To the editor:
I’m at the age where I’m sure the fresh-faced person I’m dealing with is far too young to know what they’re doing. Have you gone to a medical appointment, and found yourself thinking “This teenager surely can’t be the new doctor?” Then you find out they are, and not only that, from their behaviour you soon realize they appear to know what they’re doing.
I wonder if this misperception of youth is part of the reason people of a certain age choose to believe Justin Trudeau’s “just not ready?” Could it be our generation are the ones who aren’t ready for the new wave of young people about to take over as we retire?
I feel he’s ready in so many ways I find the ‘not ready’ argument to be very weak. For example, he’s already fought three hard-won battles. Many people think due to his last name and nice hair he was just handed the two wins of his riding in Quebec as well as the subsequent Liberal leadership. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Once he began traversing the country as leader, he listened to the public, and to develop his polices he sought the help of advisors. His plan to run a moderate deficit to stimulate the economy by improving infrastructure has been lauded by independent economists.
He must be doing something right to have attracted the high calibre of candidates who are running for what was a third place party. As well, there are currently over 50,000 volunteers working on the campaign, and the membership rose ten-fold once he became the leader of the party.
So, is he really some lightweight dufus, as the opposing parties want us to believe? Or is the NDP promise to deliver a multitude of programs without a deficit harder to swallow?
Perhaps more air-headed is how the Conservatives have run a deficit every year for the past eight, and only now have a barely balanced budget that we’re in an election year. And this thanks to measures such as selling GM shares and making cuts to programs for Veterans. It’s like saying “Hey I balanced the household budget, but I had to sell the roof in order to do so.”
Too bad Harper decided to focus on the “not ready” argument, because it doesn’t hold water. It’s time for change in Canada, and I want youthful energy, not more of the same old that clearly isn’t working.
Moni Schiller, Kelowna
