Politics Turn Nasty In Canada

Bloomberg: Politics Turn Nasty in Canada as Trudeau and Rivals Get Personal

For polite Canada, the latest federal election campaign is turning out to be pretty nasty.

Even before bombshell pictures of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in blackface makeup surfaced on Wednesday, his Liberals and their main opposition Conservatives had foregone the usual niceties in favor of tactics more common to the hyper-partisan mud slinging contests south of the border in the U.S.

To some, it’s been a cynical race to the bottom where leaders have focused on inflicting maximum damage on their rivals rather than propping themselves up -- a slippery slope that could fuel the sort of political polarization that Canada has largely avoided until now.

“We’re going down a bad road here and after this campaign we’re probably going to see a lot of postmortems about how did we get here,” said Rick Anderson, a long-time political strategist in Ottawa.

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WNU Editor: I have been visiting and living in Canada for almost 30 years. Truth be told, elections here have always been nasty. But what has really rocked this election is that Prime Minister Trudeau has been caught doing what he has been accusing his opponents of doing on racial issues. To say that most people were surprised when Prime Minister Trudeau's "Black Face" pictures first showed up is an understatement. They are not going to forget this story. And what has also not helped Prime Minister Trudeau has been his response, from giving a flat apology on the night that the story broke, to then blaming his behaviour on growing up in a "place of privilege". I gritted my teeth on that one. I am fortunate enough to know a lot of people who are "privileged" and/or grew up in a "place of privilege", and not one of them would ever behave like this. But for some reason Prime Minister Trudeau believes that this approach is going to work, and that when Canadians go to the polls in exactly one month, this issue will be forgotten. I disagree. This is something that you cannot recover from,  and I am now seeing it among my friends (who are mostly Liberals) who clearly feel uncomfortable to support someone like him.

As for the tracking polls, they are starting to reflect this change in sentiment, with the Conservatives now at a 5% lead over Trudeau's Liberals .... Canada's Trudeau loses a little ground in first polls since blackface scandal (National Post). I should note that for the past few years Conservatives polling numbers have always been lower than election results by about 5 %, so this Conservative 5% lead is probably much higher.

As for my election prediction. The election is still a month away and a lot can happen between now and then. But bottom line Prime Minister Trudeau is not going to win a majority government , and there is a very real chance that the opposition Conservatives will win enough seats to become the next government. There are going to be three leadership debates in the coming weeks. and it is from these debates that I sense many voters will make their decision on who to vote for. As to who will I vote for? In past elections I have voted for candidates from both parties. (In the last election I voted for Prime Minister Harper). But in this election I have trouble seeing myself voting for the Conservative Party, and I certainly will not vote for Trudeau's Liberals. Bottom line .... I am not happy with my choices, but when I decide I will tell everyone on who I will vote for.

Update #1: Andrew Coyne's assessment and analysis is correct .... Is Justin Trudeau a racist? No. He is a sanctimonious fraud (Andrew Coyne, Canada.com).

Update #2: It is going to get worse .... Battered Trudeau gets brief reprieve amid Canada blackface scandal (Reuters).