After stumbling through the final weeks of their first year in office, the Liberals are seeking a reset, and will turn to the one tactic they calculate is sure to regain their corner in the hearts of Canadians: a national tour focused on Justin Trudeau.
Freshly back from the Bahamas, the prime minister is determined to “re-establish his connection with grassroots Canadians.” The Canadian Press reports Trudeau is planning a whistle-stop tour of the country “talking to average folks at coffee shops and church basements across the country.”
Trudeau and family were New Year’s guests of the Aga Khan on his private Bahamas island
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his family and a few friends spent the New Year as the guest of the Aga Khan on the religious leader’s private island in the Bahamas, the National Post has learned.
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The tour will involve three or four stops a day, for six or seven days over the next three weeks before Parliament goes back to work at the end of the month.
Golly. Another opportunity for the prime minister to display his fearsome cheeriness in a setting of polite Canadians who can be counted on demonstrate their pleasure at the chance to pose with the man and be treated like they count. If nothing else, it will certainly represent a change from the debilitating image that was beginning to take hold, of a party busy clinking champagne glasses with foreign billionaires while discussing development projects and the price of the latest statue of the prime minister’s father.
Unlike those ill-odoured fundraisers — which the Liberals continue to insist are entirely on the up-and-up, despite all the money changing hands — Trudeau’s encounters with “ordinary” Canadians are to take place in the sort of mundane settings in which Ottawa presumes regular Canadians spend their days. Here’s betting there won’t be many Montreal mansions or waterfront Vancouver estates on the itinerary. In Ottawa’s mind, Canadians pass their winters huddled against the cold, slurping coffee and scarfing donuts in neighbourhood hideaways while discussing the sort of workaday matters that are evidently such a mystery to members of the federal leadership.
What better setting to inject an impromptu visit by the prime minister? He intends to get the ball rolling by cruising down Highway 401 to London, Ont. — according to popular lore, one of Canada’s most average towns — where he will presumably appear at some local gathering spot for a wholly unscripted conversation with a random selection of commonplace townfolk, who will be expected to interrupt their chats about weather and their kids’ latest school antics to converse intelligently with the prime minister about matters of national import.
“Hi, I’m Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Say, whaddaya think we should put in the next budget?”
It’s heartwarming in a way, if you believe all this will happen casually and informally, without a phalanx of advance scouts vetting the locale and the people, security officials protecting the prime minister’s safety, advisers and communications staff hovering nearby to guard against mishaps and, just possibly a CBC camera or two to record the occasion. Formal media coverage may not even be necessary: ordinary Canadians can be counted on to whip out their phones for the obligatory selfies, which did so much to endear Trudeau to the electorate in the first place.
However, it’s also a bit curious that Trudeau’s handlers figure the government’s glossy newness has already worn to the point that this sort of public relations exercise is necessary. The Liberals had barely taken office when they unleashed a small army of committees to consult with Canadians on an extensive list of issues, giving the impression of a government bent on civic engagement, while also allowing it to delay a number of the toughest decisions. Some of these didn’t work out so well — Maryam Monsef seems to have single-handedly buried the prospect of electoral reform during a summer of earnest consultations with Canadians who proved not to have much interest in the matter. Yet one would have thought all those talks, townhalls, forums and kaffeeklatsches would have had the government entering its second year securely armed with a deep insight into Canadians views, and raring to translate it into plans and policies reflecting the national mood. Instead, Trudeau and his top ministers apparently feel that, after just 14 months, they no longer have a clue what Canadians are thinking.
Surveys suggest the government is still generally popular, with support from more than half the population. But it’s been eroding steadily, and it’s no surprise the party would want to halt the decline. This government’s popularity relies overwhelmingly on that of its leader, which is why it’s the prime minister who is being sent out now to stem the erosion and remind everyone that he’s still the heart of the operation, and he’s still just as bright-eyed, optimistic and boyishly engaging as ever.
It may not always be such. Over time, it’s possible that even the prime minister’s glossy sheen will fade, as his father’s did so precipitously over the years. The Liberals are expending political capital on sending him out on the road so soon to recapture the magic. If they don’t do a better job of governing in their second year, it’s likely to get tougher with each attempt.
National Post
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