Wednesday, December 18, 2002
Awaiting the arrival of Justin Trudeau - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER – Yesterday morning, in The Globe and Mail, Roy MacGregor, one of the nation's finest scribes, filed a column. The first line read: "This morning, Justin Trudeau will begin showing up at the front door of some half-million Canadians." And sure enough, in my mailbox was my issue of Maclean's. And yes, Justin Trudeau was on the cover. The son of the former prime minister was the subject of a cover profile by Jonathan Gatehouse. The headline: He has changed his mind. Now it's not a question of ‘if' he'll go into politics, but ‘when.'
Big deal right? Well, the psyche of this fragile nation makes it so. Justin Trudeau, who turns 31 on Christmas Day, is the eldest son of Pierre Trudeau and Margaret Sinclair. When his brother died in 1998, he was the family's spokesman in the media. When his father died, he delivered that dramatic and moving eulogy for his father. The nation watched, moved, transfixed. Whispers that a political star was in the making, began.
Everyone likes to see a star in the making. Everyone was intrigued as Justin Trudeau seemed to have the pizzaz and style that impressed one and all. Sure, the speech was well delivered, if not well performed, then again with parents like Maggie and Pierre, some showmanship must have rubbed off.
The profile of Justin Trudeau is curious. Gatehouse says that the "pressure is mounting for him to go into politics." Just who, it doesn't say. Gatehouse quotes Gerry Butts, a fellow board member of the youth volunteer program, Katimavik. Butts says that Trudeau has the charisma and political upbringing that is useful in getting funding for the program. He also says that Trudeau since his father's death has been getting into the public eye more. He's been seen partying at the Junos, in the media promoting avalanche awareness (his brother Michel, died in an avalanche), and like his late father, has been seen driving up and down Montreal's Ste-Catherine Street in his father's famous Mercedes convertible. Butts, an aide to Ontario Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty, says were Trudeau ever to go into politics, there would be a lot of people who would "want to help him out."
The Gatehouse piece is a fair piece. Gatehouse examines some of the positions on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Quebec separatism and ethnic nationalism. He elicits Trudeau's core beliefs, however they're ideals that are summed up in 25 words or less. Stephen Clarkson, who with Christina McCall, wrote the definitive biography on Pierre Trudeau, Trudeau and Our Times, says, after looking over some of Justin Trudeau's quotes: "It sounds quite derivative, the kind of generalisations you can get away with as long as you're not pressed too much. It just sounds very glib."
The piece is really one akin to something you'd see in People. A sort of gushing fluff piece looking at the kid of an enigma, who's turning out to be an enigma himself. We're over the hurdle that he'll get into politics. The question is therefore when. The piece doesn't answer that, though it reveals that Trudeau makes a point of bringing up his sexuality, less than five minutes into their interview. There have been some rumours in Frank magazine that he is in fact gay, the same sort of allegations that were levelled on his father when he first hit politics in the late 1960s. Justin Trudeau, mockingly says to Gatehouse, "As a straight, white male..." then pauses, a look of mock horror on his face, says, "Oops, I guess I just blew it," guffawing.
I do not suspect that we'll see Justin Trudeau join the political fray just yet. Mind you, his father didn't accomplish much until he was in his early ‘50s. Justin Trudeau is getting a lot of attention. The caution to heed is that though he's gotten a ton of attention, he hasn't come out with real policy positions. Until he does, it's mostly style rather than substance from Pierre Trudeau's eldest son.
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In the same said issue of Maclean's is the final column writ by one Allan Fotheringham. I wrote about this last week, that Maclean's has finally dumped Foth. In his opening letter, Editor-in-Chief, Anthony Wilson-Smith says that this is in fact the final column writ by Dr. Foth, though he hopes "he will contribute occasional essays in future." Wilson-Smith writes that they're not making a big deal about his departure, because, poaching the line Fotheringham has been using in the press, that rumours of his death "are greatly exaggerated." And so Wilson-Smith calls on former editor Peter C. Newman to contribute his own piece in tribute to Fotheringham, and then the man's final piece itself.
For his final piece after over 1,200 columns and 27 years at the publication, Fotheringham writes some predictions for 2003. To wit: he believes Julia Roberts will divorce, Jack Layton will become the new leader of the "Few Democrats," and that Michael Jackson will do something stupid, whilst Sheila Copps will say something stupid, something that appears on the list twice.
Notable prediction is that numbered 13: "As a scribbler, this scribbler hopes the National Pest will survive in the four-newspaper Toronto Newspaper Wars. Any scribbler who gets fired continually because of his obscene views wants as many potential employers as possible." The implied plea here is that he hopes Izzy Asper will give him a job at the National Post, since the Globe and Maclean's have all dumped him in this past year. Funny, he's willing to work for a paper that he's slagged in his columns when employed by The Globe, Maclean's and the Toronto Sun.
The 15th prediction he made: "The Toronto Argonauts will not win the Grey Cup and the Toronto Maple Leafs will not win the Stanley Cup. The 16th and final line of his column: "Good night, Mrs. Calabash." Foth's flown from the stately Maclean's, using the old line Jimmy Durante used to use. Sorry to see you go, Dr. Foth. Really.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .