When somebody bowls a perfect game, you have to admire it. In politics a perfect game is a rare event. You have to remember that in politics there are people out there who are lurking to ridicule, there are professional scoffers and there are the people paid to deride any and all suggestions from the opposition parties. And then you are treated worse by our news media.

All these people will attempt to ridicule, scoff, and laugh off Liberal suggestions but this time they will fail. They will have to fall back on commenting that the Liberal leader’s hair was not properly coifed. They might even accuse him of lisping.

But there is no denying that the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Edmonton this past weekend was a high stakes event. New Democrat Thomas Mulcair, Liberal Justin Trudeau and Conservative Joe Oliver all brought their ‘A’ game.

Trudeau won. He bowled the perfect game. It offered practical solutions, ones that could live through changes of government, with independent finance structuring and private sector support. He wrapped the package in just the right balance of rhetoric and promised that there is more to come that assured him they would be listening. And the ideas were understandable to the folks at home.

Tom Mulcair’s penny of gas tax from the New Democrats paled in comparison. It was a hollow promise at best.

But it was Joe Oliver who came across as petty and unimaginative. The federal finance minister’s litany of Conservative promises in the distant future—should Canadians persist in voting Conservative—came across as tired and unlikely. He devoted too much of his time to bashing his opponents in the fall election and little time on the subjects his audience wanted to hear.

Trudeau, in the meantime, recognized that the cities are facing a crisis in affordable housing and that the federal government has to assure that funding is available. He also pointed out that restoring the long-form census will go a long way to helping all levels of government to understanding the increasingly complex growth needs of our urban areas.

The Liberal leader offered the municipal leaders a glimpse of the new thinking needed to address needs in an increasingly urbanized country. It was the kind of inspired and novel thinking that Liberals can bring to government. We sincerely hope that Justin Trudeau can keep it coming.

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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry

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Tags: Conservative, Liberal Party, Mulcair, NDP, Trudeau