While we’re on the subject of demographics, there is also age.
Differentiating between generations is a bit tricky, the difference being as much about experience, mindset and attitude as it is a matter of timing. For the sake of argument, if you take David Foot’s contention that the baby boom in Canada ended in 1966 and include all those current MPs born after January 1 of that year, you get the following group (listed from oldest to youngest):
Rick Dykstra, Mario Silva, Gerry Byrne, Kirsty Duncan, Todd Russell, Shelly Glover, Rob Clarke, Scott Brison, Pablo Rodriguez, Leona Aglukkaq, Greg Rickford, Andrew Kania, Dominic LeBlanc, Randy Hoback, Lisa Raitt, Jason Kenney, Brian Masse, Blaine Calkins, Russ Hiebert, Helena Guergis, Rona Ambrose, John Baird, Bernard Bigras, Mike Lake, Scott Simms, Glenn Thibeault, Paul Calandra, Dean Del Mastro, James Rajotte, Jeff Watson, Michael Chong, Justin Trudeau, Eve-Mary Thai Thi Lac, Rob Anders, Steven Fletcher, Meili Faille, Nathan Cullen, Jean-Claude D’Amours, Rod Bruinooge, Megan Leslie, Luc Malo, Christian Paradis, Ruby Dhalla, Rob Moore, Brad Trost, Mark Holland, Blake Richards, Tim Uppal, Scott Andrews, James Moore, Ben Lobb, Navdeep Bains, Thierry St. Cyr, Brian Storseth, Patrick Brown, Pascal-Pierre Paille, Chris Warkentin, Andrew Scheer, Pierre Poilievre, Niki Ashton, Nicolas Dufour.
How’s a 2012 election between LeBlanc, Moore, Leslie and Bigras sound?
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A helluva lot better than one between Anders and anybody else.
Nicolas Dufour -> this is cool way to go BQ I had no idea we had an MP in the House that is younger than some jeans I have!
He doesn't even have a university degree!
A Baird vs. Trudeau steel-cage death match would be fun to watch.
Only if you really, REALLY don't like Trudeau.
Not necessarily. Remember that Trudeau chose to run in (and won) a riding which was problematic for the Liberals rather than go with one of the safe Montreal ridings. He may lack experience but he does not lack intelligence or the courage of his convictions, Give him a few more years experience and a dim bulb like Baird wont stand a chance. Of course if Pierre were still around Baird would be one more stuffed trophy on his wall.
But you just KNOW that Baird would make with the shots to the groin, eye-gouging, head-butting and …..
Ooooh, he meant a METAPHORICAL steel cage death match. Now I get it. I admit my suckitude.
Although a physical beating from Baird would probably be less painful than trying to debate with him.
Talk about root canal
Anybody, anybody but Skippy Poilievre. Please.
Liberals for Poilievre!
"How’s a 2012 election between LeBlanc, Moore, Leslie and Bigras sound?"
Like Prime Minister LeBlanc will win by landslide!
What?
You're jumping the gun a bit Aaron. Given that there have only been two PM's who remotely qualify as boomers (Campbell and Harper) and that Harper is really a Gen Xer, it's quite likely to be a good long time before we have a post-boomer PM. In fact, if Harper performs as I expect and becomes a latter day Mackenzie KIng, we may be looking at a Gen Zer becoming PM before a post-boomer ever does.
Just out of curiosity, in what sense is Stephen Harper a Gen Xer?
Steve is 50 years old. Douglas Copeland wrote Generation X about people roughly his age. Generation X won't start turning 50 for at least another two years.
Also, Steve is in no way shape or form typical of the Gen X ethos but is most definitely what would have been in the 90s a young fogey.
But Boomers go until about 1966 – when it Harper born? My parents are 50 and 52 and feel themselves to be boomers and not Gen X at all. To be a Gen X you must have been born at least at the very tail end of the 1960s.
No. Douglas Copeland wrote Generation X about people who, while they might fall technically in some classification of being a Boomer, were at the end of that era and didn't have direct involvement with everything that is now associated with the 60s (definitely too young to be involved in anything that happened in 1968).
They were before the Bust and the subsequent Echo boomlette. That is why Copeland called them Generation X – too young to be a reall Boomer but older than those who came after.
Also, my sentence "Douglas Copeland wrote Generation X about people roughly his age." refers to Copeland's age and not Steve's.
OK, but say someone was born in 1956, was cleaely not involved in political events and social events in the 1960s being a child and all, aren't they still baby boomers?
Can we please have people who aren't lifers but have actually worked, rubbed shoulders and raised an elbow with the "real" Canadians they are supposed to represent?
That would exclude Harper and most of his cabinet. Neither he nor most of the rest of the gang have ever had a real job.
Exactly.
With those qualifiers, my money is on Ms Leslie of Halifax, although perhaps 2012 is a little soon – 2016?
Roughly 59% of Canadians were born after 1966, yet only 20% of the MPs are from that demographic? It simply must be rampant ageism.
I think the Liberal and NDP parties had better institute quotas for their nominees to reverse the discrimination.
Gaunilon <—- In the role of the quintissential older "get off my lawn" angry white male.
Give it a rest, will ya?
Tag – Team = Baird and Rona – VS – Trudeau and Ruby
Ben Mulroney or George Strombo.
Dont' say you weren't warned.
Aaaaaaaaaagggggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!
YES!
Sean, are you ever in trouble if either pans out.
Are you starting a petition to draft either or both?
At present I don't really know enough about either, so I would at least give them consideration.
Goodness, no.
I'd be more interested in seeing Charest or Rae in the job, off the top of my head.
