Opinion
Trudeau and the ‘hope and change’ syndrome
By Gerry Nicholls Oct. 3, 2016
At the end of the day, it’s not the 'goodness' or 'badness' of politicians that matters. What matters is the circumstances they happen to face.
Our intellectual, media, and cultural elites didn’t like prime minister Stephen Harper. For Canadian elites, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, unlike the bad Harper, is a leader who positively oozes niceness and sweetness. Yet, so far it hasn’t exactly worked out that way, writes Gerry Nicholls.
The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright
OAKVILLE, ONT.—Otto von Bismarck, the great 19th century German chancellor, once declared that “politics ruins the character.” This is akin to another much more famous saying which states “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” So yeah, if old sayings are anything to go by, we should expect our elected leaders to have a hard time living up to altruistic principles since it seems government power is to altruistic principles what silver bullets are to werewolves. But in this modern “sunny
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