Posted on 05/03/2007 5:28:27 AM PDT by Clive
I like Justin Trudeau. Even worse: I'm friends with Justin Trudeau. Now, if those admissions don't trigger an avalanche of hate mail to Paul Russell, the Post's genial letters editor, nothing will. (Well, an expressed fondness for the Kyoto Protocol and gun control may, perhaps. But let's not tempt the fates.)
In case you missed it, Justin Trudeau won a surprising first ballot victory over the weekend. He is now the federal Liberal candidate for the Montreal-area Papineau riding, formerly a Liberal fortress for about a half-century. With all due respect to the Bloc Quebecois, you can be reasonably assured that Justin will be the next Member of Parliament for Papineau. I'd put money on it, even.
However, in the weeks leading up to the riding's nomination meeting, and in the days since, I have been reminded that not everyone is as fond of Justin as is Your Humble Narrator.
Earlier this week, for instance, the Post conducted one of those, ahem, extremely scientific online polls. We asked readers to respond to this statement: "Justin Trudeau is a welcome addition to Canadian politics." Despite my mouse clicking efforts to distort the ultimate result, 86% of respondents disagreed. Yikes!
It's not just Conservatives, New Democrats and Bloquistes who (predictably) express disdain for Justin, however. The media do, too. Even the Liberal media.
The day after his big win, for instance, Chantal Hebert sniffed in the Liberalfriendly Toronto Star that Justin is "still facing a hard fight." His famous surname, she observed, will be "less of an asset" than he might like.
"It is almost an understatement to say that [Stephane] Dion himself did not extend the welcome mat," Hebert added. "When presented with the fait accompli of Trudeau's decision to bid for the Papineau nomination a few months ago, the Liberal leader was visibly hard-pressed to find anything positive to say about it." This from the so-called Red Star, folks.
One of Paul Martin's most tireless cheerleaders, the Star's James Travers, took a similar line. Is Justin, asked Travers, "the father's son or only a shooting star made visible by reflected light?"
His candidacy might "stir memories of domineering federalism that a struggling party wants Quebecers to forget," he wrote. "There's not much in his resume to build confidence. Some public appearances left more informed and judicious audiences squirming."
And so on and so on. It isn't just conservative newspapers, like the one now grasped in your hands, which have given Justin Trudeau a hard time. It's all of them, pretty much. Conservative and otherwise.
Why the scorn? Why the sneers? For starters, it is worth recalling that -- in Canada, at least -- politics is Hollywood for ugly people. Not that I am an expert in such things, but Justin is a good-looking guy. (First clue:My spouse, upon meeting him, calls Justin "one hot little stud muffin." Or something like that.) When Justin and Myron Thompson stroll into a Parliamentary committee room, whom do you think the cameras will follow? Exactly.
Secondly -- and to borrow an indelicate bit of phraseology
-- Justin is a member of the Lucky Sperm Club. His dad was rich and powerful, his mom is beautiful and mythic, and he knows tons of famous people. Currently, his wife is a former model and Quebec television host, and he's about to become a dad. In a town like Ottawa -- lacking, as it does, all of the stuff Justin was born to -- jealousy will nip at his heels like a bad dog.
The third reason why Justin Trudeau gets a hard time -- and will continue to get a hard time, in the media and elsewhere-- is what I call the Wayne Gretzky Syndrome. When he played for the Oilers, the Great One was derided and maligned by plenty of Canadians (especially us Calgarians). When Gretzky left us for Los Angeles, we entered into a protracted period of national mourning. How could he leave, people wailed at the time. Wayne was one of the things that made us great! Didn't he know we felt that way?
Justin Trudeau isn't one of the people who make Canada greater -- yet. But my (biased) hunch is that, one day, he will.
Oh, and did I mention that I really like the guy, and that we're friends?
Please ensure your angry letters, addressed to National Post (300-1450 Don Mills Rd., Don Mills, Ont. Canada, M3B 3R5) bear adequate postage. Suspicious looking parcels will not be accepted.
- Warren Kinsella blogs for the Post and atwww.warrenkinsella.com
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Does the author or anyone here want to talk about how his father died of AIDS - and he didn’t get it off a toilet seat, either. If this one is going to ride on the Trudeau name, and he nothing else to run on, he has to expect these things to be mentioned. And NOW you know why pencil neck Dion is the liberal parthy leader: he is no challenge to little Justin when he runs for leader, which should be in about twenty minutes.
PET died of AIDS? First I have heard of it. Wherever did you get that idea?
Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The symptoms he displayed ( Parkinsons? Pneumonia, and Prostate Cancer?) are also congruent with a progressive dementia characteristic of AIDS syndrome, and immune system failure. It is surprising that PET would succumb to untreatable (?) prostate cancer because it is treatable with early detection, and he had the very best of medical attention). PET was sexually gregarious and possibly a bi-sexual. Maybe we will know in time , should his widow/divorcee have disclosed details before her death.
It wouldn't surprise me if it were true. I had many friends who had become HIV positive in the early 1980s before anyone knew much of the disease , in order to take precautions, and who died within a year or two of PET.
All of PETs medical records and blood testing results have either been destroyed or secreted away, which has added to the musings that he did die of AIDS. If he died a "normal" death, why all the secrecy?
Perhaps we will never know for sure.
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