Front Burner - The (former) PM and the pop star
Episode Date: November 12, 2025Former prime minister Justin Trudeau is dating the American pop star Katy Perry. He’s been spotted with her on her yacht, singing along at her concerts, and globetrotting with her hand in hand.It’...s not the kind of post-political life Canadians are used to witnessing. So today, a look at the lives of Canadian Prime Ministers once they’ve left office and the post-electoral endeavors of American presidents. Are they extensions of who they were as leaders or breaks from the past? Susan Delacourt is a longtime political journalist with the Toronto Star, and Gil Troy is a historian of American history and professor at McGill University. They join us to talk about the second acts of many of our most notable leaders.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts
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Hey everybody, I'm Jamie Poisson, and before you start yelling at us, I promise this episode isn't just tabloid stuff, but we are talking about former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's budding romance with an American pop star, Katie Perry.
First came the not-so-clear TMZ video of the two out-to-dinner in Montreal, and then grainy paparazzi images of the two of them on a yacht in California, images of them kissing in how many.
hugging Trudeau shirtless, but in jeans, as one does, on a yacht in California.
And then finally confirmation a few weeks ago, as the two attended a show hand-in-hand in Paris.
The whole thing is kind of absurd, frankly, and not the kind of post-politics life we are necessarily used to in this country.
But in a serious way, it brought all of us.
us here at Frontburner to think about the lives of Canadian prime ministers once they've left
office, as well as the post-presidential lives of American presidents, and what we've seen them do
as civilians with the prestige and power they built as politicians. Susan Delicourt is a long-time
political journalist with the Toronto star in Gil Troy is a historian of American history and professor
at McGill University, and both join us today to talk about the second acts of many of our most
notable leaders.
Hello to you both.
Hi, great to be with you.
Great to be here, Jamie.
It's great to have you both on the show.
Thank you so much for making the time.
Why don't we begin with the reason that we are here today,
the couple that inspired this episode.
And that is, of course, the former Prime Minister and Popstar,
Justin Trudeau and Katie Perry.
And Susan, you've been reporting on Ottawa for a long time.
You've seen a few Prime Ministers come and go.
you've seen many political afterlives.
And was this the kind of headline that you saw coming?
Nope.
I would tell you definitely.
I did not see this one coming.
I did not have Katie Perry on my Justin Trudeau bingo card.
And in fact, I, in the, after the early date, I was predicting it was going to be a one-off.
And not being a regular reader of the tabloids, I was actually caught unaware when somebody told me about the yacht.
So all that's to say, no, I did not see it coming.
Gil, you want to jump in here?
So first of all, let's put this in historical context.
In 1896, a long time ago, William Jennings Bryan goes, he's a 30-year-old congressman
and he goes to a national convention and all of a sudden he gives this powerful speech
about the cross of gold and comes home the Democratic nominee.
And his wife in their memoirs has this amazing line because he talks about all of a sudden
their little home becomes overrun by people.
And she says, the public invaded our lives.
And I think one of the things we're seeing is that when you go to that level of celebrity
and when you go to that level of political leadership, the public invades your life.
But also, in some ways, you become part of this group.
And sometimes, you know, we've seen Hollywood movies where they imagine kind of all the celebrities
are aliens.
And they do share a certain kind of understanding of what it is to have everything, every
date you take every time you go out to throw the garbage potentially be a moment that
will go that will go viral. And so it's in some ways I get the Canadian dignity thing
that it feels a little bit off. But on the other hand, in a human level, it may not be that
surprising. Yeah. And Trudeau himself, he's a real, well, he's emblematic of the confluence of
these two worlds to me, celebrity and politics. The name Trudeau here is obviously kind of dynastic
in this country, he did become this global phenomenon for his looks, really, but also his
politics. I remember that a Rolling Stone cover, which literally read, quote, why can't he be
our president? The story was titled The North Star. And just, Susan, how did you see Trudeau
navigate this celebrity with the political during his time in office? It's been a really
interesting thing to watch. And I did watch it up close. I actually, I called it a half a book.
wrote an e-book on Trudeau's leadership and watching him, he was already a celebrity before he was
prime minister. People thought that they knew him and that played in his favor for a long time.
