An earnest Mr Justin Trudeau displays humble dispositions when asked by CBC's simpatica Ms. Heather Hiscox whether he plans or considers running as leader of the fragmented Liberal Party of Canada. Among his depositions he lists his riding groundwork and door-to-door exchanges, the ethnic community overtures and interactions, and expresses his filial relation to a former Liberal Parliamentarian of nineteen years and Prime Minister of Canada, recognizing the importance of hereditary links but voicing his own desire to go beyond the de facto to affirm a more independent political identity. His entourage was probably satisfied with the Riding outcome. Mr. Trudeau should neither dismiss history nor sidestep his genetic dowry, nor should he attempt the detour. Machiavelli humbly suggests in the first chapter of the Prince that hereditary princes are well-disposed and are more effective in managing and relating to their constituencies when their ancestral predecessors were admired. Not to blindly follow that cleverest of advisors, but perhaps Mr. Trudeau should voice his roots more auspiciously and audaciously by anchoring his own platform within an historical continuity. The large majority in all cross-sections of the Canadian population will appreciate the prowess and filial piety. Mr. Trudeau is the son of Pierre Elliott Trudeau and he possesses, by nature and some nurture, a degree of eloquence and savoir-faire that should make him a fine politician. Those that liked the Trudeau legend will most likely appreciate the son; those that didn't were probably not liberals-in that case it matters not! False modesty is a particularly bad tactic especially in the ensuing context of leadership reflections In Mr. Trudeau's case, it may fuel the smirk and finesse the smirch of petty skeptics and cynics who would doubt the credentials of the incumbent Mr. Justin Trudeau, and cry out "feign". Above all, false modesty is often viewed by Main Street as contained pretension and leaves a blundering stain when it spills over onto a classic Waterville-Maine Hathaway.
The column's Subject-designate ‘Trudeau’ is intentionally ambiguous. The invocation is a variant to Walt Whitman's classic 'O Captain! my Captain!' - well-known to most filmgoers as Mr. Robin Williams' lesson in life in the remarkable film Dead Poets Society. Walt Whitman wrote the poem as a commemoration of both great triumph and great loss- which duality ultimately defines the intrinsic duplicity of life. According to some the commemoration has roots in the end of the American Civil War and the ensuing assassination of Abraham Lincoln respectively. The poem, however, is moreso an intergenerational eulogy consecrating the creative force of responsible action and daring leadership traditions handed-down and embraced respectively from elders to youth, from parents to children, from a nation to a community and from peoples to other peoples.
Yet, what Whitman inspires, Machiavelli's Discourses cautions: It is not titles that ennoble men; it is men that ennoble the titles. In the latter Chapters of Book III of that classic read, Machiavelli recommends that leaders and captains, and there is no distinction between the two in Machiavelli, must possess exceptional qualities and skills. They must be both inspiring and trustworthy, and they must also be strategically and tactically competent-acquainted with their theatre-understand the contours and tradeoffs of the terrain. They must have the ability to organize and communicate effectively, the courage to listen attentively; the wisdom and prudence to respect and protect values that are not necessarily one’s own. They must, above all, know how to benefit from one’s own and other’s triumphs and failures, and better still, if great triumph and great failure.
Although the National leadership is certainly for the valiant, what worked at the riding level may not be immediately commutable to the national terrain. What worked for Mr.Trudeau at the Riding level was the Name. Ethnic communities are very loyal polities with intergenerational memories, prone to appropriating their mythic ascendants, even resurrecting political colors. History warrants some caution; especially Canadian electoral history.
However, it may be the appropriate time to assume a captaincy in wake of the Liberal dirge. Mr. Trudeau will certainly be more effective in the short term and better off in the long run.
The leadership of the current Liberal Party commands not only a national but also an international theatre and audience. The role of leadership must be representative; it must convey impassioned resolve, sound judgement and responsible action. Its theatre is not only defined by local historical constitutionally designated geographies, but often extends to foreign terrains where the regional and hemispheric interests and values of their audiences may be quite sensitive by what is said and done, or not said and not done, and where complex socio-political economies can be affected inadvertently in Canada by Canadians. The leader must master the polite and incorrect, mitigate the banal and the serious, weighing the measure of a people’s aspirations with their realities.
The leadership of the Liberal Party requires weather-worn individuals-analogous to what Polynesians called the ‘watermen’. According to tradition, it takes some time to become a ‘waterman’. This may not be Mr. Trudeau's moment to lead the Liberal Party of Canada. His time will come. The coming parliament's term for Mr. Trudeau is a welcome start.
The Liberal Party of Canada, notwithstanding its frailty, does have some very good ‘watermen’.
That's our forthcoming column.
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