Cullen Reacts to Trump’s Victory
Prince George, B.C. – “Hang on to your hats folks, this is only going to get more interesting.”
The words of Skeena-Bulkley Valley NDP MP Nathan Cullen following his trip down south to observe the US election.
Cullen was one of several MPs, pollsters and academics invited by the US State Department for an all paid tour of several battleground states culminating with a stop in Ohio.
“It’s a surprising victory, an election for the ages,” he said during a regional teleconference this morning. “We’ve never seen a candidate present himself that way. Never with that much anger against the system.”
Though Cullen “was troubled with how Trump presented his views of the world,” he suggested the divisiveness helped him to victory.
“He was able to stir up a lot of fear and hatred among groups in America and among people who thought the system wasn’t working for them,” said Cullen. “The country is very much split among demographic lines – wealth, age, race, rural versus urban.”
Thus, he says Trump’s challenge will be to “bring the country together.”
Cullen added Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s challenge will be to build a relationship with him.
“The best relationships find common ground, both were born wealthy but that’s it,” said Cullen. “How does he do that with this president. Trudeau calls himself a feminist yet how do you discuss women’s issues with a man who’s said such things?”
He said time will also tell what Trump’s win will mean for Canada in terms of trade agreements though he fears the Paris Agreement on climate change is now “dead” and the Keystone XL pipeline “is back on the table.”
In all Cullen left the US glad he’s Canadian: “Not to be smug, the warm reception from Americans was wonderful, they want to share food, I definitely put on weight but I leave praying for them that they can connect these divides.
“In my Skeena riding there’s just an understanding for the other person’s perspective. Even my strongest opponents here can still have coffee with me across difficult issues. I don’t know where that’s at there.”
Comments
How insightful.
The left in the US under Hillary and Obama has become so intolerant that it almost is no longer compatible with democracy. Like Sharia law can not be compatible with democracy because it’s intolerance for anyone else’s views… So to is the left these days.
Funny how a few days ago they all lectured Trump how he would have to accept the results of the election, because that’s the American tradition and that it is beyond the pale to impugn the integrity of the vote.
Fast foreword a couple of days and they are filling the streets rejecting the results of the election because their candidate lost in a landslide.
There is just no honor in the partisan politics of the Americans. The FBI injection into the election was another prime example of extreme flip flops by the partisans depending on where the story was at with the investigation as it relates to the good standing of the FBI director.
I think the best thing Trump brings to this mess is that he is a-political and just maybe he can bring the body politic to a less partisan state of affairs.
Nathan Cullen couldn’t get 2 seconds of Trump’s time. Anything said by anyone regarding Trump’s presidency is strictly guessing. Average percentage of promises kept by the president of the USA is 70%. Some of the stuff that Trump said during the campaign will not happen. There will be 2 distinctive Trumps. The boisterous a-hole in the primaries and campaigns and then there will be President Trump. Not the first time that the wrong person won.
Thinking people certainly hope the Paris Agreement on climate change is now “dead” and the Keystone XL pipeline “is back on the table.”
So Cullen went down to the US to observe the election.
Hmmmmmm.
How did you get there and back, Nathan? You couldn’t have flown there in a fossil fuel burning, CO2-spewing plane, right? After all, you’re not one of those “climate change deniers”, you’re one of those who insist that everyone must do his/her part to help save the planet.
So just how did you manage to make that journey so fast without fossil fuels?
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