I’m not so sure this is what Ted Lasso meant.
For those unfamiliar with the Apple TV series, it follows an eternally-optimistic football coach from the United States as he takes over the reins of an English soccer club. The likable titular character offers those in his sphere a never-ending supply of homespun wisdom, including one rather famous quote about being like a goldfish.
In an effort not to have his charges dwell on their mistakes, he tells them to act like a goldfish, which apparently has a memory of just 10 seconds. It’s an attempt to put all that bad stuff in the past and focus their attention on what’s to come.
I raise this Ted Lasso reference because it seems to have infiltrated our federal election campaign.
At the beginning of the year, which was barely three months ago I should add, the country was ready to kick Justin Trudeau and his Liberals to the curb, the governing party languishing well behind Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives in public opinion polls.
Today, with a new leader at the helm, the Liberals are out in front in those polls, which last week were predicting a once-unthinkable electoral outcome: a Liberal majority. Talk about short memories.
Now, I’m willing to admit that Mark Carney has had a solid first few weeks on the job, but does that mean we should forget about the past decade, a stretch in which Canadians saw a significant decline in our standard of living?
There’s absolutely no doubt that Carney is an extremely intelligent guy, evidenced by degrees from Harvard and Oxford as well as stints at the governor of both the Bank of Canada and Bank of England. He also showed some early political savvy by stealing crucial pages out of the Conservative playbook, proving it’s darn near impossible to have a carbon tax election when you don’t have a carbon tax – a consumer carbon tax, that is.
And at a time of great financial crisis, it wouldn’t hurt to have an economist steering the ship, particularly one who appears to carry himself well on the world stage.
It all seems good, except for that nagging bit about the last 10 years. Sure, Carney wasn’t an elected member of Trudeau’s government, but as an advisor, his fingerprints can be found on its various policies and the party he’s leading features many of the same faces of the past decade.
As a voter, am I to believe that all will be different now that Carney is in charge? I guess anything’s possible, but I found even his grand carbon tax gesture, where he effectively nullified it by setting the collection rate to $0.00, had far more to do with political expediency than any reversal of Liberal approach, given it’s still in effect in other sectors.
I recognize there’s a new leader, but I’m having a difficult time believing his party, the one that voters were so fed up with they couldn’t wait for an election, will be materially different moving forward.
I guess the bottom line is that I’m not cut out to be a goldfish. I’m not sure if that makes me a Conservative or a salmon.
Trudeau and his Liberal Gang broke us all!!!!!
Get your lazy a.. off your couch and VOTE!!
Conservative
👍
PP spent his time on three word slogans and personal attacks.
When JT quit, he had nothing. It is only in the last couple of weeks that the Liberals, Conservative and NDP are announcing policies copied from another party that polling finds to be a winner. They are all going to lower prices, build houses and build pipelines / resource projects.
Carney is the only one capable, IMHO, of getting it done. Trump has provided the motivation to get big projects and big ideas done. Carney has set hard deadlines already on approvals.
Looking back, some unexpected people got things done. Notley bought rail cars for Alberta crude that were very successful and continues to move a lot of oil. Notley/Trudeau got TMX built it' successful. The Progressive Conservative and the UCP don't have any wins like this.
Bad analogy. I guess you have no descendants, so don't care about climate change, or the fact that the Convoy Party of Canada doesn't accept science for gawd's sake, which Harper showed by actually muzzling scientists! Who does that?! Have you forgotten THAT?
You conservatives have become more like a cult. What distinguishes cults is closed minds, the perfect target for algorithms. I guess you didn't notice who all the big tech bros lined up with recently.....
Carney's a pro, Poilievre is bush league compared to him, but that's the Reform Cons in a nutshell isn't it?
There has been a recent publication on "Climate change" that shows quite clearly that the climate changes that we are seeing are part of mother nature and not influenced by mankind at all. Or in your case should I say "personkind". Scientist have been muzzled, but not in the way you are thinking. Carney is a pro at plagiarism. Look into the investigations on his Phd thesis. He is a "net zero" Klaus WEF Globalist and if people actually fall for this then they deserve what they are going to get.
Well said, Ted. I'm very disappointed that everyone's memory went blank since Carney arrived on the scene.
Ted,
Quoting homespun wisdom from a corny American sit-com is a poor substitute for political analysis. As BC pointed out, both the federal Liberals and the provincial NDP did get things done while Poilievre whined and complained and shared donuts and photo-ops with the rabble that occupied Ottawa. BC might have added that the Liberals did a pretty good job dealing with Trump the first time round, as well as Covid, as well as MAID.
Steve Wall
and Carney is part of all the holdings of Brookfield : buying coast to coast pipeline in US, recent purchase of largest modular home company in US (oh yes he says he will build these in Canada), big holdings in heat pump company (oh and seems his net zero pushes heat pumps), and he knows nothing as he is touting all these great things but of course he knows nothing. amazing what can be done when the holding company Brookfield sits in tax free haven. go ahead let us watch this clown bring us down
This has nothing to do with memory and has everything to do with stepping outside of our echo chambers, understanding current events and choosing to educate ourselves instead of just voting for x or y just because that's the way we've always done it. Circumstances change, parties change. Anyone who doesn't think a party is capable of change seems to forget that conservative used to mean fiscally responsible, and now it means radical right pandering to those who care only about themselves and their bottom line - look how well thats working for the states. It wasn't until the republican voters saw the impact on their 401k that they had any remorse in voting for fascism.
As usual, so well said JannB