Justin Trudeau

[Hyena Dandy]

I'm trying to figure out the appeal of Justin Trudeau. So far I haven't really got an answer for why he's the best guy to lead the Liberal Party.

So, uh... Can someone help me with this?

All the positive things I hear about him are things like 'energy' and 'vibrancy' and 'charisma' which aren't really Prime Ministerial qualifications to me.

I figure Canadians are here, so I ask you, Canadians. Why Justin? What am I missing?

[lordlundar]

Wish I had an answer for you but much like you I've heard the same things and am just as confused. The only thing I could come up with is that it's a legacy thing like the Bush's in America. The problem with that is that such a concept would ensure the Liberal party would not get a vote west of Ontario as his dear old dad essentially screwed over the West to benefit Ontario.

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

I agree with Lundar. It's a name legacy thing. The name "Trudeau" still carries a lot of weight in Canadian politics.

The Liberals are obviously sore from the pounding they got in the last election so I would guess they are turning to Trudeau for some star power.

Pierre Trudea was known as quite the orator, the Liberals might be banking his son has the same quality as well.

[Gravekeeper]

Its the weight of the name, yes. The Liberals need some semblance of actual life and are a party desperately in need of charisma. Pariliment as a whole is pretty devoid of charisma since Layton died. Some Canadians would be thrilled just to have a party leader around that doesn't wear a sweater vest to the beach.

[Jetfire]

Justin has 2 things going for him... The Name is by far the biggest factor; I suspect the Reds are hoping that will get the old guys on board.

The second thing, is he comes across as young. Which will count against him in many ways (inexperienced) but they're also hoping he'll come across as a "Changing of the Guard", a way to show that the 70's/80's generation is coming into force politically and is ready to take charge now. Combined with the talk of using Obama-style encouragement to get voters out, they're hoping he can tap into the younger generations more.

Of course, the fact that the Trudeau name is mud west of Ontario is a factor, but they probably hope for the youth factor to overcome that.

Marc Garneau IMO is another attempt to tap into the younger/current generation; by appealing to some "Look! Space!" feelings.

My gut feeling, is short of Harper really screwing up in the next couple years (still a possibility granted), the Liberals are looking for someone that can get them a Minority government (led by the Tories or the Libs or even the NDP); so they aren't necessarily looking for a true leader; just someone that they feel can help get them enough seats to bring us back to the minority territory, and get them back in the game.

[Pixilated]

Largely, yeah, it's the name, the youth, the "charisma" and so on. He does have some experience, although not a lot, and so far he seems to be having a grand old time putting his foot in his mouth (witness his apparent flipflop on the Long Gun Registry). However, the Liberals are in desperate straits -- if they get another butt-kicking in the next election they will fade into the Ghosts of Politics Past. Mind you, the PCs came roaring back from a similar butt-kicking so I'm not sure why the Liberals are still wobbling around in search of ideas and direction.

[lordlundar]

Largely it seems that after they lost the House, the only "ideas and direction" the Liberals had was to get the House back and all that accomplished was them losing even more. It got to the point where the Conservatives got majority to what seems to be an effort to stop the Liberals from demanding a new election every 6 months.

They need new ideas and direction because people realize the old ones were more about being in power and less about running the country. I doubt Trudeau will accomplish this, but as you said they're desperate.

[Jetfire]

To be fair, the Conservatives mainly got the power by rejoining with Reform, uniting that end of the spectrum.

Curiously, I've read some things that say the Green party may be pulling some Blue support away, which may help balance things out. When we only have 1 party on one end and 2 parties on the other end, vote splitting really screws us up.

I'm not sure if Trudeau has the charisma to pull the Reds back into relevance, but he is enough to keep them in the news at least. Without Layton to surge the Oranges, we'll probably see a more even Red-Orange split next election; but it's still way too early to say if the Blues will keep control or not.

[Hyena Dandy]

Layton was kind of big, yeah. And I think all the media coverage of the leadership race can only be a boon for the Liberal party.