Echoes of Chrétien in Trudeau’s handling of O’Toole

This may not be the kind of political manoeuvering that rallies the nation to lofty goals. But it is a quality that binds together historically successful prime ministers like Justin Trudeau and Jean Chrétien.

As it turned out, Justin Trudeau, right, may have thought the time was right to get a majority while the getting was good. But with Erin O’Toole looking like a possible election winner in the first weeks of the campaign, Trudeau drove a wedge into the Conservative Party centrist strategy by attacking its platform pledge to repeal the Liberal ban on military-style assault weapons—a loser among suburban voters, writes Ken Polk. The Hill Times photographs by Sam Garcia

Opinion

BY KEN POLK

October 4, 2021

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has taken an almost lifeless Liberal Party back to the government and has been re-elected twice. Notwithstanding a political record that is unblemished by failure, there remains a tendency among his opponents and many pundits to treat Trudeau like a celebrity l...

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