Earlier in the year a friend and I covered Justin Trudeau’s campaign stop at St. Thomas. We were told he wasn’t taking questions from the media, but that didn’t deter me. I knew that if a 6-foot-tall, 330-pound man yells at you enough, you eventually have to acknowledge him.
The question I asked was what he thought of the Green Party’s pledge to eliminate tuition by 2020. He turned to me, while signing autographs and taking selfies, and replied, “I think you need to be in government to get something happen.”
By the time this commentary is published we will have almost hit the one month mark since the election that swept the Liberals, and their leader Justin Trudeau, to power. They now have the chance to get something happen.
But if you were to read the comment sections on various news sites you would have thought he had already got something done.
I often read that this is a new age for Canada, where we can hold our head high on the international stage.
“Oldbutwise” commented on a CBC story, “Here we go folks. Canada is about to regain it’s status on the world stage. PM Trudeau will make us proud to be a Canadian.”
“SolidState,” a random commenter on a CBC story, commented, “Being PM after Harper is like coming on the ice after the Leafs have played—there’s no way you can do worse.”
“SKM957” commented, “Canada can again stand proud on the world stage, it has been a long time coming.”
However, that doesn’t really change the fact that so far, he hasn’t done much of anything.
Now this isn’t his fault. Little can be done until parliament is back in session, something that won’t happen until December. Even then it is unlikely anything will be passed, legislation is likely to just be introduced.
Without any actual policy being implemented we are left with mostly ceremonial signs of Trudeau’s influence.
The first being the gender parity of his cabinet, the reason for this appears to be the fact it’s 2015. No one can really argue with this, but this is symbolic. Surprisingly having the same amount of women as men in cabinet hasn’t improved access to abortion, or addressed the wage gap.
The Department of Indian Affairs is now the Department of Indigenous Affairs. Again, a great and potentially meaningful gesture, but one that hasn’t addressed the poverty felt in many first nations communities.
The Minister of Environment has Climate Change added to her title. This may point to an increased focus on climate change, but without legislation is ultimately worthless.
The Queen’s portrait has been removed from the Lester B. Pearson Building, the foreign affairs HQ, but as the events of last Friday has shown Trudeau will have more important things to deal with.
I’m not saying Trudeau is a bad leader, or that he couldn’t grow to become a great, or even the greatest Prime Minister. But shouldn’t we wait until he actually does something.
