By Arun Kumar Shrivastav
Recently, Canadian Prime Minister Justine Trudeau was interviewed by Rebel News and the interviewer asked him: why people don't like you. Trudeau replied: “I think there is a lot of frustration with the way the world is unfolding and the frustration is being taken out on people in positions of power. I get that. That's part of my job. But my job is to stay focused on the solutions that people are going to need. There is a level of polarization and toxicity in a very visible way on social media and in real life most Canadians remain powerful and open and decent and yes frustrated and worried about the future. But I also know Canadians are good people who are willing to work together for their future and I am part of that.”
Around the same time Conservative Party's Prime Ministerial Candidate Pierre Poilievre made his mind clear on Trudeau in an election speech. He said, “Justine Trudeau is NOT a liberal. Liberals used to believe in liberty and conservatives believed in conserving it, that was the common-sense consensus we had in Canada. Justine Trudeau does not believe in liberty, he believes in government control. He wants to control your money, he wants to control your kids, he wants to control the economy, control your speech, control your bank account, he wants to control everything. That is ill-liberal, the opposite of liberalism, I don't want to run your life, I want to run your government. A government does a few things well rather than a lot of things poorly. A government that minds its own business and lets people live their lives. That's is the tradition.”
As the campaigning for national elections in Canada has intensified in recent weeks, it has started showing the pressure. Surprisingly, Trudeau seems to be turning the anti-incumbency tide with remarkable success while Poilievre is slowly showing aggression and belligerence, not his character though. Trudeau has managed to withstand the pressure without spending anything from his pocket while Poilievre despite having a good chance is giving in to pressure and reaching out for the next weapon. When the election campaigns began early this year, Trudeau who has completed two four-year terms as the Prime Minister was lagging in opinion-polls and Poilievre was ahead of him by a long margin.
In the last few months, their election campaign strategies became clear. Trudeau picked primarily three issues: the government's promises to make housing a priority and build 3.87 million new homes by 2031. His second focus was the budget and what it promised for the people, saying how it was going to help the economically weaker sections of people. His third focus area was the carbon tax that he has increased with effect from April 1. But Trudeau would insist on how it's going to send money to the pocket of those who create less carbon footprint. It was amazing how Trudeau would appear every day in a white shirt and formal trouser and keep on visiting housing projects and factories, and making passionate speeches around these three themes.
On the other side of the spectrum, Poilievre would look composed in formal suits and point out how the past eight years of Trudeau's rule were disastrous – price rise, housing shortage, farmers' unrest, and so on. In the early stages, neither of them would try to hurt the other with their speeches; they maintained a high degree of decency and civility. But it seems Trudeau because of his positive campaign of what good he would do when he returns to power has made him look brighter while the opposition leader because of incessant ranting and criticism look dejected and pessimistic. That's a tremendous turnaround in the fortunes of Trudeau and a serious setback for Poilievre.
Recently, Poilievre was expelled from the House of Commons after he labelled Prime Minister Trudeau “a wacko.” The altercation began when Poilievre criticized Trudeau for endorsing initiatives in British Columbia aimed at decriminalizing certain hard drugs to mitigate the occurrence of overdose-related fatalities.”When will we terminate this eccentric policy by this eccentric prime minister?” Poilievre charged down on Trudeau in the House of Commons.
Speaker Greg Fergus, affiliated with the Liberal Party, informed Poilievre that his remark was improper and unacceptable, urging him on four separate occasions to retract it. Poilievre declined each time, opting instead to substitute the term with “extremist” or “radical.”“This is a wacko policy from a wacko PM that's destroying lives,” he said in a social media post.
Trudeau says Poilievre spends time with far-right groups and is a supporter of the Make America Great Again, a movement started by former US President Donald Trump during his election campaign. “That is not responsible leadership. That is dangerous for democracy, it's dangerous for Canadians,” Trudeau said to the media.
In the same interview on Rebel News mentioned earlier, Trudeau was asked why every flag with Trudeau's image has an emoticon of a middle finger raised towards his image. The Canadian Prime Minister, without battling an eyelid, said people are showing their love for him, saying Trudeau is no. 1.
(IPA Service)
