How do Canadians feel about upcoming legalization? For this episode, we talk about the results from Navigator’s monthly poll that tracks public opinion on the changing market.
Featuring:
John Prentice, CEO of Ample Organics; Chris Kelly, Principal at Navigator Ltd.
By focusing on the centre, the Liberal leader has cleared space for a New Democratic Party that at one point looked lost. The 2019 incarnation of the DNP should not resemble the centre-left, anti-deficit, pro-business party that was pitched to Canadians in 2015.
Times have been tough for the federal New Democrats.
They entered the 2015 election as contenders for the big prize but, as a result of a series of unfortunate decisions, on election day voters returned them to their traditional third-party role.
It didn’t take long for many New Democrats to publicly denounce their leader. The result was as inevitable as it was predictable: polls reported the party found itself, for a time, within the margin of error of the Green Party.
And like 7 year olds playing soccer, pundits, as a whole, rushed to write the party off.
However, it would appear NDP fortunes are starting to change. The party’s leadership campaign is gaining media attention, high-profile leadership candidates are beginning to emerge, and its polling numbers may, just may, finally be turning around.
At the same time, the Liberal government also appears to be turning a corner. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent difficulties — including the bungled electoral reform promise, the cash-for-access scandal and the fallout in provincial relations over health care — have begun to disappear from the front pages.
The Prime Minister is once again making headlines for his savvy in international relations.
Many feared Trudeau would not match up well with U.S. President Donald Trump, someone who is brash, self-interested and easily offended.
However, after Monday’s unremarkable and conventional meeting in Washington, Trump gave his word that Canada’s historic relationship with the United States would only become stronger.
Monday’s meeting could not have gone better for Trudeau and for Canada; it was a performance the entire country should applaud.
Add to this, a series of smaller victories: Canada added 48,300 jobs to the economy in January, dropping the national unemployment rate to 6.8 per cent. In Quebec, Trudeau delivered on his promise to assist Bombardier. And in the coming weeks, he will announce a series of infrastructure projects, marijuana legislation that will rally and excite the millennial base, and progress on the Keystone XL pipeline that will appeal to moderates in Alberta.
The Liberal Party clearly has a firm grip on the centre of the political spectrum. In recent times, this could be counted as a political victory. However, in today’s political climate, moderation is viewed as the elitist status quo. Centrists are often viewed as indecisive on the big issues of the day and indifferent to the plight of ordinary people.
Internationally, centrist political parties have had little electoral success of late. Instead, it is candidates and leaders on the fringes who have gained political steam and attention.
By focusing on the centre, Trudeau has cleared space for a New Democratic Party that at one point looked lost. Trudeau’s policies and decisions — his enthusiasm for pipelines, embrace of Harper-era greenhouse gas emission targets, perceived failures on improving the lives of indigenous Canadians, and cynical abandonment of electoral reform — have given the New Democrats the lifeline they needed.
The 2019 incarnation of the New Democratic Party should not resemble the centre-left, anti-deficit, pro-business party that was pitched to Canadians in 2015.
Rather, the NDP should select a protest candidate who will invigorate the left and stand as a stark contrast to the current Prime Minister.
Regardless of who becomes the next leader of the federal NDP — whether it is Charlie Angus, the hardworking, well-liked, Northern Ontario MP, Peter Julian, the anti-pipeline, 99 per center, or Jagmeet Singh, the GQ-featured, suburban whisperer Ontario MPP — they will be free to seize the space on the left and rebuild their party.
Federal politics in Canada has been a race to the centre for a long time. As a result, Canadians have bemoaned their lack of genuine political choice. Everyone understood that while the colour of the drapes might change, that no matter who occupied 24 Sussex Drive, the fundamentals of life in Canada would be relatively unchanged.
In the 2019 election, this theory will be tested. Will Canadians, like voters around the world, vote for a candidate who panders to the far right or left, or will they opt for one who owns the middle ground?
Trudeau is betting on history — a history that favours the Canadian way, that favours that glorious promise of peace, order and good government.
I think Canadians likely will too.
Jaime Watt is the executive chairman of Navigator Ltd. and a Conservative strategist.
‘The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.’- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
This week, U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House. The joint press conference was cordial, even routine, as both leaders promised to protect, and even improve, trade relations between the two nations.
For those watching CBC News or reading Canadian papers, coverage of the visit was hard to ignore. Photos of Trudeau and Trump were plastered all over the front pages to commemorate the momentous occasion. Everyone north of the border watched breathlessly as the fate of Canada was to be decided in that singular visit.
Yet the average American was oblivious to the Damoclean sword hanging over their strongest trading partner’s head. CNN reverted quickly back to the breaking story that national security advisor Michael Flynn had resigned. The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal all continued their obsession with U.S. positioning towards China and Russia.
Before your Canadian sense of polite outrage grips you, keep this in mind. Canada and the U.S. have enjoyed decades of good relations, even with a history of presidents and prime ministers who have not always seen eye-to-eye. While amiable relationships and ‘bromances’ have certainly boosted the probability of achieving great things together, Canada and the U.S. have never let the perfect become the enemy of the good when it comes to cross-border relations.
Take for example, the relationship between former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Justin’s father. At a time when Trudeau senior was shutting out foreign (American) investment and recognizing the ‘one China’ policy (and even striving to embarrass the ultra-conservative president at international meetings), President Reagan recalls his relationship with the fiery prime minister favourably in his memoirs, noting that they both wanted to build a closer North American alliance and they ultimately laid the groundwork for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to come under the Mulroney government.
Some thirty years later, critics are watching the relationship unfold with trepidation again. For them, Trump’s ‘America first’ policy and the renegotiation of NAFTA is synonymous with stealing good Canadian jobs and creating the starting line for a scramble to diversify Canada’s economy away from the U.S. market, never mind Canada’s own job losses to Mexico, high electricity prices, and carbon leakage.
On the surface, Trudeau’s approach and Trump’s approach to international relations are not so different when it comes to achieving outcomes that benefit national interests. The two leaders share a sense of fairness and not leaving (middle-class) Canadians and Americans behind in this new postmodern era. Both leaders have acknowledged in their own way that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is ineffective because it is woefully underfunded, which has led to exploring renewed defence funding commitments from all parties concerned. Canadian officials have also speculated about working with the U.S. outside NAFTA whenever Trump opens the renegotiations with the parties involved. When the U.S. withdrew from the Trans Pacific Partnership, then-International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland affirmed the TPP ‘cannot happen’ without the United States. While Prime Minister Trudeau continues to champion Canadian values like openness and inclusion at home, he also understands the importance of ‘going along to get along’ where Canada-US relations are considered.
At the end of the day, Trump has no strong feelings towards Canada – and that’s an incredibly good thing to hang onto when you consider how he feels about other countries in his sightlines like Mexico, China, or even Russia.
The Canada-U.S. relationship under the Trump administration can flourish, if and only if, we let well enough alone and continue to keep our relations wonderfully boring and stereotypically routine. In the words of Fanny Price of Mansfield Park, ‘I was quiet, but I was not blind.’
We go through cannabis gets from seed-to-sale by talking about three companies that are using technology to make the process more efficient, more transparent, and to improve the consumer experience.
Featuring:
John Prentice, CEO of Ample Organics; Matei Olaru, CEO of Lift; Marcus Charles, Co-Founder of JUJU Joints.
Will discusses the lack of a bromance between Trump and Trudeau. The two men are from different generations and have vastly different political styles; will these differences pull them apart or bring them together?
Aired on CP24 February 13, 2017
