2016 US election: Harper vs. Trudeau

[progressive85]

(in this TL, the leaders of Canadian politics are American politicians.)


Stephen Harper

The Governor of Texas, Stephen Harper, a super-rich businessman, was CEO of Harper Oil and Gas for many years.  He was encouraged to run by his Big Business friends for Governor of Texas.  He easily won.  In his successful campaign, his slogan was "A Governor for Every Texan," and he specifically reached out to Latinos using his fluent Spanish and appearing on Spanish-language television shows.

He also portrayed himself as a fighter for the poor and the working class by acknowledging the work of low-income Texans.  Just by acknowledging them in his speeches and his TV ads, he came off as someone who was not completely beholden to Big Business and Big Oil.

Governor Harper chose to avoid controversy by not associating himself with the Tea Party or with the religious right, and he did not pander to special interest groups like the gun lobby.  He was the perfect establishment Republican.

He was also an intellectual, and even Democrats thought him to be extremely intelligent, and he challenged progressive bias of what a Texas politician was like.

Harper defied media expectations of him by also being quite good at connecting with everyday people.  He was not the kind of Governor that people expected him to be.  He made time for small talk and made himself very accessible.  He was less ideological and more open-minded.

Although his positions were exactly the same as other conservative politicians, the way he articulated his views and his actions made him appear more moderate.

He was a very popular Governor and in Republican circles he was one of the most respected people in the party.

He was widely expected to run for President in 2016.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I want to see Trudeau in this world...I can imagine his father was a Governor or maybe even a President in this case.

[progressive85]

Justin Trudeau

He is the Mayor of New York City and is extremely popular.  An Obama-esque politician, he ran as an underdog in 2013. 

A young, handsome, charismatic City Councilman, Trudeau was not the front-runner, but was able to pick up momentum through the campaign to win a surprising victory in the Democratic nomination, beating out Christine Quinn.

In YouTube ads, Justin emphasized his blue-collar immigrant family in Brooklyn, his teenage job at McDonald's, and his average, everyday New Yorker lifestyle, completely proud of his multicultural city and fluent in many languages.

His critics called him a vapid pretty boy, but his prettiness actually worked in his favor, making him instantly popular with women and gay men, and Justin became something of a sex symbol  (Stripping for a charity event for children popularized this image.)

He was also criticized for running a campaign more on personality than on the issues, but New Yorkers didn't seem to care.

He won by a landslide in the general election and for the first time in twenty years, New Yorkers had a Democratic Mayor in this overwhelming Democratic city.

With such a powerful platform and the tremendous publicity that came from the New York media, Justin became a household name.

Within the first month in office, he made appearances on The Daily Show, the late night TV shows, and hosted Saturday Night Live.

His political career in New York seemed like it go as far as he wanted it to go and many Democrats were already talking about a presidential run.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

This is really cool. This one is basically Reagan vs. (white) Obama.

The youth vote turns out for Trudeau, but without the black vote being as energized, he won't be able to duplicate Obama's 2008 performance. In the end, while Trudeau sweeps the smaller states that were key to Obama's victory and takes Virginia, Harper's appeal in rural Pennsylvania helps him take that state, and with it, the Presidency.