SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife Liberals are rejoicing at their party's choice to elect Justin Trudeau as the person who will lead them into the federal election in 2015.
Justin Trudeau won the Liberal leadership race in a landslide Sunday with 80 per cent of the vote against four other candidates- photo courtesy Wikipedia/Commons |
"We've been in a very difficult position as the Liberal Party of Canada with the recent defeat in the last election, and even before that we've had a real crisis of identity and crisis of leadership," said Kieron Testart, president of the Western Arctic Liberal Association.
"Justin has a way of engaging individuals in politics. I don't mean political speech or policy procedure, I mean what politics is: it's about action, it's about service, it's about volunteerism and making a difference in your community."
Christina Dawn Monroe, who represents the Western Arctic in the Liberal Women's Commission, said she is excited about her party's new leader because of his willingness to listen to what people want and change his plans because of it.
"I want a leader who will listen to people. Justin has shown time and time again that he is willing to change his mind based on facts," she said. "If there's one thing that pisses me off about the Conservatives more than anything is they come up here and announce things, but don't necessarily do anything, but no one asks anyone what we want."
Both Dawn Monroe and Testart volunteered on Trudeau's leadership campaign. Both cited his on-the-ground leadership style and desire for the leadership role as reasons why they joined his camp early on. As campaign volunteers, their duties included signing up new party members and supporters, and phoning potential voters to remind them to cast a ballot.
This leadership election was unique in the history of Canada because Trudeau was selected by the majority of 127,000 Canadians who were eligible to cast ballots, where historically party leaders are chosen during a closed, national convention for card-carrying members of the party - and previous Liberal leadership selections were capped at 5,000 ballots, according to a statement posted on the Liberal website by deputy leader Ralph Goodale.
In the NWT, 126 of the 176 registered voters cast ballots for the leadership race - a 73-per-cent turnout. Of these, 71 per cent voted for Trudeau.
Countrywide, Trudeau won in a landslide Sunday with 80 per cent of the vote against four other candidates.
Both Testart and Dawn Monroe said public interest in the leadership campaign was high, which they attributed to the fact non-card-carrying Liberals were encouraged to sign up as supporters and were eligible to vote.
Also, they said, Canadians are fed up with politicians' behaviour in Ottawa and want to see reasoned discussion return to federal politics.
"People have lost their trust in the government," said Testart. "The House of Commons is an ugly place full of petty politics. It's full of bullies, really, and it's unacceptable to me as a regular citizen that we expect our children to go to school and have a bully-free environment and yet the governing party of Canada can release an attack ad the day after opponents choose a new leader."
Testart was referring to an advertisement released by the Conservative Party on Monday, which shows, among other things, Trudeau doing a G-rated striptease at a charity event in 2012.
"I'm not saying you shouldn't be able to criticize your opponents ... but it has nothing to do with anything he has proposed as policy," he said.
Dawn Monroe has a different view of the attack ad, but agrees it was a poor choice by the ruling party.
"I was laughing at the whole putting an attack ad of Justin Trudeau stripping for charity, because that attack ad is really eye candy - you're just hitting the wrong market," she said.
Joe Handley, the Western Arctic candidate who ran for the Liberals in the 2011 election, did not return phone calls by press time.
