I have nothing but respect for PM Chretien. I believe he was a great PM and I worked for his government back in the 90s. However his assertion that PM Trudeau should be consulting with the old Liberal guard is flat wrong.
The old Liberal guard had no answer for Stephen Harper. They barely beat him in 2004 and then went on to lose three elections after that, including being reduced to the third party in Parliament in 2011. Yes, for 2004 and 2006 they had to deal with the Sponsorship Scandal but it was also the old guard that got the Liberals into that mess in the first place.
If the old guard would have still been in charge in 2015 it is highly likely that Stephen Harper would have hung on to government for at least a couple more years if not longer.
I have stated many times in this blog that Justin Trudeau does not receive enough credit for renewing and reviving the Liberal Party of Canada in the three short years he was leader of it, before the 2015 election. He did so by ruthlessly tossing the old guard into the dust bin of history, to the hatred of some of them to this day. The results speak for themselves. Yes the Harper government in 2015 was long in the tooth and Canadians wanted a change but Canadians still have to like the alternatives presented to them before they will make that change. Justin Trudeau represented that change and he did it by bringing the Liberal Party into the 21st Century and by bringing in new blood and new ideas.
The time of the old Liberal guard is long past. So far past that some of them have become Conservatives. Remember I used to work for them and even I can see this reality. Consulting with them would be a step backwards.
1 comment:
He needs to go back to the golf course instead of undermining this government to publicize his book. All that came about from this past weekend's interviews was fodder for cons. Including one particularly embittered exiled member of the "old guard," who's been reduced to writing anti-Trudeau hate screeds for the Sun and manufacturing fake scandals by playing Svengali to disgruntled cabmins. He's also getting flack for his comments on rez schools which is only going to add more fuel to the fire over the Indigenous file that the media vultures and bad-faith opposition are already using and abusing to weaponize in bad faith against this government. The irrelevant "old guard" never forgave Trudeau for cutting off their gravy train, and it seems quite obvious they want him out. They need to get a life and get a real job.
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