new Progressive Conservative   
   premier of Alberta. The fourth priority, innovation, is classic Manley   
   blue Liberalism; the fifth, infrastructure development, the only nod to   
   the interventionist ethos that animated the federal Liberals before they   
   came to power in 1993.   
      
   Here’s what that confirms: Trudeau proffers no wrenching change. Rather   
   he stands to inherit Harper’s neo-liberalism and make it more equitable   
   — just as Tony Blair once did in the United Kingdom, following the   
   Thatcher years, or Bill Clinton did in the United States, following the   
   first Bush presidency. This explains, I suspect, why his gaffes haven’t   
   hurt him more than they have; his program is broadly appealing both to   
   conservatives weary of Harper’s anti-democratic tendencies, and social   
   progressives leery of the New Democrats’ love of higher taxes, more   
   government and debt.   
   http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/national/Justin+Trudeau+hone   
   moon+over/9796337/story.html   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)