Trudeau’s stunning victory makes international headlines

Canadian politics rarely make headlines internationally; federal elections are usually consigned to the news briefs section.

But the Liberals’ stunning victory Monday night with the charismatic son of a legendary prime minister at the helm over the three-term Conservatives under Stephen Harper proved irresistible.

The New York Times website billed it as top news.

“Justin Trudeau, who will be 44 on Christmas Day, will become Canada’s second-youngest prime minister and the first to follow a parent into office,” Canadian correspondent Ian Austen reported.

“While the Liberal Party had emerged on top in several polls over the past week, its lead was short of conclusive and Mr. Trudeau was an untested figure. There was no ambiguity, however, in Monday’s results.”

Associated Press correspondent Rob Gilles alluded to the charisma of Pierre Elliott Trudeau that helped sweep him to power in 1968.

“Trudeau channels the star power — if not quite the political heft — of his father,” he wrote. “Tall and trim, he is a former school teacher and member of Parliament since 2008.”

The regime change in Ottawa is potentially good news for the U.S. government, Gilles said.

“Trudeau’s victory could result in improved ties with the United States, at least for the remainder of Barack Obama’s presidency,” he wrote. “Harper was frustrated by Obama’s reluctance to approve the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Texas and clashed with the president on other issues, including the Iran nuclear deal. Although Trudeau supports the Keystone pipeline, he argues relations should not hinge on the project.”

Bad for U.S. conservatives

In a decidedly downbeat commentary posted on CNN’s website, Sean Kennedy called Trudeau’s victory bad news for U.S. conservatives.

“The Conservative Party’s loss is to the detriment of its neighbors to the south and the world at large, since the Tory leader, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was defeated by the unprepared, gaffe-prone but well-coiffed son of a former prime minister, Justin Trudeau,” Kennedy wrote.

The Harper government was successful but tired, he conceded, with voters fed up after years of scandals and unchecked power.

“Without Harper at the helm, the lessons of Canada’s miracle — surviving the financial crisis, balancing budgets, slashing red tape and taxes while maintaining a healthy welfare state — will be lost to history as Trudeau’s Liberals in a fit of pique roll back the gains the Great White North has made,” Kennedy said.

However, the International Business Times said the Liberal landslide was a stiff repudiation of the wedge politics retailed by Harper and hired gun Lynton Crosby.

Harper played up the niqab controversy, which may have sat well with his political base and eroded NDP support in Quebec, but backfired everywhere else.

“It is precisely this ugliness that Crosby utilizes for his divisive, and often successful, campaign style,” the Business Times observed. “But unfortunately for him, Harper and the Conservatives, many Canadians see things differently and it is Trudeau who came out on top.

“In the latter days of the campaign, there were even reports that Crosby had jumped ship when he saw Harper headed for a Liberal iceberg.”

The U.S. web site Politico also focused on the Keystone XL pipeline controversy and climate change.

“President Barack Obama will wake up Tuesday with a new Canadian leader who’s more interested in helping him reach a global climate change deal — but the long continental chill over the Keystone XL oil pipeline isn’t over yet,” Elana Schor wrote.

Trudeau won’t obsess about Keystone the way Harper did, Schor said, but climate-change activists shouldn’t count on the Liberals to move in lockstep with the Americans on carbon reduction.

“That’s because while the Canadian Liberals have vowed to be stronger on the environment than Harper has been, they also promise to give individual provinces greater power to decide on their own carbon-cutting strategies,” she wrote.

Not all sunshine and roses

Britain’s Guardian newspaper, which has been resolutely anti-Harper, also warned the change in government does not mean everything will be sunshine and roses under Trudeau.

“Those hoping for a U-turn in Canada’s climate change policy after Stephen Harper’s crushing defeat are in for a reality check,” Suzanne Goldenberg wrote. “Trudeau has repudiated Harper’s vision of Canada as an ‘energy superpower,’ promised to reverse devastating cuts to government science budgets, and fix the country’s reputation as a carbon bully in international climate negotiations.

“But it would be a mistake to see Trudeau or the Liberals as climate champions. In his victory speech on Monday, there was no mention of climate change, and he was criticized for being vague on the issue during campaigning.”

Le Monde, in reporting the election results to French readers, reached into history.

“At 43, the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau allows the Liberals to regain the power in Canada, the country they ruled for most of the 20th century,” the paper said in its dispatch.

The New Yorker delved even further into history, noting Trudeau had adopted Liberal prime minister Wilfrid Laurier’s mantra of “sunny ways,” to govern for more than a decade at the turn of the 20th century.

Trudeau’s sunny, upbeat politics may have drawn support, the magazine said, but the election was also about finding the party most likely to unseat Harper, pointing to a tweet by author Naomi Klein.

“Let’s get real: #elxn42 was way more about sober Harperphobia than giddy Trudeaumania,” she tweeted.

The headline in The Economist cut straight to the chase: “Justin Trudeau’s Liberals win big. Now comes the hard part.”

“It will take something more than a cheerful disposition to cope with Canada’s many problems,” the influential British publication said. “The end of the commodities boom, which had shielded Canada from the worst effects of the global financial crisis, revealed an economic malaise.”

The list of challenges includes lagging productivity, increasing consumer and mortgage debt, a lack of innovation by business and an overburdened infrastructure.

“Mr. Trudeau’s infrastructure spending plan is a start but it is far from being enough,” it said.

With no experience in cabinet, Trudeau will lean on others such as former Liberal finance minister Ralph Goodale and former leader Stéphane Dion, a veteran former minister.

“Mr. Trudeau has shown that he can revive a party and run a campaign,” The Economist said. “Running a country is much harder.”

The New Yorker also pointed to Trudeau’s long to-do list and warned that like Laurier, he will have to compromise.

“Sunny ways can win elections, but they don’t always lead to sunny days.”