Congratulations on an excellent critique of Trudeau. You made his flip flop policies make sense, at least in a psychological sense. They never made political sense.

The role of a politician is to create a majority in favour of a policy or suite of policies. This requires the ability to build a consensus. Trump and Farage show this ability. Trump did not side with a majority of republicans, he caused a majority of Republicans to side with him. Churchill did not reflect the attitude of the British people to the war, he created a new attitude within them.

Trudeau often attempted to choose a political wave and ride it to the end. This sometimes worked but often did not. This made him look inconsistent because waves and people are inconsistent.

As a New Zealander I ask what attitude my government wants me to have about New Zealand, and I have no real idea. They are riding the waves and going nowhere.

I blame a lot of this on the public relations industry. They have taken over many political campaigns and are paid big bucks by political candidates. They are often correct tactically and nearly always wrong strategically. Their use of polling data and study groups are nearly always focussed on current public attitudes, which are frequently as shallow as a bird bath, and reasonably easily overturned. Are you in favour of illegal immigration? Yes. Why? Um, , ,

PR firms would have told David Cameron that there was a clear majority in opposition to Brexit. And I am sure that was correct. But I made money by betting in favour of Brexit early. (I read a lot! And the EU is a delightful opponent!)

Part of the problem is that staffers, who are trained to serve political interests, too often become political candidates. Such people frequently make mediocre politicians. They often lack conviction, and connection to real people. They are risk averse and quickly become slaves of the Bureaucracy. Not all fail, but most do. Former NZ PM Jacinda Ardern who was a staffer was actually a competent politician, who lacked a sound policy base. The best vacuum cleaner salesperson needs a vacuum cleaner to sell! Ardern could sell! She could have been successful but was not. Like Trudeau, she did not build anything new and left almost nothing behind.

Trump will attempt to "Make America Great Again." That is sufficient reason to support him. Will he succeed? I do not know. But at least he will try. And New Zealand needs the USA to be much better than it is. If they go bust , so will we.

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