That was some party the @POTUS threw our Prime Minister. It was hard not to notice the not-so-small matter of our PM being anointed new leader of the free world by the outgoing president. Or did you miss the passing of the torch in all the media talk about the “bromance” between the two?
Maybe it’s just a coincidence that hot on the heels of his red carpet affair in Washington, the first by a sitting Canadian Prime Minister in two decades, Trudeau found himself at the UN this week bucking for a seat for Canada on the Security Council. All of a sudden that commitment to up Canada’s commitment against ISIS in Syria and northern Iraq is coming a little clearer into focus.
Consider, if you will, the following as surefire signs, post-Washington, that the former drama teacher Trudeau may just be preparing for his new role as leader of the free world.
1. Who else if not JT? Yes, our PM would seem an unlikely protege to take over the weighty business of saving the planet from itself. But who else among the world’s dominant economies if not Trudeau? The UK is lost in navel-gazing over its place in the European Union. Arguably, the Brits lost all international credibility when Blair hitched his wagon to Bush in that moral crusade against Islam to find non-existent weapons of mass destruction. And Germany, bless its open arms policy on refugees, has never been that interested in setting the agenda for the rest of the planet. Maybe it has something to do with an inferiority complex from that Nazi business all those years ago. Indeed, the country finds itself consumed by a right-wing resurgence. Barring the election of Hillary Clinton to the White House, and even with the former Secretary as president (she has a lot of baggage), Trudeau is pretty much it when it comes to a progressive voice on international affairs. Yup, I said it. To his critics, that may sound like rainbows and unicorns (see Saudi arms wheeling and dealing), but Canada just may be the best place on the planet to live right now. In which case, there’s a lot for us to teach the rest of the world.
2. In some ways, Trudeau has been preparing for this role his whole life. Maybe ever since a U.S. president named Nixon predicted he would be prime minister one day. The press following Trudeau around on his Washington trip liked recounting that one. Trudeau is Canadian political royalty. Canada’s Kennedys, declared CBS’s 60 Minutes in an interview on the eve of Trudeau’s visit. Trudeau obliged by quoting the former U.S. president, during his Rose Garden presser with “Barack.” He has been groomed to make it his mission in life to change the world. There was that bedside chat with the old man before his death the details of which he doesn’t much talk about. Just society and all that. No doubt a few lessons were also imparted on how to punch above your weight on the world stage when you live next to an elephant. PET used our proximity to the U.S. to leverage Canada’s interests. Our closeness is often seen as a disadvantage. But the U.S. has much invested in their relationship with us, some $2 billion a day in trade to be precise. We’re its second largest trading partner. The younger Trudeau has already displayed some of the old mans flare and grasp of so-called “soft power.” Can he enlist the U.S.s power to help achieve Canadas goals? The talk around Arctic exploration and development between Trudeau and Obama, was particularly noteworthy, vis a vis Russian claims to the region. On the cauldron in the Middle East, Trudeau has already made his mark, making good on his campaign promise to halt aerial bombardment against ISIS, but committing more advisors to train Kurds. Critics have been quick to pounce on that one. But foreign policy is a contact sport. Trudeau knows he can’t cut and run from the effort against ISIS if he wants a seat at the table of international affairs. Besides, politically we can’t afford the civilian casualties bombing from on-high will doubtless bring if there’s to be any hope of rapprochement in the region.
3. Trudeau’s star power is undeniable. Our culture is obsessed with celebrity. So too increasingly is our politics. There’s a billionaire from New York defying the odds Stateside. And Vladimir Putin riding bareback and bare-chested like a rock star on the cover of Russia’s version of Rolling Stone. Trudeau understands the power of star power and social media. Indeed, in conservative circles the PM is predictably a construct of Facebook and Twitter. Former Reform Party founder Preston Manning’s take on Trudeau’s Washington trip in the Globe, for example, posits that Trudeau “epitomizes the ‘its all about me’ generation.” And that he was wined and dined by the U.S. president to cater to his “desire for personal attention and aggrandizement.” All of it, supposedly, to “ignore conceding anything of substance on Canada-U.S. issues.” Harper should have been so lucky to warrant that kind of attention from the U.S. I mean, if Presto is right, then it would seem that even the Americans have reason to fear Trudeau’s people skills. But don’t look now, there’s Michael Bloomberg joining the chorus to praise for Trudeau and his “youthful energy and optimism [which] have inspired comparisons to John F. Kennedy.” There’s that name again. Maybe it was Obama who wanted to bask a little in Trudeau’s glow. The PM has attracted the spotlight wherever hes travelled. And it’s been a far-reaching itinerary for a guy who was supposed to be a lightweight on matters of foreign policy. It started with the climate talks in Paris and G20 leaders gathering in Turkey shortly after his election, to the UN this week and, oh yes, a nuclear summit in Washington at the end of the month. It’s a whirlwind seemingly tailor-made for a leading role.
4. Treat it like boxing, stick and move, stick and move. U.S. media are notorious for ignoring visits from Canadian dignitaries. Not Trudeau’s. The New York Times and Washington Post, the papers of record on Capitol Hill, covered the trip extensively. During the aforementioned 60 Minutes one-on-one, Trudeau explained his approached to politics being similar to his approach to boxing, one of his fave pastimes that Rocky-loving Americans can identify with. A measure of a true boxer, he said, is not how hard you can hit your opponent, it’s about how hard a hit you can take and keep going. Boxing is also about not underestimating your opponent, which Trudeau has been. So before his Washington trip, the PM unleashed a bit of a jab, announcing his arrival with some PET-like cocksure advice for Americans that they pay a little more attention to the rest of the world, and maybe to their neighbour to the north as well. They are now.
5. Of pomp and circumstance. All the Washington festivities the military honour guard, the trip to Arlington cemetery, and Trudeau’s speech at the Center For American Progress were not just the product of the obvious kinship between our PM and the U.S. president. It was a formal introduction from the most powerful man on the planet to the rest of the world. In Washington, Canadian flags flew all up and down Washington mall to announce Trudeau’s arrival in a display not seen in the capitol ever, not even when Ken Taylor helped free American hostages from Iran. We’ll try to ignore John Kerry’s remarks about Trudeau’s favorability ratings south of the border matching that of Wayne Gretzky’s, cuz we all know Gretz’s politics are more in line with Harper’s. Yes, It’s true that there is not much time left in Obama’s mandate. And a Republican president in the White House come next January might change everything for the planet. Indeed, on the same night he was being feted by the White House, the Republican nominees for president were holding a debate in Miami ahead of this week’s Florida primary. Is it so hard to imagine Trudeau going toe-to-toe with any of them and not holding his own? Somewhere Stephen Harper is eating his heart out.
