He surely would reject any such comparison but, in a recent interview, Justin Trudeau briefly sounded just a little bit like Richard Nixon.
"The problem is right now that there is a silent majority that is a little bit silent, and maybe wondering whether it's actually a minority. And you got a lot of good, thoughtful people saying, you know, 'I don't have anything personal against the leader, but everyone seems to hate him because I see all these flags and therefore, you know, he must be on his way out or he must be unpopular,'" Trudeau told Village Media.
While Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, didn't coin the phrase, he did popularize the notion of a "silent majority" in a televised address about the war in Vietnam in 1969. Those words conjured up an image of a mass of voters who could not be heard over the din of the protesters and activists clamouring for political and social change.
Maybe the silent majority think SNC-Lavalin was a bigger deal than the Liberal party did, eh, Justin? Perhaps doing fuck-all about that and twisting out of the affair wasn't the winning strategy you though it was, and people are getting sick of some corrupt bullshit like this happening in every Liberal administration.
In my experience there's never been any such thing as the "silent majority". It's just something desperately unpopular public figures cling to to convince themselves they (or their policies) are popular.
I've voted Liberal the last few elections, but the last one I was saying I wish Trudeau would step aside because he's too vulnerable and not drawing out any voters. I was only voting against the Conservatives.
I'm not looking forward to this election, because once again I don't want to vote for any of the candidates. This might be my first NDP vote in a long time, but the NDP needs to make changes too and I don't want to give them my support.
But at the end of the day I truly feel Polievre will be Canada's worst prime minister, he has all the characteristics I hate in a politician and none of the leadership skills I'd want, so I have to make a pick from two bad options.
ETA: the strategy of "well they hate me, but I think they'll hate the other guys more" is such an insult to Canadians. If you don't in earnest think Canadians want you to lead them, you should not be a party leader.
the strategy of "well they hate me, but I think they'll hate the other guys more" is such an insult to Canadians
That's the strategy Canadian politicians bank on. I don't think Harper was popular when he was elected - he just wasn't a Liberal. Same for Chretien - he wasn't a Tory.
Yeah. Best case scenario I've felt would be that Trudeau resigns, the liberals bring in someone more popular that will effectively block Pierre Poppinfresh and hold onto a minority government.
Keeping PP from power isn't quite as imperative as Trump down south, but it's close. He's more Ron DeSantis than Trump.
But Trudeau ultimately fell back on the idea that the next election will be a choice — and on the belief that Canadians haven't started to think about that choice yet.
Well the time to act is short, the Conservatives have been making the decision for many people - by brainwashing them with endless amounts of fossil-fuel funded ads.