Trudeau town hall magic begins to fade

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This article was published 24/05/2023 (922 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Among hardcore Liberals in this country, there is an unshakeable faith that no matter what happens in the national political debate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will overcome with his charm and gift for gab.

Put another way, Trudeau excels when he is speaking, debating or stumping. And for the most part, that has been true through the 10 years he has led the federal Liberals and the eight years he has been prime minister.

But there is an inherent flaw in believing that a politician can withstand all of the macro organic forces of politics itself, and that they will always triumph no matter what life or opposition parties throw at you. Trudeau’s most-recent public appearance in Winnipeg on Wednesday night is an excellent case in point.

After doing public appearances at The Forks (to confirm Winnipeg will host the newly created Canada Water Agency) and at Grit byelection candidate Ben Carr’s River Heights campaign office, Trudeau convened one of his beloved town halls at the University of Winnipeg’s Duckworth Centre.

Over the years, these town halls have become Trudeau’s hallmark events. They are unscripted with hardly any effort to control who attends. Anyone in Winnipeg on Wednesday night could have walked up and got a wristband to gain entry.

Trudeau speaks for a few minutes before getting into the main event: identifying random people from the audience who can ask him anything.

In a day and age of totalitarian media management, it’s a remarkable bit of access to the country’s first minister.

Now, it should be said that these town halls do have the feel of a Liberal campaign event. The fairest way to describe the audience is mostly Liberal with a healthy representation of respectful skeptics.

Unfazed by any questions, Trudeau is articulate and even a bit funny in his responses. He clearly loves doing them because, in the end, he often gets some love from the audience.

All that having been said, this particular edition of the town hall was different. (I have covered four in Winnipeg since 2015.)

First, the crowd lacked any real enthusiasm. The greeting Trudeau received was warm but not very enthusiastic. He got very little applause for his answers, particularly in the first 10 minutes or so when he appeared to be visibly exhausted and muddled.

Several times in his opening comments he engaged in very long pauses where you could tell he had lost his train of thought. Other times, he seemed to forget the question altogether.

One woman asked Trudeau how he would demonstrate leadership in tackling the mental health and addictions crisis in Canada. Trudeau started talking about mental health, then paused, and then started talking about boil water advisories on First Nations. He quickly recovered and delivered a couple of powerful lines about the need for harm reduction and the lack of attention being paid by provincial governments: “Being an addict shouldn’t be a death sentence.”

The town hall is more about political performance art than policy making. But this kind of event, where he gets to engage with citizens and wax poetic about his vision for a better Canada, has always been one of his strong suits. On this particular night, Trudeau was showing some of the political mileage he’s accumulated over the past eight years.

Even though he’s lost a little bit of that town hall magic, it’s unlikely anyone within the Liberal party will try to convince him to step down before the next federal election, which Grit insiders do not believe will come until sometime in 2024.

An Angus Reid Poll this week found 80 per cent of identified Liberal supporters approve of Trudeau’s performance, with 25 per cent saying they “strongly approve.” Even 53 per cent of New Democrats approve of Trudeau.

When you look across all party lines, however, the picture is much less flattering: 55 per cent disapprove of Trudeau’s performance with 40 per cent “strongly” disapproving. Solid support after eight years, but also very strong negatives.

It should be noted that later in the town hall meeting, Trudeau’s performance improved significantly when he was asked questions that allowed him to identify deep contrasts between his Liberal government and the Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

For example, Trudeau was asked by a Two Spirit transgender woman what he would do for people like her. Trudeau fairly recognized the rise in hate directed at LGBTTQ+ Canadians, referencing a book ban campaign that attacked the Brandon school board.

Suddenly, Trudeau was on the attack. He suggested more needed to be done to respond to the dangerous, hateful rhetoric being used more and more in Canadian political discourse.

“I would love to tell you that no Canadian government would ever let that happen, but I can’t,” Trudeau said in solemn voice. “I can tell you my government will never let that happen.”

And that describes the most powerful card a long-serving political leader has to play in a bid to win just one more election: I may be bad, but I’m not as bad as the other guy.

dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com