If nothing else, this slow-out-of-the-blocks federal Liberal leadership race will unite generations of Liberals like no other event has in decades.
Between now and mid-April, young Liberal enthusiasts could get to experience the naïve political joy that their grandmothers experienced in 1968 when they wore their mini-skirts, wore PET buttons and swooned when Pierre Trudeau showed up, smiled or kissed them.
Is a modern Trudeaumania about to break out?
Some Liberals hope so and there are signs. Since son Justin has decided to run, no candidacy for a third party has garnered this kind of attention — front page newspaper stories, long profiles and a fawning two hour show about the Heir Apparent on the CBC Radio national talk show Cross-Country Checkup Oct. 7. Host Rex Murphy not only allowed but also encouraged nostalgic baby boomers to predict this is the Second Coming.
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Potential Liberal candidate rivals are fleeing the race, seeing a coronation in the offing.
But it is easy to predict that two or three months down the road, media coverage and pundits will begin to get bored and shift to paying more attention to what is wrong with this picture. To sell stories, we need a race! Who can we build up as a dark horse rival?
And once young reporters whose journalist parents told them about the exuberant optimistic days of covering Trudeau in 1968 get over the idea that this can be a repeat, there is lots to find wrong with this picture.
While Trudeau Jr. has his father’s charisma and his mother’s good looks, he has yet to define any political gravitas. His father went into the leadership with a history of political activism, a role in Quebec’s Quiet Revolution, an important book on Canada-Quebec relations and a strong record as a liberalizing reformer as justice minister.
He also vowed to stand up to Quebec separatism, an issue Trudeau Jr. has not yet faced up to as a federalist Montreal MP in a Quebec that recently elected a Parti Québecois government vowing to do everything it can to provoke and discredit federalism.
Trudeau the father also honed his tough political skills (having been handed a safe federal seat) during a grueling leadership campaign that he almost did not win despite history’s version that he swept the country and the party.
Trudeau the son has won two tough elections in a poor ethnic riding that he took from the sovereignists but an easy ride to the top of the party will hardly hone his political fighting skills.
The other significant difference is that Pierre Trudeau was competing to be leader of the greatest political machine in Canadian history. Victory made him prime minister and kept him there for 16 years.
Justin Trudeau is competing to lead a weak third party that has fallen to historic lows in popular vote and seats, has let the machine rust out and has little immediate prospect of power.
The main job of the next Liberal leader — the fourth in nine years — will be to rebuild, to reconnect the party with constituencies it has lost including the West, rural Canada, Quebec and ethnic-heavy suburbs of major cities.
In a nod to that reality, Justin headed to Liberal-barren Calgary soon after announcing his candidacy.
But it will not be a time when he can set an optimistic country abuzz with a promise of a “Just Society.”
Canadians these days are increasing cynical about politicians promising grand plans to fix everything.
Just ask Paul Martin, Stéphane Dion and Michael Ignatieff.
