Justin’s Rise to Power: Why Sex Appeal is Detracting From Canadian Politics

Does it even make sense to vote again this year? The Progressive Conservative party wins regardless. Maybe we’ll have a minority government? Typical, deficit isn’t even being mentioned…oh wait? Justin Trudeau wants to run a 10 billion dollar deficit in the first year?! Is he insane? That’s crazy. No way. Poll favour is going up for liberal? Maybe we’ll have a minority government…I guess we’re voting again next year. Election results are out…it’s the Pro-Liberals? That took an unexpected turn.

It certainly surprised me when the election results came out in a majority government win for the Liberal Party of Canada in the October election. The Progressive Conservative Party had been in power for nearly a decade before federally, and provincially in Alberta, more than 40 years. That is long before I was born, and it had become almost expected to see anything other than a Conservative government. Many Conservative party members had done little campaigning in Alberta, thinking their success in the Alberta ridings were guaranteed. And well…for the most part, they were. But when the election results came through with the Liberal party in power under the leadership of Justin Trudeau, and not only with a minority but with a majority government, things really were about to change.

And the media gobbled it up, not surprisingly. What was surprising was the photos I found, shirtless boxing pictures making the news headlines and “Canada’s Sexy Prime Minister” was being talked about world-wide. Some saw this a good thing, the new face of Canadian politics taking a step in the right direction of ‘youth’ and ‘change’. I personally was bothered by the portrayal, always seeing political figures as role models and people to look up to, not objectified or idolized.

Justin’s first couple of weeks in power has already been starkly different to Stephen Harper’s terms. After the defeat, there were petitions in Alberta to name the landfills after Stephen Harper although Alberta remained quite conservative in the polls. Also, Justin’s media portrayal is a lot more personal and I would argue too personal. Using his first name seems natural and normal but if a person spoke about Steve or Stephen’s policies, I would not understand who they were referring to.

Initially the pictures of Justin on social media were seen as positive, many people were eager and excited to see what would come of this man with big shoes to fill. Even my friends initially spoke positively of the media focus on his boxing rather than his policies and platform promises. However, not only does it increase the future voter apathy and turn politics into a popularity contest but it makes it more difficult for Trudeau to bridge the gap between public face and public policy.

Justin Trudeau has spoken to the media regarding charges he has filed for sexual harassment but it seems to have escalated beyond the point of dealing with the issue on a one by one basis. Which brings up the question of why those pictures were not removed upon running for Prime Minister and why do these measures seem necessary? Why is this the public response?

Recently when Trudeau has been attending international conferences, instead of the focus being on his policy and forward thinking, it is related to his hair and “screaming fans”  lining up for the perfect selfie-op. Never before have we seen this type of reaction towards diplomatic representatives, possibly with the exception of totalitarian regimes in which the leaders were literally gods. This portrayal of politics has made it a joke and only serves to increase the already high voter apathy which is the biggest drawback in liberal democracies.

We can only wait to see how Trudeau and the liberal party deal with fulfilling their campaign promises, but it’s about time we saw some real change on the international scale in dealing with the many international crises we’re currently facing. This is the wrong reaction to politics.

Because, after all, it’s 2015.

 

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