The Hill Times op-ed by Ken Polk: Echoes of Chrétien in Trudeau’s handling of O’Toole
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 lightweight—not much more than the wealthy son of a famous father with a penchant for lofty rhetoric and selfies but little in the way of substance or achievement.
After his latest victory, however, anyone still harbouring doubts as to his political acumen need only look only at his strategic deconstruction of Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole. Trudeau succeeded in this not simply through sheer force of campaign effort and negative advertising.
Trudeau deliberately set the groundwork for O’Toole’s defeat by denying him the one thing that the Conservative leader needed most: time.
After being selected leader on a very conservative platform, O’Toole had embarked on an ambitious plan to shore up glaring weaknesses in his party’s message and political appeal. Surveying the Conservative Party losses to the Trudeau Liberals in 2015 and 2019, O’Toole concluded that the party needed to have a more centrist platform that could attract voters beyond the party’s conservative base, especially in vote-rich suburban ridings in Ontario, where the Liberals have established something of a monopoly in recent years.