While America pushes to dump Trump, Trudeau is doing the opposite by dragging the former U.S president into Canadian politics.
After being removed from ballots in Colorado and Maine, American Democrats are scrambling to get Trump removed from ballots nation-wide.
But Trudeau’s recent antics make it seem like he’s scheming to get his name on the ballot in Canada.
Trudeau’s motivations are clear. With his poll numbers tanking, his attacks on Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre have grown increasingly desperate. Trudeau hopes that convincing voters Poilievre is a Trump clone will sink the Conservatives’ chances.
The Liberals’ favorite new tactic is smearing the Conservatives as a “MAGA” movement importing Trumpism into Canada.
Trudeau’s ploy epitomizes the lengths he’ll go to manipulate public perception for political gain.
With Trump gearing up for another White House run, Trudeau is eager to exploit intensified anti-Trump sentiments to damage the Conservatives.
In a striking contrast, as Democrats in the United States fight to remove Donald Trump from election ballots across the country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants to import Trump’s politics into Canada.
This reveals the underlying strategy being deployed by Trudeau and the Liberals to vilify and associate their political opponents, the Conservatives, with Trump in order to boost their own electoral fortunes.
The effort to have Trump declared ineligible and removed from the ballot is well underway in America.
So far, the states of Colorado and Maine have succeeded in barring Trump from appearing on their ballots for the 2024 presidential election. And while Colorado recently appealed the Supreme Court’s decision, nothing is certain in the intense leadup to the 2024 U.S presidential elections.
There are also pending decisions in 15 other states regarding Trump’s eligibility.
While Democrats push to kick Trump off the ballot, Trudeau is angling to get him on the Canadian ballot. This seemingly bizarre move makes perfect sense when viewed as a calculated political strategy to damage the electoral chances of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
Trudeau’s motivations are easy to identify. As poll numbers for both Trudeau and his Liberal party began sinking last fall, their desperation to sully Poilievre’s reputation increased significantly.
For months, they have endeavored to draw parallels between Poilievre and Trump, hoping that since most Canadians would not vote for Trump, they will similarly reject Poilievre if they come to view the two politicians as cut from the same cloth.
However, anyone who has paid attention to Poilievre’s career knows he bears little resemblance to Trump in background, policies, or temperament.
But truth is not an obstacle for the Liberals in their mission to fuse Trump and Poilievre together in the minds of voters.
Their latest tactic is to constantly refer to the Conservatives as a “MAGA” movement, explicitly linking them to Trump’s infamous “Make America Great Again” slogan and the accompanying political ideology.
The term “MAGA” originated as Trump’s campaign catchphrase during his successful 2016 presidential run. It morphed from being printed on bright red baseball hats into a political manifesto, both for Trump followers and opponents.
Of course, there is no equivalent “MAGA” movement in Canada. But truth has not stopped the Liberals from pretending there is one, and that Poilievre and the Conservatives are behind it.
Since Trump first announced his presidential candidacy in December 2015, the Liberals have uttered the term “MAGA” 57 times in Parliament.
However, 55 of those mentions have transpired just since September 2022, after Parliament resumed following summer break. And a full 44 references occurred in the mere two weeks Parliament was in session in December before shutting down for Christmas.
Leading the way was Liberal House Leader Kevin Lamoureaux, who used the term 29 times in December.
Trailing closely behind was Trudeau himself, deploying the phrase 4 times, even more than the Liberals’ designated verbal attacker, MP Mark Gerretsen.
“The ideologically driven MAGA Conservatives are calling for pollution to be free again,” Trudeau declared on December 13th in response to Poilievre questioning the need for carbon taxes on farmers.
On another occasion, after being pressured by Poiliever on the topic of the carbon tax,, Trudeau made sure to push this agenda even harder, referring to the opposition as “MAGA Conservatives.”
What Trudeau fails to realize is that it’s not the Conservatives who are extremist, it’s him and his costly climate policies which are burdening Canadians with high costs of living and a never-before-seen affordability crisis.
This epitomizes the Liberal playbook lately: any criticism of Trudeau is met with accusations that the critic is a Trump-loving MAGA radical importing American-style extremism into Canadian politics.
The supreme irony is that it is Trudeau and the Liberals who are actually the masters of importing American political tactics into Canada.
Exhibit A is the Liberal national convention held last May, when Hillary Clinton was brought in as the keynote speaker.
American political operatives who have worked for Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Stacey Abrams and other high-profile Democrats have also featured prominently at past Liberal events.
Prominent Americans hired to advise the Liberals include David Axelrod, the strategist who got Barack Obama elected president, and notorious Democratic attack dog Howard Dean.
Trudeau and his team clearly believe importing American expertise is key to their electoral success, given they have won the last three federal elections.
But they constantly accuse Conservatives of being the ones bringing foreign political elements into Canada whenever it suits their purposes.
Yet in his most recent year-end interview with his close friend and former radio-host Terry DiMonte, Trudeau claims that it’s the Conservatives who are “importing” U.S politics.
Trudeau also has a track record of seizing on American political and social issues and controversies to push his agenda, even when the same dynamics are not at play in Canada.
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned abortion rights in the landmark Roe v. Wade case, Trudeau reacted with indignant horror, as if a Canadian court had just outlawed abortion nationwide.
He has responded to high-profile mass shootings in America by swiftly proposing tighter gun restrictions in Canada.
And he jumps to warn Canadians that any new healthcare policies or proposals represent the dire Americanization of Canadian medicare.
It almost feels like an obsession at this point.
With Donald Trump now officially in the running again for president in 2024, expect Trudeau’s disingenuous efforts to tie him to Poilievre and the Conservatives to reach new heights.
Trump will dominate headlines in both the U.S. and Canada for the next two years. This provides the ideal opening for Trudeau to hammer on about the fictional MAGA/Trump-loving nature of his Conservative opponents.
Trudeau wants Trump on the ballot in Canada because it allows him to deploy Trump – the ultimate political boogeyman for most Canadians – as his Trojan Horse to frighten voters away from considering the Conservatives as a viable alternative.
It epitomizes the extent he is willing to misconstrue and manipulate the political landscape for partisan gain, rather than engaging in substantive policy debate.
Canadians deserve honest, issues-focused leadership from the person holding the highest political office in the land.
But with this ongoing Trump ballot sideshow, Trudeau continues to demonstrate his priority is smearing opponents with manipulative American-style tactics, rather than serving Canadians’ best interests with integrity.
Voters should see through such cynical politicking and demand better.
Well, that’s all for now.
