Donald Trump’s charisma may be less explainable than Justin Trudeau’s but there is no denying that the force of their personalities was a major factor in their path to the highest office in each country.
Another commonality is that both men try to project an image of being a man of the people, despite both being members of the what can only be described as elite (I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t invited to spend my Christmas vacation on a billionaire’s private island).
By themselves, those two comparisons don’t really mean much, since both men are clearly of very different character.
Maybe not so much. Last week Justin showed that he had another similarity. Throughout his campaign, and his first weeks in office, Trump has presented versions of events — alternate facts — at odds with reality, often well-documented reality. And last week, Justin took a page out of Trump’s book when he declared an end to the electoral reform process, saying there was no consensus.
Electoral reform, of course, was one of the big promises from the Trudeau and the Liberals. The 2015 election, they told us, would be the last under a first-past-the-post system. Trudeau’s “alternate fact” — a lack of consensus — doesn’t jibe with the electoral reform committee’s report, which showed a desire for reform, as did the election itself.
More than just the broken promise to Canadians is the breach of trust it represents. Trudeau held out the promise of change in the form of a younger and more engaged person than your typical PM. Instead, we got a weak stance on the environment, pipelines and now a broken promise.
It’s just more of the same cynical politics that led people in Canada and the U.S. to demand change from their elected officials. In the U.S. the people who voted for Trump got a worsening of self-interest politics, and in Canada, it seems that for all the veneer of hope, we’re getting more of the same.
Or perhaps Trudeau simply doesn’t have the courage to live up to his promises.