In my last post I pontificated whether or not Justin Trudeau's "playoff beard" would have a superstitious effect on the Habs' chances of bringing home a Cup, and/or the Liberals' chances of winning a majority.
I guess that question is moot now, 'cuz we got ourselves a clean-shaven man!
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As of this writing, the Habs are scheduled to play game 2 against the Bolts tonight; they're down 0-1 in a seven-game series against a really tough team (but then, so were the Jets, and the Knights, so who knows?) UPDATE: Down 0-2 despite an improvement in gameplay tonight 😢 (No, it's not because of the missing beard; the Bolts are just nasty, and have a lot of Russians).
The Liberals, meanwhile, are looking pretty spiffy in the polls lately, so much so that former CBC number cruncher (now at his own blog, The Writ), Eric Grenier, has begun wondering if elections should have a "mercy rule."
Hockey or no hockey, I don't think success can be reduced entirely to a factor of one man's chin scruff. Which is why heads turned this afternoon when a newly fresh-faced Justin made a couple of public appearances today — an address to the Generation Equality women's rights forum, and an affordable-housing funding announcement in the hot summer sun — and he looked... oh, so very twenty fifteen
And by that I mean he looks about twenty or even fifteen. (OK, thirty at most.)
But I'm also referring to the year he first got elected, with a crushing majority.
The "tough scruff" came about after the brutal 2019 election that saw the Liberals shrink their caucus to minority government, after a barrage of personal attacks — followed by the pandemic year from hell that had already seen the world-weary PM weathering a number of other crises, like the Wet'suwet'en railway protests and the shooting down of Ukraine International flight 752 with 63 Canadians on board, as "collateral damage" amid a dick-measuring contest between Donald Trump and the ayatollah of Iran.
But 2020 is mercifully over; 2021 is more than half that. Nevertheless, there's been no shortage of crises Trudeau has had to contend with in addition to the pandemic — a wave of sexual misconduct allegations roiling the armed forces (and the opposition weaponizing victims' suffering in bad faith to make political hay); an opposition-led witch hunt aimed at himself, his colleagues and his family that had the effect of destroying a children's charity organisation for ultimately no gain; another opposition-led witch hunt over a "Wu Flu" conspiracy theory that threatens to ignite a constitutional crisis; the horrifying vehicular homicide attack on a Muslim family in Ontario; and especially the "discovery" (or confirmation) of countless graves of Indigenous children on the grounds of residential schools kiddie koncentration kamps, and painful cries for accountability.
Not to mention, baby it's hot outside. Which can only mean climate change remains the ever-present existential threat that will need to be dealt with, once this pandemic (and there will be more) is over and done with. (It also means Mother Nature must really want Justin to take his shirt off. But I digress.)
All the more reason for Dearest Justin and his team — which sadly, isn't fully intact from 2015 for various reasons, and has just now lost one more core member, Catherine McKenna, who courageously fought for precedent-setting climate action in spite of relentless vitriol and abuse — to look ahead to the future, even while taking into account lessons from the past and ever-present.
Especially while they're looking at polls like this, this, and this.
I will miss the hockey mullet, though I'm ambivalent about the Santa Claus/Big Trubowski beard. But just because he's gone back to the doe-eyed Prince Eric look (no Aladdin, ever again, obviously) doesn't mean the Beast won't be unleashed on the campaign trail. Probably sooner rather than later.
Just... not like this.
And I'm still rooting for the Habs, as I'm sure a now sans scruff Justin is too. Whatever the outcome of the sporting season, though, things are looking real good for our man in Ottawa (yes, even in Quebec).
Bring on the yuuuuge majority. Let's get ready to Fuddle Duddle. And pour one out for Trude the Dude.
