Other Politics

"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose voters" – Donald Trump, at a 2016 campaign rally in Iowa.

He was probably right.

Trump is one of a kind. He’s a politician who exists outside the box of political convention, a leader who frustrates the best efforts of pundits to predict what he may do or what havoc he may wreak in the year ahead.

One would think that among the easiest policy changes to sell in the United States is a tax reduction. This should be particularly true for a tax cut directed to the middle class, where the majority of voters are found. Whatever one thinks of Donald Trump's presidency, one must acknowledge that he has a remarkable gift for marketing and sloganeering. Whether apocryphal or not, the phrases "Make America Great Again," "Drain the Swamp" and "America First" have resonated with a significant slice of the U.S. electorate.

There are times when a poor befuddled layman wonders whether the left hand knows what the right hand is doing (or vice versa) in government and big business.

With two years still to go, the battle lines are already forming for the federal election scheduled for Oct. 21, 2019.

The battle will be led by three men who are the youngest collection of major party leaders in Canadian history. It comes as a bit of a shock to realize that Justin Trudeau, who was the bright young hope of the Liberals when they chose him in 2013 – and who was derided by the Conservatives as being too young to be prime minister – is now the oldest of the three leaders. He’s 45.

In the world of politics, the internet can be a force for good of for ill – the jury is still out on that. What can be said with some certainty is that the web can lead you to unexpected places.