Alexa Dakin – Houghton STAR

An echo of the “Trudeaumania” that swept Canadian culture in the late 1960s has reignited in Canadian hearts from the Northwest Territories to New Brunswick following the recent election of Pierre E. Trudeau’s eldest son, Justin. It’s been almost ten years since the Liberal Party has held the office in Canada – in fact, the 2011 federal election had the worst outcome the Liberals, under the pugnacious Michael Ignatieff, had ever seen: the Conservatives won a majority government, the NDP took second slot and became the Official Opposition Party, and the Liberals won a fractional 11% of parliamentary seats.

So how did the Liberal Party of Canada haul its beaten frame from the mire of the 2011 federal election to take power only four years later in 2015?

Lex Dakin RGB There are a few factors that deserve to be accounted for: Stephen Harper’s sinking popularity, correlated to a rising federal spending deficit, pushed back against the Conservatives’ overwhelming 2011 victory, and the 2011 death of the enigmatic NDP Leader Jack Layton did irreparable damage to the NDP’s surging strength. But the Liberal Party owes a good measure of credit to the young, fresh face of leadership it found in Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau has been noticed for a variety of reasons since his official election to party leadership in 2013. Newspapers, magazines, and online articles all but sexually objectify the young right honourable, who happens to be Canada’s second-youngest elected PM at forty-four years old. He also has an impressive range of academic experience and qualifications, holding a BA in English Literature and a BEd, as well as some studies in engineering and Environmental Geography.

He’s taught high school students, written a book, and acted in a documentary miniseries. He’s a feminist who wants to legalise marijuana for recreational use and has promised Canada massive electoral reform. But beneath the swirl of gossip, media speculation, and campaign platform promises, who is Justin Trudeau?

I’m not much of a Liberal Party proponent, myself. I tend to favour the New Democratic Party, or NDP, and will always hold a fond space in my heart for Jack Layton. But some of the changes Trudeau has already implemented into the federal government are remarkable.

For the first time in Canadian history, the Cabinet is equally represented by one half female and one half male members, many of whom have an extensive academic and career history in their designated roles. For example, the current Minister of National Defence, Harjit Sajjan, served as a police officer in Vancouver and also served in the Canadian Armed Forces. Born in India and a practicing Sikh, Sajjan is not a person I can imagine Donald Trump appointing to any federal role, despite Sajjan’s professional experience and decorated military career.

These changes may seem infinitesimal, but fair representation for both women and men, from a variety of career, faith, and ethnic backgrounds, is a bold step in the direction of a federal government that understands and represents a nation’s people with fairness and accuracy. Trudeau is still new – his career as Prime Minister is only a few months old – but I, for one, am proud to be Canadian in a promising era of respect for the rights that every Canadian, and every person, deserves.

The future of North American politics looks a little less dim with Justin Trudeau in the Prime Ministerial seat, even as Donald Trump waltzes alarmingly closer to the American presidency. Maybe the future POTUS, whoever he or she might be, will recognize in some of Trudeau’s policies the foundations of a government worth our respect.

Two Views: Pope Francis and Capitalism

A fear of all things red prevalent in our Western cultural mindset only continues to expound itself in our cultural practices, even as memories of the Cold War fade from the minds of our youngest generations. Popular entertainment pits our favourite Hollywood heroes and videogame characters against stock Russian supervillains. Historical figures from Marx himself to revolutionary Che Guevara are labelled and discarded by religious, educational, and state institutions. Even the most recent twitter trend #SochiProblems can be traced back to massive generalizations about countries that are politically unlike us in favour of an educated knowledge of their governmental systems and Christ-like interest in the wellbeing of their citizens.

This inherent bias lashes out against anything our ‘red detectors’ might suspect, including (what should be considered) apolitical statements by Pope Francis about the inequalities present in many Western economic systems. In an apostolic exhortation entitled Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel,” for those of us who don’t speak Latin), Pope Francis outlines in five chapters what he believes the evangelical goals of the Catholic Church ought to be.

While my quick scan with the search bar dragged up the word ‘capitalism’ zero times in Evangelii Gaudium, it is evident that parts of the second chapter of the apostolic exhortation released in November of 2013 point directly at some of the glaring inequalities of free market systems. The Pope denounces “trickle down theories” that leave the poor sidelined, and claims that “a rejection of ethics and a rejection of God” are the primary causes of growing economic inequalities. The “new idolatry of money” finds us scrambling to consume and leaving those who can’t keep up behind us.

Read: Communism? “pure Marxism,” to quote Rush Limbaugh? Pope Francis is clearly not an economic theorist (nor does he claim to be), and the Evangelii Gaudium is not a political statement. It’s boldly Christian.

“I exhort you to generous solidarity and to the return of economics and finance to an ethical approach which favours human beings.” Let’s be honest. We live in a culture of overwhelming affluence and comfort. We also live in a culture in which we find homeless beggars on the street to be commonplace, and we are willing to literally kill each other over good sales (American Black Friday death tolls since 2006 amount to seven deaths and up to ninety injuries). Is it possible that our anti-Communist cultural bias has become an excuse to avoid charitable practices?

Those who denounce Pope Francis as a Communist or as simply too liberal for the Holy See are missing the point. Pope Francis’ statements centre on a Christian theological core: the desire for Catholics (and for all Christians, at that) to express love and concern for our neighbours. There’s nothing political, let alone Communist, about sharing wealth with the needy. This financial practice is one that was endorsed both by Jesus himself (Matthew 19:16-30) and practiced by the early believers (Acts 4:32-35).

Questions about the influence of liberation theology on the Argentinian pope have been raised, but especially for those of us outside of the realm of Catholicism it is difficult to judge the theological beliefs of another. Fair concerns about Pope Francis’ writings being viewed as sweepingly general (and primarily negative) towards wealthy people have also been voiced. It may well be that not all of us will agree with all of the Pope’s exhortations. Yet, as Christians, I think the message at the heart of Evangelii Gaudium’s second chapter is one that deserves our interest.