Trudeau vs. Obama

Pierre Trudeau’s greatest achievements—bilingualism, multiculturalism and the Charter—aimed in large part at redressing imagined grievances, that is, harm done, not to us, but to others with whom we identify. Because people claiming such grievances can never truly be appeased, it may have been a mistake to try. It has certainly encouraged the syndrome, which is now pervasive. Richard Nielson

A comparison in growing up and experiences may shed some light into what is store for the Americans in  The Hope & Change movement that help bring him to power.

Both men are viewed as highly intelligent and lost their fathers at a very young age. Pierre lost his father in his teens. Barack in his childhood. Did this have an influence in shaping them? What were the other male role models around them.

Trudeau grew in a wealthy family unlike Obama.

Both men excelled in education, attended Harvard and passed their bar exams. Both of them had very little experience in the political class before entering public life.

A law professor at the University of Montreal, he had been a critic of the Liberal Party for fifteen years before deciding to join them and run for a seat in Parliament in the upcoming national elections. He won a seat in the riding of Town of Mount Royal on his first attempt.

Both men represented a change from the past of old traditional politics to large swaths of the voters. A sense of change and hope for a better fairer society.

The Liberals held a leadership convention in 1968 to replace the Prime Minister Lester Pearson and give the new leader adequate time before an election.

Both men were famous for keeping their cool.

Before his first term as Prime Minister, Trudeau has worked as a lawyer and law professor and had only three years of experience in public office

Some criticism against Obama was his lack of executive experience, but he did have more than three years in public office before winning the democratic contest and becoming the President of the United States.

Obama spent a great deal of time traveling across the United States in sharing his plan, his vision for the leadership and candidate for the Democrats. The favourite was Hilary Clinton and Obama was considered a long shot.

Both men garnered attention, locally, nationally, international stage through "Charisma" and a fawning press before their attainment of their final prize.

Trudeau mania that swept him into the leadership in 1968. The first election in  1972 may have not been enough to keep the Liberal PM, but  David Lewis, leader of the NDP made an offer Trudeau could not refuse a coalition to sustain his power. The Liberals barely won in 1972.The NDP propped up Pierre Trudeau's Liberal government in exchange for the implementation of NDP proposals such as the creation of Petro-Canada as a crown corporation. In 1974 David Lewis was rewarded with a loss of half his seats including his own on a swing of 2.40%.

Politics is about winning and holding onto power. The Liberals did a deal with David Lewis to hold power.

In the l972 federal election, Pierre Trudeau's Liberals won l09 seats to 107 for Robert Stanfield's Conservatives and needed the support of the NDP to stay in power. David Lewis of the NDP, in exchange for an NDP shopping list, agreed to support the Liberals without entering into a coalition. Trudeau yielded to stay in power.

There is plenty to criticize about the record of Pierre Trudeau but one thing that will stand to his credit for all time was his view that under no circumstances would he make deals with the separatist devil.- David Asper

It is too early to judge how history will measure Obama.

The spending priorities during the Trudeau years, the nationalization and foreign policy did create some serious problems. Socialism has retreated and is considered a failed economic theory.

China and India are adopting entrepreneur-capitalism to lift their poor. On May 25, 2010 Charles Schram appeared on Charlie Rose here.

Economic growth is critical to establishing social stability, which is the ultimate objective of these counterinsurgency campaigns and disaster-relief efforts. Various obstacles, such as insurgencies and inadequacies in infrastructure, have made economic development difficult in these countries, of course, but these difficulties cannot be blamed exclusively on such obstacles. A central element in the failure to establish robust economies in war-torn or disaster-stricken countries is the prevailing doctrine of international development, according to which strong economies cannot emerge in poor countries. -Expeditionary Economics

Some in the U.S. are suggesting the economic priorities of the Obama administration, Democratic controlled Senate, Congress are too Liberal, too vague in specifics to help solve the problems.

Which Woody has a woody for "O"

...it would be a cool idea for President Barack Obama to be dictator for for a few years.
Why?
So he could get things done without all the hassle of opposing views getting in the way.
In an interview published by Spanish language newspaper La Vanguardia (that we translated), Woody says “I am pleased with Obama. I think he’s brilliant. The Republican Party should get out of his way and stop trying to hurt him.”
But wait - there's more!
Woody said "it would be good…if he could be a dictator for a few years because he could do a lot of good things quickly."

Answer here.

OBAMA To BP: "Somebody Going to Get A Hurt Real Bad"

Russel Peters has a great clip on what Obama must be thinking about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico."I will not tolerate more finger pointing or irresponsibility," he said after meeting with top advisors to discuss the growing oil spill, which British Petroleum has tried and failed for three weeks to stem or even slow.

