From the Toronto Star no less:
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/02/19/liberal-leader-justin-trudeau-is-running-out-of-second-chances-goar.html#
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is running out of second chances: Goar
Canadians have shrugged off Justin Trudeau’s slips and stumbles for three years but they want a competent national leader now.
By: Carol Goar Star Columnist, Published on Thu Feb 19 2015
Eight months from today, Canadians will wake up to a new — or re-elected — government.
This would be a fine time for Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau to start demonstrating the maturity, self-discipline and competence to lead the nation.
His political record to date has been marred by misjudgments, ill-considered remarks and discarded promises. He has put forward few substantive policies to counteract these eyebrow-raising moves. His admirers are getting nervous; his detractors are rubbing their hands.
Trudeau is not a callow youth He is a 43-year-old father with seven years of parliamentary experience.
Nor is he a political naïf. He knows how to use his charm and good looks to attract followers. He understands that Canadians are hungry for hope. He speaks with passion about restoring a robust middle class, cleaning up Canada’s sorry environmental record, upholding human rights around the world and winning back global respect. He has brought the Liberal party back from the brink of extinction, filled its coffers and increased its membership fivefold in less than two years.
But he keeps triggering alarm bells. His eager embrace of Tory turncoat Eve Adams last week left grassroots Liberals shaking their heads in bewilderment and Conservative organizers chuckling. The Mississauga MP, known chiefly for her sharp elbows and her disregard for party rules, was a dubious prize. The Tories were relieved to get rid of her.
Apparently Trudeau and his aides thought they’d scored a brilliant coup: Dimitri Soudas, Adams’s fiancé, was executive director of the Conservative party until March of last year. He might be willing to spill Stephen Harper’s secrets.
If the prime minister is worried, he’s hiding it well. If political analysts are impressed, they’re holding their praise. At this point, no one discounts Trudeau’s chances of toppling a chilly, divisive Conservative prime minister. He represents both generational change and — as the son of Canada’s 15th prime minister — the values many Canadians cherish. But questions about his fitness to govern keep popping up. To review the record:
Four months into his leadership campaign, he was found to be charging hefty speaking fees to non-profit organizations. He hastily offered to give the money back to any group that asked. “I’m proud of the work I did as a professional public speaker. But I also realize that Canadians expect more from me and I am glad to use what I can, to do what I can, to deal with these organizations,” he said, shrugging off the ethical lapse.
In November 2013, the Liberal leader mused at a women’s event: “There is a level of admiration I actually have for China. Their basic dictatorship is actually allowing them to turn their economy around on a dime.” Asian Canadians, many of whom had fled repression in China, cringed and human rights activists urged him to apologize.
In January 2014 he expelled all 32 senators from the Liberal caucus, without warning or consultation. Even those who share Trudeau’s goal — to “end partisanship and patronage in the Senate” — were taken aback by the way he treated seasoned Liberals who had worked for the party in good times and bad. “There were some good organizers who won’t be active anymore but we’re getting in so many more that it’s not something I think about too much,” he told the Star’s Susan Delacourt nonchalantly.
A month later, he made light of Russia’s incursion into Ukraine. “Since Russia lost in (Olympic) hockey, they will be a bad mood and we fear Russian involvement in Ukraine.”
In April, he tossed aside his pledge to allow “open nominations for all Liberal candidates in every single riding in the next election,” blocking a bid by Christine Innes to seek the nomination in Trinity-Spadina. He claimed her workers were bullying volunteers. It subsequently emerged there was a favoured candidate. Now all would-be contenders need the approval of the party’s “green light committee” to run under the Liberal banner.
In May, he took away the long-standing right of Liberal MPs to vote according to their consciences on wrenching moral issues. Under his leadership, he declared, members of the Liberal caucus would be required to vote pro-choice on abortion, forcing several to choose between their personal/religious convictions and their political allegiance.
Then came the Eve Adams episode.
Initially Canadians were willing to give Trudeau a second — and a third and a seventh — chance. But now they’re starting to weigh their electoral choices. The Liberal leader needs a solid platform, a dependable moral compass and someone in his inner circle who can persuade him to pause and think.
Carol Goar’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.