Over the last two years I’ve experienced four speeches by the representative from Papineau, Justin Trudeau. The first one at a function was a years and a half ago in Calgary where he was talking to business leaders and youth for the purpose of raising funds to send youth to the May convention.

He walked off to the side before speaking and seemed to be thinking quite a bit. After a few minutes (this was before the actual engagement was to begin) he wandered back out into the lobby. Something seemed a bit different, though.

From what I can assume, however, is that he had been thinking about what to say. As noted later by the master of ceremonies, a noted young Liberal and ex-president of the University of Calgary Liberal Association, Trudeau had just created/outlined only moments before, in an act of what he (the young Liberal) must have assumed was an act of down-to-earthiness and originality. It was, at least from the tone of both the audience’s reaction and in the MC’s, an appreciation of how the speech was some geared solely for them and was unprepared in any way, shape, or form for any other audience.

It was their speech, in other words. This, in my opinion, is wonderful for small engagements of <50 people that this event was.

However, the next several speeches were not in this enclosed, almost private environment. There was not this familiarity, this almost familial sense of knowing Trudeau.

The second speech I heard from Trudeau was at the convention in May of last year. It was low key, kept to a quick pace, and made so that it would keep the centre of the attention not on him but on the newly elected party leader, Ignatieff. It served its purpose, really, and not much else.

Nothing truly distinguished Trudeau in this instance.

The third speech was at another function. It didn’t really spark anything. Nothing quite distinguished him here, either.

Now, there’s the fourth instance in which I heard Justin Trudeau speak. It was at McGill’s Model United Nations Conference in late January of this year. He was the main speaker for the opening ceremonies and, quite frankly, me and many others were not impressed.

The thing to note with Trudeau’s speaking style is that he attempts to create a familiarity with the audience. He can do this quite easily since he possesses this strange, almost awe-inspiring, electricity in his very presence. This is a trait that is very hard to quantify–because, well, when he shakes your hand and stares right at you in the eyes you can fully sense that the entirety of his attention is focused sole on you… and that’s a strange experience for people not used to that.

This electricity in his presence is communicated straight off the bat at this engagement. However, there are quite a few detractors from his speech that I think made it difficult to both take him seriously and then made it just that much harder to get his point across.

He forgot his audience, for one. The smartest minds and the most politically active young minds of Canada were squashed into that room–and he chose to go into a fifteen minute speech on a topic that these guys know the ins and outs of, and would have only taken a minute and a half if properly put into place. Another two minutes if he chose to interject a story. The content was not there.

By the way, the topic was about how students were not the leaders of tomorrow but were the leaders of today. Effectively, he could have simply said this one line and the rest of his address could have been tossed out the window.

This bears repeating: the ideas behind his speech was a simplified and made into some strange cookie cutter stump speech.. which was completely off base for the critical and analytical abilities of his audience. Trudeau could have delved much deeper than the surface, flashy statement of young people being a portion of today’s leadership wealth.

Another point to make would be how he was up there in jeans and a crumpled shirt. The audience was dressed, as it were, to “the nines”. I counted more than ten people who were wearing tuxedos. It greatly diminishes your oratorical clout if you’re under-dressed and lecture on a topic that your audience is miles above in comprehension. Trudeau was completely off base on who he likely thought he was talking to and thereby was off kilter on how he chose to relay his messaging.

Humorously, quite a few of my fellow delegates at that conference noted how they thought he was “dreamy” and that they didn’t notice the issues in his address until five minutes into the presentation. One girl told me that she could only stare at his butt so long before drifting off into a “snooze”.

Next on the list is that Trudeau had not acclimated to the technology around him in that he was likely unaware that student photographers and student cameramen were following him. One issue surrounding him is that he continuously walked from one side of the stage to the other, forcing a jerking camera to following him, in an auditorium that most of the people therein could only see him through the projections of him on the flanking screens. This made the entirety of his presentation a jerking mess to more than half of the people in the room–a difficult, jarring experience for those seeking knowledge in his voie.

Although it isn’t a single issue on its own that caused Justin Trudeau’s presentation to be harmed–it’s the accumulation of numerous of these issues that made his oratory deeply flawed and harm. His ability to create an inclusive atmosphere in a small setting were of no use, his electrifying gravitas couldn’t manage to keep the attention of the audience in perpetuity, and his attempts at oratory fell flat in both messaging and preparation.

All in all, the terrible thing about this speech was that he had a chance to influence a room of the brightest and smartest young leaders in the country and botched it. He had the chance to direct these people toward an inspiring mission, a call to arms, or to some higher purpose… and that was squandered.

In all seriousness, Mr. Trudeau, you need a speechwriter and someone worried about the basic communication of who/what you are in the public mind. As it stands right now there’s the assumption that you’re the youth MP and the man chanced by luck and fate to have your father’s name. There isn’t anything more there–and there needs to be if you’re aiming for anything higher than a good looking vote-getter for party elders.

However, before any of my thoughts are taken seriously it should be noted that all the speeches I attended were of what can be considered the likely less important variety. In all honesty, Trudeau would likely not attain any votes from that audience anyways or get any attention from his part in helping/directing the youth. Why should he put effort in when there’s no immediate calculated benefit?

Personally, the ideological side of me has to point out that it isn’t the short term that anyone should be concerned about when one is a budding politician. What should be a priority is the long term–attaining that important level of communication with the people of Canada and giving the core messages that need to be heard is what should be on the mind of the next generation of politicians.

Mr. Trudeau, methinks you need to hire a speechwriter.

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