Anti-Trudeau sentiment spans the generations

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/04/2023 (1239 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“A word expressing different feelings: love, affection, gratitude, kindness, pity, compassion, grief, the modern common salutation at meeting; parting.”

— Lorrin Andrews, “A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language”

I was walking my son back from chess the other night when I saw a truck, of course, with a set of window decals that made me laugh. My son asked what I was laughing at, so I pointed to the window and showed him the “F*CK TRUDEAU” decal right next to one that asked, “Got Aloha?” He looked at me like I was an alien until I explained the deeper meaning of aloha and then he saw the contradiction and managed a smirk while deciding I am definitely an alien.

A few moments later, he asked, “Why does everyone hate Trudeau?” I thought about it for a minute and then told him that not everyone does; in fact, most people don’t, but the people who really do hate him seem to be more likely to advertise their disdain and they are probably onside with the so-called Freedom Convoy folks who won the hearts of Canadians coast to coast last year. This is not to say that everyone who dislikes Trudeau is a member of the convoy, but if they have that decal on their truck, I’d bet I can guess where their sympathies lie.

After I dropped him off, I went home and, because my brain hates me, continued to think about it until I fell asleep. Yesterday morning, when my boys came for breakfast before school, I reminded the one of his question and said I hadn’t given him a terribly good answer and so, much to their chagrin, I did. I explained how Justin Trudeau had no real experience, was always travelling, and his government has been involved in countless ethics scandals. Though to be fair, ethics scandals are as much a part of Canadian democracy as voting. It was when I got to COVID-19 and the Emergency Measures Act that I realized a large part of anti-Trudeau sentiment, aside from standard factionalism, is multi-generational.

I was born in the midst of Trudeau-mania. My mom told me that she, along with many Canadian women, was somewhat enamoured of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and I suspect that had a hand in my naming. I’ve seen the news clips of the crowds that greeted him like he was a Beatle. When someone has that sort of adoration, there is always a Newtonian reaction in the opposite direction — that’s how Nickleback can simultaneously be one of the most popular and hated bands in history. The elder Trudeau was a polarizing figure in polarizing times, and his son is no different. In fact, some of the parallels are stark.

Both had a political celebrity largely unknown in Canada, both governed during a time of deep social change, both faced a unique crisis (the FLQ crisis and the Freedom Convoy protests, respectively) and both invoked the War (Emergency) Measures Act to contend with it. The first Trudeau’s invocation of the act is still hotly debated in classrooms and barrooms around the country and the second Trudeau’s action will be as well. And this brings me back to the multi-generational aspect.

I grew up hearing about the various things that Pierre Trudeau did even long after he was out of office and so did many of my generation because he was such a titan of Canadian politics. Many of those people grew up and had kids of their own, and when politics came up, Trudeau’s name was likely to be mentioned. And as grudges tend to outlive crushes more and more, his popular remembrance in the Canadian West is increasingly negative. I think a not insignificant amount of anti-Justin sentiment is a generational holdover of anti-Pierre sentiment. The fact the younger Trudeau lacks his father’s gravitas, spine and intellectual and rhetorical force doesn’t help his cause much, though.