Experts now fear oil may be spewing from the site at a rate of 70,000 barrels (2.9 million gallons) a day, more than 10 times faster than a Coast Guard estimate of 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) a day. I had earlier posted about how many days the U.S. had to avert the worst disaster in history here.(Rough estimate of lost revenue $ 5.6 million per day $80/pbl) Those predictions of containing this spill may be too conservative.

If BP is insured for this spill, what company is going to pay?

PM Stephen Harper & President Barack Obama (Caption Contest)

I waited a few days to muse about the wisdom of another photo contest after so many failed from the Liberals. Light hearted fun need only apply.

Obama: The next time we arrange a Hockey Bet, can someone make sure we have clue?

Obama: How big are those "horse-flies" in Hunstville again?

Obama: Why can't you take Hillary Clinton off my hands?

Obama: Steve, I have some cheap vacation properties I need to sell. 

Stockwell Day - Exposed Intolerant Left

Divide & Conquer: Fanning the flames of Intolerance of your opponent has been used in politics to demonize and boost the morale of your partisans for hundreds of years. If we take a critical examination on how the Liberal Party campaigned against the Reform Party, Canadian Alliance with the support of the mainstream media in tow.

Have the "progressives" in the left changed their tactics since losing power?

...it was a Liberal government that implemented the new conservative domestic agenda – lowering taxes on the wealthy, privatizing crown corporations, cutting social services to the poor, eliminating health and safety rules.

But as the Liberals moved farther to the right, they always exuded a slight sense of embarrassment. Rhetorically, the party insisted it hadn't changed even when the evidence showed otherwise

With Harper, there is less confusion. While he is not uniquely responsible for all the changes in Canadian political life, he articulates them better than his political opponents. - A Transformative Prime Minister Thomas Walkom The Toronto Star November 21, 2009

Photo credit: Fillibustercartoons

What’s more, we have introduced a strategic review process whereby all federal programs must demonstrate that they are effective and efficient. They must show they are focused on Canadians’ priorities and meeting the changing needs of Canadians. The 2009 round of reviews reallocated up to $287-million to budget priorities. In 2010-11, about $33-billion will be reviewed and in all, we anticipate savings of close to $1.7-billion.

In addition, we will also conduct a comprehensive review of administrative functions and overhead costs. Our goal is to eliminate any redundant spending and find savings wherever they may exist. The review will look at external and internal service operations, business processes and administration.  - - Stockwell Day National Post March 14, 2010

 Evangelical support for the Liberals has dropped throughout the country in the last decade, according to a new study by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, which means more work for the Grits' outreach efforts on top of trying to turn around their sagging support in the polls. Liberals losing evangelical voters, says EFC study

-The Hill Times October 12, 2009

Political parties say nasty, torqued things about one another all the time. The only thing that’s unusual here is that this particular piece of nasty, torqued messaging targets a core Liberal constituency that has, for the first time in decades, suddenly become an object of real competition. And it is this that has the Liberals panicked. It was one thing for the Liberals to lose the West, the rural vote and much of Quebec. But now, their very survival is in question: If they lose their monopoly on ethnic Canada, their support level will begin falling into NDP territory. The New Ethno Politics Editorial The National Post November 23, 2009

Our American neighbour to the south. The Democratic Party's victories including Obama's has weakened the anti-American support in Canada in the progressive political parties. 

"It's disgusting in my own country, and I love my country, Canada, but they would rather bitch about their rich neighbour to the south than actually pay the note," he said, in response to a question about PEACEKEEPING. "To pay the bill to be an international citizen is not something that they want to do."  - Michael Ignatieff

The "Progressives" can't demonize our American neighbours to the south effectively with Obama - Harper providing cover for each other's inactivity on the Energy file. Anyone see a Carbon Tax motion?

This is why the Liberal Party is finished for good.  Unless it turns back to its Catholic roots, it will never be able to regain power.This report is very important because if the Liberal Party wants to regain power, it must start to cater more to social conservatives.  - Pacheco

The progressive parties in opposition are unable to attack on alternative policies regarding the economy, jobs and issues that matter to most Canadians. Instead they will attack with intolerance and suggest the government is a right wing neo-conservative party with a hidden agenda like they did with Stockwell Day and Preston Manning.

The progressive parties in the left are tired, listless and offer no vision for a better Canada. In Europe the retreat has been taking place for years. Instead of working in parliament they offer more distractions and personal attacks.

Canadians are much smarter than our politicians and the NDP, Bloc and Liberals have no interest in getting approval at the ballot box.  Where is your plan to cut spending, raise taxes and help Canadians?