Trudeau needs to look beyond Québec and the Senate

Despite calls to put away negative divisive politics and walk a high road, Justin Trudeau got caught marking his territory down in the nether regions lower than the Trans Canada Highway, when he was quoted by the main stream media La Presse of Montréal as saying "We have 24 senators from Québec and there are just six from Alberta and six from British Columbia. That is to our advantage. To want to abolish it, that is demagogy. It has to be improved." There is no way at all one can spin this as promoting unity amongst our citizens across the Dominion, instead of progressively reforming the Senate in a constructively positive manner, while still retaining the original vision of John A. in having a "second house of sober thought", Trudeau is using the political veil of the Red Chamber to create and eventually hold a factional advantage via regional disparity and this has only worked for short term gain, with much long term pain. Optimistically looking forward into the future, Justin forgot to look behind him at where the Government of Canada has gone wrong with federalism in the past, setting himself up at best for mistakes that will make it harder to govern later, at worse for precedents that allow those without to build and campaign their case to leave us within. Those who see the kind of microtargeting and macrocampaigning politics Stephen Harper and the federal Tories use and protest vehemently, yet after speaking of taking the high road, using hope and hard work, the son of Canada becomes a servant of Québec, by attacking the West as they accused him of in their audacious attack ad that now looks less like fiction and more the reality.

Personally, I do not care who is the Prime Minister of Canada, Harper, Martin, Chrétien, Mulroney or Trudeau, you either support Canada as a Dominion, or you do not and separate from it, so quotes from just over a year ago like "I always say, if at a certain point, I believe that Canada was really the Canada of Stephen Harper maybe I would think about wanting to make Quebec a country." cannot be accepted.

For someone wanting to lead this great country, our faithful Dominion needs a great leader who recognizes our federal similarities as much as our regional differences, can reconcile these and give everyone a fair deal, not a free meal. As much as I disagree with Harper and the way his governing has been since his Primeministership, Trudeau should not be putting the interest of only one province, that being Québec, ahead of every other equal province in the Confederation along with its member territories. If he does not want to abolish the badly damaged Upper House requiring constitutional maintenance work and membership repairing, then perhaps he and the Red Grits could start now to reform and change the Senate, if not equal, at least more efficient, effective and elected. Finally, though the road to a rebuilt federal Grit machine leads through La Belle Province, Justin and company need to tread carefully down the fleurs de lys laden garden path, especially when the road to federal Grit renewal makes one mindful of stepping on the tenuous trilliums on the parkway to Ontario.