It's Go-Time!
There are only hours left until we learn — officially — who will be the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. The winner’s first duty tonight isn’t to go to the Prime Minister’s Office and ask Justin Trudeau for his keys and the crown. It is, rather, to ask Trudeau to cross the Rideau Hall lawn to request that Governor General Mary Simon dissolve Parliament and call an election right here, right now, for April 14th.
Trudeau has said that he will not try to stay on as a “caretaker”. He has, for the past decade, served his country far more selflessly than Canadians acknowledge.
Canada, however, will need him to perform one more act of service before he goes. It is not for Trudeau to try to stay, it is for us to ask him to.
When the leadership race ends later today, it will not be time for a lengthy and drawn-out transition of the executive branch of government amidst a languishing and dysfunctional 44th Parliament. It will instead be time to present Canadians with a mirror and ask them to answer the existential questions about ourselves and our role in the world that we currently face.
This is not the time for the country to be headless, mired in an election during which no functional government is in place. Nor is it the time for a new leader to try an executive transition forcibly relying exclusively on the existing team three and a half years into their third mandate.
Asking Trudeau to stay on as Prime Minister for a few more weeks will also be an exercise in, and demonstration of, humility and commitment to public service in the new leader. It will show that they are there for the right reasons, the best interests of the country, and for the long haul. It would prove that the title of Prime Minister, however fleeting, is not in itself their primary motivator in seeking that office.
Trump consistently recognises in others what he has within himself. A weak and petty man, he will smell the inevitable weakness of Canada in an election and try to exploit it. If this past week’s American behaviour has not been wild enough, you can imagine Trump’s actions in the face of a Canada that does not have a properly established government in place in the midst of a contentious election in which the fundamental question is whether to fight with, or acquiesce to, his whims.
Trudeau and his administration staying on for the duration of an immediate writ would not be a simple act of caretaking, it would be playing the role of a rearguard defence on the borders of our democracy while we resolve our own domestic differences, and define our place in a rapidly changing world.
The current leader of the government’s role will not be to campaign for the Liberals, nor to get politically involved in the election. The job of Trudeau as Canada’s rearguard defender will be to wield the power of the government to monitor and react to both overt and covert interference in our election, defend against and respond to wild foreign policy shifts and actions especially from the United States, and protect the integrity of the very democracy that is forcing him to retire against his will.
Many people who have long criticised Trudeau have told me that his speech reacting to Trump’s unprovoked attack on Canada this week was the best speech they ever remember him giving.
This is the raw Trudeau that we have who is at his best in difficult moments, and it is the one that we will need fighting without any remaining political self-interest, until his successor has all their ducks in a row with a new mandate from Canadians.
