Vows to stop party infighting | Justin Trudeau is seen as having a feel for rural Canada despite no policy promises
Montreal MP Justin Trudeau won an overwhelming victory April 14 to become the 13th permanent Liberal leader in Canadian history.
The 41-year-old charismatic son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau immediately declared that the Liberal party civil wars were over. The internal party strife had helped propel the party from government in 2005 to third party status and its worst electoral showing in 2011.
For three decades, losers in party leadership races reacted to defeat by organizing sedition within the party against the leader.
The result was a party drained by division and resources diverted to internal fights.
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“Canadians turned against us because we turned away from them,” Trudeau told an Ottawa Liberal crowd after his overwhelming leadership win of almost 80 percent of the votes.
“Liberals brought their focus to fight each other rather than to fight for Canadians.”
Trudeau, a second-term MP with a thin file of policy proposals but a large following, said the era of Liberal infighting has ended.
There are no more Trudeau-Liberals (referring to his father), Turner-Liberals or Chrétien Liberals, he declared.
“The era of hyphenated Liberals ends right here, right now,” he told a boisterous applauding crowd in an Ottawa hotel ballroom.
Trudeau, the fifth leader of the party in the past decade, inherits a Liberal machine that has grown rusty and badly in need of a refit.
He has 29 months until the next election to turn it around.
Trudeau made no significant policy pronouncements affecting agriculture or rural Canada.
However, he attracted the support of rural-connected Liberals, including deputy leader Ralph Goodale from Regina, trade critic Wayne Easter from Prince Edward Island and agriculture critic Frank Valeriote from Guelph, Ont.
In his victory speech, Trudeau made reference to Sir Wilfrid Laurier, famous for his “sunny ways” and a hero to his father. The country needs less cynicism and more sunny ways, said the new leader.
Goodale picked up on the theme.
“He has a special ability to rally people around a happier vision of what this country has the potential to achieve,” said Goodale.
“Perhaps the most telling criticism of the Harper regime is that they’re so unambitious, their goals for Canada are so mediocre.”
Trudeau has already had an influence on party rural politics.
After the 2011 election, when Easter was targeted by the Conservatives and saw his margin of victory shrink, he mused that it might be his last election. Conservative leader Stephen Harper was in power for four more years, and Easter was tired of the fight. He removed himself from the House of Commons agriculture committee.
On the weekend, Easter changed tack.
“Trudeau has not articulated a rural policy, but he had connected with rural Canadians,” said Easter in the midst of the pro-Trudeau crowd at the leadership announcement.
“He has a feel for rural Canada. You can count on me running in the next election.”
