At 45, the fresh-faced and good-looking prime minister of Canada looks like a new leaf in a jaded western best-seller where the likes of Donald Trump and miscellaneous neo-nazis tried to claim their pound of flesh in a fierce and militant assertion. That Trump won the mandate despite a less vote share than Hillary Clinton, on a xenophobic, white supremacist, racist and anti-immigrant plank in a struggling and jobless political economy with millions of the working class, especially white working class voting for him, has not really helped him overcome the daily odds which keep surfacing as a ritualistic obstacle race, especially the diabolical Russian card.
That the other neo-Nazis in Europe and Tory Prime Minister Theresa May got a drubbing at the hands of ‘socialist’ Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party in a sudden and botched-up poll in the UK, has only sparked a debate that the neoliberal conservative paradigm has once again marked a decisive shift in support of liberals, centrists and left-of centre political organisations. In this twilight zone, which is shifting rapidly, therefore, Justin Trudeau emerges not only as a young and youthful beacon of hope, but also a refreshing departure from the old, fossilized brigade which drums up the same drums at times of crisis.
He is often dubbed as a populist liberal hiding behind a cloak of conservatism and the same-old clichéd free market tricks, but there is no doubt that he has endeared himself to a huge, open-ended and open-minded, nondogmatic support base in Canada and other parts of the world, especially the West. In that sense, he stands apart as a refreshing revelation, like Macron in France and Angela Merkel in Germany.
A student of literature and education at McGill University and the University of British Columbia, and a young, promising teacher, who took up social causes as a youth leader in the Liberal Party, often following up in the footsteps of his father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, Justin Trudeau took a tough stand in the midst of the clampdown by Trump on visas for
certain Islamic countries, which was later shot down by several courts in the US. He said, subject to certain minimum conditions, they are welcome in Canada.
Indeed, he is no Merkel who accepted one million refugees from war-torn and ravaged Syria and other parts of the middle-east in her country, but his open call in support of immigrants and refugees yet again stamped him as a politician who is willing to stand up to his mighty neighbour and military partner, when it actually comes to the crunch. Indeed, he himself visited the airport to welcome refugees, doing the usually famous photo-ops, holding little Muslim children in his arms, with his beatific smile, even while the mother of the child beams away in sheer gratitude and happiness.
Surely, again and again, he has broken protocol and entered the streets, with crowds or demonstrators, to take up a liberal cause, even unconventional causes, a prime minister of the masses. As was the historic occasion when he visited the indigenous people and shared quality moments with them, using his socks as a metaphor.
His multiracial, multi-faith, multicultural pluralism has endeared him as a “true liberal”, in the eyes of his admirers. Writes a commentator in The Washington Post: Correcting for such nationalist indulgences, the liberalism of Trudeau that remains is largely limited to an affinity for mass-scale Third World immigration. The multiracial, multi-faith diversity of modern Canada does seem to genuinely delight him, and his reflex to defend those who “look, or speak, or pray differently than we do” — as he put it to the UN — appears visceral and real…. Some may find this inspiring enough, and in a world where the immigration debate cripples many with indecision and anxiety, any head of state offering unqualified support for one side will be understandably alluring.”
His critics though are of the opinion that he is not really the man he pretends to be; that his position on climate change is shady, that he approves mega fossil fuels, that he really has done nothing on the ground for the indigenous people trapped in reservations; that he has cut down on health care. In other words, that he is usually charming the world and his own people like Barack Obama has done with such remarkable success with usually no concrete results to show, without marking any sharp or radical transformation or realignment of issues which have been simmering for years under various regimes, including on international free trade, among other things.
“You know Justin Trudeau from the Buzzfeed photo-spread or the BBC viral video: the feminist prime minister of Canada who hugs refugees, pandas, and his yoga-mat. He looks like he canoed straight from the lake to the stage of the nearest TED Talk – an inclusive, natureloving do-gooder who must assuredly be loved by his people,” writes a cynical critic in The Guardian.
Come what may, between his lovers and admirers, he has come to stay. For those who derive inspiration from Canada which has welcomed and embraced thousands of people from all across the world – including Indians, especially the hardworking and robust Sikhs from Punjab – he will remain a man who respects and accepts multiple cultures, religions and the essence of secular pluralism, even while pitching for women’s lib and other progressive causes. In that sense, large parts of Canada and its pulsating cities, represent a truly cosmopolitan ecology of social relations, where Sikhs as a community, or the Chinese, can celebrate their language, culture, cuisine, even politics, without any inhibition. Indeed, in the last Punjab assembly elections, many Sikhs and Punjabis landed in India to campaign for the Aam Aadmi Party.
Truly, in a globalized world, Trudeau is no leftist or socialist. Nor is he a radical prophet or messiah. But what is significant is that he speaks a different language, which defies hate politics and xenophobia and which celebrates the multiple layers of multiple civilisational currents.
In this context, if Trudeau seems to have become a young rock star, then, he surely deserves both the photo-ops, as much as the viral social media adulation he draws from across the world, especially among the young, the educated and the women. Indeed, as of now, he is riding on a jolly good wave. And there seems no political indication that the wave is going to subside. It might, on the contrary, become more tidal in the moonlight which shines on him these days.