Hair of Politics

The world is busy mocking the US electoral situation right now because of The Donald and his never ending sideshow but there is plenty of ridiculous that goes on north of the border too.  We don't start campaigning a year and a half ahead of the actual event, mind, but when we do it gets fairly bizarre at times.

The Conservatives have aired an ad that attacks Trudeau's abilities on many fronts, questioning his ability to balance budgets, fight wars, etc.  It finishes off with "Nice hair though" as a backhanded compliment.

The ad is hilarious in a lot of ways, largely because the charges levelled against him are so absurd.  I mean, the guy is an example of dynastic politics who is only there because of his father's achievements... could we not explain why that is a real issue?  Instead the Conservatives want us to believe that he doesn't have the experience to balance the budget, which is hilarious since they took Canada from a big surplus when they took office to a series of large deficits.  We don't know how Trudeau and the Liberals would handle the finances of the country but we know for sure that the Conservatives are a disaster.  Surely it is better to take the unknown rather than the known when the known is terrible?

They also include a strawman arguing that marijuana legalization isn't important, as though leaders should never talk about anything they are going to do except the singular most important thing there is.  Even if you aren't big on pot being legal the argument that a person isn't fit to lead because they want to make small changes that they feel are good ones is nuts.

However, reducing the campaign to "Well, he is cute and all, but no good at leadership" is basically shutting down any useful discussion entirely.  They are essentially arguing that a young leader can't be a good leader and that old people are better at it.  This falls in line with the Conservative values being much more accepted by older Canadians but bothers me intensely because it ignores actual debate on the specific issues and focuses purely on the cosmetic elements of the leaders themselves.

The Conservative strategy is clearly to make themselves seem like the devil we know.  We know that fire doesn't rain from the sky when they are in charge, but who knows what will happen with a good looking firebrand like Trudeau at the helm?  Pestilence maybe?  You never know, with that hair!