it’s Justin’s World And We’re All Just Living In It.

It’s good to be Justin Trudeau these days. Untouched by his record, he acts like a guy who hit a single yet somehow wound up on third base. 

Despite soiling himself on virtually every front since winning the the prime ministership in 2015, the man famous for AladdinGate, Bollywood Bash  and taxing family businesses has a healthy lead over the CPC in recent polling. Indeed, he is so sure of his ability to A) win a majority in re-election and B) snuff out the NDP that he insouciantly teased the media with the prospect of a vote this fall.

To prove his electability, this last week his Liberal party won two Toronto-area by-elections (granted, that’s shooting fish in a barrel). Having purged his caucus of anything resembling contrary voices with the disappearance of Bill Morneau and Jody Wilson Raybould he has total control of the party’s policy and its mind. Challenging Trudeau will get you a one-way trip to the Gatineau Gulag. 

Further, the NDP has decided to commit a very public seppuku under the scattershot leadership of Jagmeet Singh while the new Green leader Anamie Paul failed to win a seat in York Centre. Leaving Trudeau’s entire left flank protected. 

Meanwhile, as U.S. president Donald Trump is fricasseed for the handling of COVID-19 by governors like Andrew Cuomo, premiers such as Doug Ford and Jason Kenny take the major share of blame for Trudeau’s own slothful leadership. So yes, salad days for The Beard. Not that it matters since he bought off the media.

One wonders what could finally make the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal corridor sour on him? (My friends here in the West wonder this aloud about 50 times a day.) So, Justin,  you said structural racism was bad, knowing you had blackface in your photo file. You promoted indigenous rights then punted the first indigenous minister to vex you. You violated ethics rules on free holidays, sexual inappropriateness and doing business with WE while they employed your family— and then shrugged it off by having your MPs stonewall Parliament

We could go on, but you know the file.  So why does Trudeau’s urban base still love him and his party so? Three factors. Two on policy, the other emotional.

The policy that forever endears Trudeau and his party to the Family Compact is the claim that they saved Canada from Quebec separatism in the 60s. Forget that Quebec separatism (and its half brother sovereignty association) has its roots in the 30-year struggle waged by Skippy’s father Pierre against those he said wanted to tear apart the country. 

The moment PET held his ground against the projectile throwing during the riotous 1968 Jean Baptiste parade cemented his role as champion of anglo Canada’s Boomer demographic. The man who’d first seemed like a fey Scarlet Pimpernel showed federalists that they had a fighter. PET followed that up with his menacing “Just watch me” aside during the 1970 FLQ crisis, intimating he’d go to the mattresses against the people who’d captured James Cross and Pierre Laporte.

When PET led the opposition “No” side to a win in the 1980 referendum it was,  to many in the 514/ 613/ 416,  the final bauble in his crown as saviour of the nation. Since then there’s never been a more devoted Liberal cohort than Anglo Montrealers—still in hostage mentality vis a vis their francophone “masters” who suppress their language and culture in hope of an independent Quebec.

The hundreds of thousands of former Montrealers who fled up the 401 to Toronto brought their Liberal infatuation with them, nurturing Trudeau/ Liberal love like some David Koresh sect.  West of the Lakehead? Meh. Let them eat canola. 

Second, the Liberals— despite the efforts of Stephen Harper and Jason Kenny— continue to be synonymous with immigration in the Toronto/ Montreal corridor. While the Conservatives seemed to be making inroads a decade ago, Justin has flipped the script, flooding urban areas with new Canadians. 

More than half the people living in the GTA were not born in Canada. Using his Jan Martel model of Canada-as-hotel, Trudeau has pitched diversity like Vince Shioi pitches the ®Sham-Wow. While the loyalty of newcomers is not as fanatical as that of the displaced Quebec Anglos and bilingualism cultists, it remains formidable to opponents.

Finally, the Eastern elites revere the Liberal/ Trudeau brand because PET was the one who finally made the world take notice of Canada. To anyone who lived in Canada during the 1950s and early 60s, Canada was the world’s valet. Calm, dignified, grey— and instantly forgotten once it left the room. Outside of Paul Anka or Wayne and Shuster on the Ed Sullivan Show, Canada was a cultural rice pudding. 

No one noticed— or cared to notice. As comedian Kathleen Madigan notes, Canada was America’s attic. “You go, ‘Gee, look at all this space up here. I didn’t know that existed’. But nobody wants to live in an attic.”

That changed with Trudeau’s incandescent arrival on the scene. The political Leonard Cohen, he captured the attention of Canadians craving a little sex appeal. He declared the state had no place in the bedrooms of Candiac, Cremona, Kamloops or anywhere else in Canada. By dating Barbra Streisand, courting Fidel Castro, showing up the Queen and marrying a woman 20 years younger, he captured the ‘60s zeitgeist. 

Startled foreigners took notice of the élan, the brio of the man with the carnation. He was a celebrity for the celebrity age— even when his bride ran off to join the Rolling Stones. Canadians— still tied to blue laws and no beer in TV beer commercials— no longer had to cough into their hands when asked their nationality. They were sexy, damnit it.

From these humble yearnings TIFF Nation was born, a place besotted with celebrity and status. Film festivals and NBA success were the new touchstone, not small business and loyalty to the Crown. Shawn Mendes and Drake turned Toronto The Good Into Toronto The Better Than You.

Contemplating a world run by plodding Westerners in their boots and Stetsons is a death sentence to their virtue. (Don’t laugh, a Toronto Star columnist just proclaimed Alberta a special circle of hell… because their restaurants aren’t shuttered.) 

Finally, the same people who forgive everything Trudeau does are the same ones whose eyeballs roll back in their heads saying, “How can anyone support Trump after what he’s done?”  So yeah, it’s Justin’s world and we’re all just living in it.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author of Cap In Hand is also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his next book Personal Account with Tony Comper will be available on BruceDowbigginBooks.ca this fall.