During the famous blackface episode of the 2019 campaign, we found at the doors and MPs and
candidates were saying this, everybody said, we know Trudeau's not a racist because people thought
they knew him. There was already an understanding of who Trudeau was, and it played largely in his
favor for a long time, and then, you know, people get tired of celebrities. Again, that's why I
didn't think that he would go this route, because, as Gil was saying, it is kind of
privacy invading to be a celebrity. And I have stayed in touch with Trudeau, by the way.
And I thought that he was looking forward to being more of a private figure.
I did actually talk to him after the date with Katie Perry, too.
And he said nothing in his life had prepared him for the paparazzi that was surrounding that.
This was a level he'd never seen.
And he's seen a lot.
So I thought, again, that he would choose a quieter life.
But, you know, he's in love.
That was such an interesting.
anecdote that he that this that nothing prepared him for that that that's kind of shocking to
me to hear that or surprising right um guilt like especially given sorry especially given his
background right it's in his jeans and i'm not talking about the jeans on the yeah right why did
he margaret and pierre elliot right he was he was raised in public in many ways the young trudo
said he doesn't much care what does peers think of his views everyone's got pure pressure at this
I mean, there's pressure to smoke, there's pressure to do all sorts of stuff, and I've never
been affected by pure pressure, never.
And the awful death of his brother was a public event in the most beautiful way also.
Now the Trudeau's are trying to put their grief to good use.
The family was devastated by the death of Michelle, and they're hoping to educate a snowbound
nation about the risks we're taking in ever-growing numbers.
If Michelle had decided to stay home and play chess and Nintendo,
He would have been fine, but he chose to go out there, and that's what made the difference.
So he's seen the two sides of it.
But I think what he's basically saying, if I'm interpreted, not knowing him, is that now in the age of social media, as bad as it was, as intense as it was, as out of control as it seemed back in the 70s with Margaret and the Rolling Stones and Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and this is just a whole other level.
And I get it.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I mean, ID2, I know I'm kind of laughing a little bit, but that must be a lot.
It's like an enormous spotlight to put on a single person.
And of course, he is a civilian now, and he is entitled to his privacy.
I live in the same neighborhood as Rideau Hall and 20.
So I'm, it sounds like a first world problem.
I'm accustomed to seeing former prime ministers around here.
Jean-Cretem was a neighbor after he left.
Joe Clark was a neighbor.
So you get used to seeing them.
And my neighbors tell me they've, I haven't had a spotting like this, but that Trudeau was spotted in the grocery store, in the drugstore, just living his civilian life.
Gil, you know, when I was kind of thinking through this episode, when we were thinking through this episode,
with her producer, Matt.
Like, we were thinking of some parallels here with Barack Obama,
who really came into the popular zeitgeist as this young insurgent star
that people didn't know all that much about,
but very quickly went from party outsider to this generational star
and really an international icon, I think, about kind of some of the social campaigns
around that 2008 election, the song recorded in his name.
Yes, we can.
All the workers organized, women who reached for the ballots.
A president who chose the moon is our new frontier.
And a key to the numbers of a mountain top and a point of the way to the promise.
And how would you describe Barack Obama's relationship with this notion of celebrity?
What parallels do you see here?
What difference is?
It's ironic because during the 2008 campaign, and it was very much, he knew how to build that star power
when John McCain kind of dismissed him as a situation.
celebrity. He was deeply, deeply offended.
The latest ad from the John McCain camp is raising a lot of eyebrows.
He's the biggest celebrity in the world.
But is he ready to lead?
During a campaign stop in Missouri, reporters asked Obama if he had seen the ad.
I don't pay attention to John McCain's days.
Although I do notice that he doesn't seem to have anything very positive to say about
himself, doesn't?
He doesn't.
He seems to only be talking about me.
And yet, I would say certainly during his presidency and,
in the post-presidency, he's leaned into it.
Former President Barack Obama and music legends superstar Bruce Springsteen have teamed up for
a podcast to share how they came together despite being from somewhat different worlds.
It's just what's going on with social media that Oprah and I cannot go on a billionaire's
boat to Tahiti with a former president of the United States and not keep it secret for God's
sake.
We should also note that Justin Schrode was 53 years old, Obama was 55.
when he left office. And so there's there's two dimensions here. One is simply the kind of the sheer star
power. And it's addictive also. In other words, it can be invasive. It can be exhausting. But there also is
I've seen it on a much lower level. I moved to Montreal when I was a young assistant professor
and I was once at a very fancy event. I won't mention names. And there was this huge donor who was
used to being known and I being myself just sort of walked in and said, hi, my name is Gil Troy. What's your name?
and his face fell.
