Can Liberals follow Democrats' success?

It was a bit of bad luck for Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, having to hold their annual cabinet retreat on the heels of the wildly successful Democratic convention in the U.S.

- SUSAN DELACOURT

The Liberals would dearly love to reframe their battle against the Conservatives as Kamala Harris and the Democrats have shifted their framing of Donald Trump, from object of fear to object of ridicule, Susan Delacourt writes.

The comparisons and the questions were going to be inevitable — why can’t the Trudeau Liberals do that kind of progressive political revival here in Canada?

As minister after minister explained, no one is talking about showing Trudeau the exit door, as the Democrats did with Joe Biden.

But leaving that nuclear option aside, one presumes that ministers would be drawing some lessons from how the Democrats rebranded themselves and their new leader, Kamala Harris, at last week’s convention.

Some of the strategies on display in Chicago last week could be transferable techniques — at least to some measure.

The first one, the “joy” factor, is the most obvious but also the toughest. Government House Leader Karina Gould alluded to this when she was talking to reporters about possible parallels between Liberals here and the rebranded Democrats.

“Just because the Democrats do something in the United States does not then mean that we should be doing that here in Canada as Liberals,” Gould said. “What I do think is that progressive voters are looking for continued hope.”