Nothing against Mulroney or Strombo, they seem like nice lads. But I can barely stomach the Senate being used as a celebrity dumping ground as it is.
I presume that you mean PM and not party leader when you say "job"; so Rae as Liberal leader, then PM, but Charest as Liberal or CPC leader, and then PM?
I would have some personal reservations about Rae, but would at least give him serious consideration. Some of his recent QP antics (which are not all that different from the norm) bother me a bit, and if I was a Liberal I would be quite concerned about his reputation from his provincial days becoming quite an albatross. On the plus side, I think he is at his best when he goes slightly off message, which happens quite often; those off the cuff comments are quite telling.
I haven't kept up to date with Charest so much, but from what I recall from his PC days I would be at least as comfortable with him as PM. But would the CPC take him back or is the LPC his only option now?
OTOH, of course, neither of those two gents could be considered to be post boomer.
Steven Fletcher would be a great change for Canada.
Yuck. If you met him you wouldn't think that
Please please please let the Liberals nominate Trudeau Junior as leader of the Liberal Party!
It would make the Green Shift plan look like a good idea!
Hello???
Since when would Bigras, a BQ MP, ever be in line to become Prime Minister? I thought the Bloc wants their own country or have they thrown out their platform?
At least one MP has flitted into and OUT OF the BQ, crossing the floor to/from other parties.
Given that the oldest post boomers are now 42, I see a great opportunity to simply skip over the Boomers.
Without deep connections, you’re just a smile in a bubble. Ask Kim.
My guess: The “Smiling Buddha”. When he gets the lean and hungry, watch out.
Ryan Hastman for PM!
Who says it will even be from the current crop of MP's? Not that there would be anything wrong with any of them. But often it's unknowns (Ignattieff for example) who come into the race and change things up.
That's a good thing now, haven't you been paying attention?
How is it good again?
Left or right wing politics aside, I'd like to have the chance to vote for someone who once served with our Armed Forces. Ideally it wouldn't be for a career military person but simply someone who, during their young adult life, "put the Canadian uniform on" while in any of those international trouble spots that have occurred in the past two decades.
By the way, who was our last Prime Minister to have done so?
Off the top of my head I would guess Lester B. Pearson, even though he served way back in World War One. It's hard to believe we haven't had any WWII vets as head of state, especially considering that the Americans have had at least 3 (that I can think of), probably more.
Good observation. Beyond Pearson I don't think there have been any other PMs with military experience (that I can think of).
I believe it's actually four WWII vets with regard to the States – Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Bush Sr. (thank goodness you didn't include Reagan).
In the States it's actually the Boomers/Viet Nam vets who have been ripped off. Neither Boomer President Clinton or Bush Jr. served (don't try and pass off the National Guard stuff as service when there was a shooting war going on). Kerry and McCain lost (Gore too although he wasn't there very long and served on the Armed Forces paper) and now we have a Gen X President in Obama.
I think the reason behind your last point is that Vietnam doesn't resonate with Americans in quite the same way as WWII. WWII was the last "good" war, and I certainly remember a big deal being made about Reagan not having serving (no, staying stateside and making propaganda films doesn't count). I think most Americans would still like to pretend that Vietnam didn't happen, so serving there isn't as important.
The PM isn't the Head of State, but I know what you mean. And I think you're right that Pearson was the last vet to serve as PM. During that same time period the US has had 8 Presidents who wore the uniform (Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Bush Jr.) and 5 who were combat vets (Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Bush Sr.). It is a striking difference as you say.
Let's not have the military invade politics please.
Let's not have politics invade the military please!
I don't know why you say this. If a former military person becomes a leader of a party that has platform you support, why wouldn't you support him/her?
I don't think that's a fair comment at all, and is quite insulting to our men and women in uniform. Do you really think that a PM Hillier (for example) would turn us into a miltary dictatorship, or even a highly militarized democracy like the US?
Frankly, I think that anyone offering a fresh perspective in our government (i.e. not a lawyer or economist) would be a breath of fresh air. Given that we are now using our forces in a combat role (and likely will be for some time yet, 2011 be damned), someone with a military background would be especially helpful in avoiding the kind of government meddling/incompetence that Gen. Hillier has complained about.
My guess is the first post-boomer PM will be someone who doesn't currently sit as an MP. Canadian voters are sick of life-time politicians
Not really.
On the topic of Charest; I have trouble imagining him with the current CPC.
I used to worry about Rae's history, but I somehow think recessionary deficits aren't quite the concern they once were. But it may be true that there's simply too much resentment to overcome.
'
I'm probably biased against post-boomers (and I'm still 40), and lean toward folks over 50 for federal leadership.
Agreed about Charest.
You and I and some others might view today's recessionary deficit and the Ontario deficit from the Rae days in a similar light, but some will say that either: a) today's federal government was dragged kicking and screaming into deficit by the combined efforts of the opposition parties, or b) Ontario's situation didn't justify deficits whereas today's federal situation does (reluctantly).
In any event, I propose that the best thing that Bob Rae could do for the LPC would be to adopt the role that Joe Clark took on after the senior Mulroney replaced Clark as PC party leader – that of senior statesman in a suitable cabinet role. However, I'm not at all sure that Ignatieff is the Liberal party's Mulroney, and if not him, not sure who to suggest in his place.
In general post boomers haven't aged quite enough for my liking either; I just don't like ruling anyone out on the basis of a single criteria.
wally whistance-smith from toronto will be the first post-boomer. he is a ryerson professor at the moment.
WHAT BIG LIARS THOSE CONSERVATIVES SPIN DOCTORS, STATISTIC CANADA NOW STILL ARE
http://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/t...