Trudeau: No Churchill But On The Way To Becoming One.

Before Liberals start broadly grinning, first a reality check. We all know that this Prime Minister is by no shape of the imagination comparable with Churchill, The Great. Churchill was at his finest when he was in the political wilderness warning Chamberlain and others of the calamity to come. He saw the Nazis rising -- and ultimately proved how Chamberlain was going rapidly down the road to hell -- albeit with good intentions. You can't fault Chamberlain for striving for peace but you can for failing to properly size up his adversary and more importantly, delaying the rearming of the UK as proactively as possible. But I digress.

Now back to our PM: during my ten years of Liberal incarnation -- because I could no longer take Harper's leadership -- I supported Garneau for leadership primarily because those around me who happened to be gifted political strategists all told me the same thing: Trudeau n'est pas prêt.

When Garneau unfortunately fizzled in the race, I turned my attention to electing a Liberal government with not so subtle reservations about the new leader. I chose to give Trudeau the benefit of the doubt thinking that in one aspect, he was another Harper: he would grow in the big job just as Harper did once he came to power. Before that, Harper was a pretty lousy Alliance and CPC leader but he blossomed in power and more than handily developed the capacity to do the job, not just adequately but with real competence and a strong hand on the ship of state. Of course, I remained gone and gladly so, not being able to stomach so much of his political agenda. But again, I digress.

Trouble is that Justin Trudeau never grew in the job, not having even a remote capacity to do so. So like Martin Sheen, he simply played a chief executive on TV.  His acting skills were not altogether unremarkable so he bluffed his way pretty well past a multitude of crisis that would have politically sunk anyone else not fortunate enough to hold the Trudeau brand. And so it went, until COVID-19.

That's when the emperor was finally found to be wearing no clothes. It became a contest to discover who was more incompetent on this file: himself, his PMO or ministers. It was pretty much a draw. In short, when karma finally dealt him the job of dealing with rubber that had hit the road, he was found sorely lacking, to put it kindly.

And as a result, the real possibility of a Liberal rout is suddenly credible once more. Some of us saw it coming in 2006 yes, even with Harper as leader. So, here we are again. O'Toole may be the right man at the right time, just as Attlee was. People are tired, disillusioned, pissed off, mournful and most of all, prepared psychologically for political change. That's why I say the next election is already O'Toole's to lose. 

Ironically, that potentially puts this Prime Minister in Churchill's shoes. The latter won them a war and they still tossed him to the curb. This guy has proven himself to be well below the bare capacity level required to do his job. Like Sheen, he's quite content to play a leader on TV. The only question is, are all of you still willing to let him continue?