And so there is something addictive about the power.
There is something addictive about the celebrity.
And maybe we'll get to it,
there's also something addictive about the money.
Because what also happens is that when you're flying in private jets
and you have security and all of a sudden also when you go,
you know, certainly for the American president,
when the Obama's went to vacation,
they went to Martha's Vineyard to this, you know,
multi-million dollar estate.
And what's really fascinating is that these people have mastered politics.
They've mastered maybe the celebrity world, but many of them, unlike our current president,
haven't mastered the world of money.
And they often have a kind of money envy.
And you see Obama, Clinton, after the presidency, going from having relatively modest bank books
to following the money.
Right.
I think that Obama's were paid, what, $65 million for their respective memoirs by
penguin random house. Those were just the memoirs, right? Right. And that was just the opening bid.
Yeah. I mean, that was just, you know, teeing it up and all the Netflix deals and the speaking
engagements and the beautiful estates they've building now. God bless them. They've worked
hard. And in fact, I love the fact that Barack Obama's memoir is called a promised land because
he lived the American dream in a time when so many people denigrate that. He's not only defending
it, but epitomizing it, but sometimes it gets a little bit gross.
That is the big difference between the United States and Canada is they actually, presidents leave office with an office to support them, no, staff, money, all of those things.
In Canada, modest Canada, I'm sure our public prefers this. When you leave as prime minister, that's it. You leave with your pension, and it's a good pension, but you don't leave with an office. Over the years, you've wanted sometimes to get in touch with.
former prime ministers. They usually have the same people, you know, who, who worked with them
in the past, volunteering to field media calls for them. They don't, they don't come with
an office. So, volunteering. Some of that is they, volunteering. Right now, right now Trudeau's
being staffed by a bunch of volunteers. We'll field media questions for them.
But if you ever mean to say, there, there are opportunities for former Canadian PMs to cash in.
to books, of course, but also like pretty lucrative speaking engagements. I was in an event
with John Kretchen, last week, and he did joke that he didn't start making money until after he
got out of politics. Like, I imagine he's getting like some pretty big paychecks for coming to
speak at, you know, this event or that, yeah.
Yeah, apparently we're going to be seeing more of that in the new year. He's done a few.
He was in South Korea. Trudeau.
This ascent isn't for everyone.
You need grit to climb this high this often.
You've got to be an underdog that always over-delivers.
You've got to be 6,500 hospital staff, 1,000 doctors, all doing so much with so little.
You've got to be Scarborough.
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Just to come back to
Barack Obama with you, Susan,
Anne Trudeau.
You know, we've been drawing some comparisons,
but I also do see some
differences, at least at the moment, right?
Obama, both as soon as he left
office and today, remains
a pretty popular figure nationally
and is probably the most
significant cultural voice in the
party. Trudeau, I think not so much, right, at the moment. What do you think the differences
are between these two and the way that they have been conceived of in their post-political
lives? Like, I think if there was a Canadian election tomorrow, it's not clear to me
Mark Carney would want Trudeau's endorsement. You saw that during the campaign. Trudeau
stayed more or less out of it. And I think, you know, he campaigned in his old riding of Papineau,
very low-key
and he's keeping
low-key about this government too
for exactly the reasons you say he went out
rather unpopularly
and I think a lot of prime ministers
do. John Crachean wasn't
all that popular when he left
he's a, you know, he's hailed
now as a liberal
demigod. Brian Mulroney
certainly didn't
go out in any blaze of glory
but they acquire a
statesman-like reputation after a while. I don't think we're there yet with Trudeau. I do think
he will be more of a celebrity abroad than he will be here in Canada for quite some time.
We saw the quiet power of Barack Obama during the bizarre indregnum when Joe Biden had his debate
debacle and everybody was talking about, well, we can't quite have a nominating convention
because he was already the nominee. This is the last summer. And, um, and, um, and,
Kamala Harris, according to news sources, was quite annoyed that Obama was a little bit slow
in jumping on the Harris nomination bandwagon. But the underlying power of the story is that
you see that Barack Obama and Michelle, by the way, remained among the most important voices
in the Democratic Party. I think there also was some resentment on the part of the Bidens that
they felt that Obama didn't back them up enough. So he plays the celebrity role, but he also
has, and you're right, he is the cultural voice of the Democratic Party, but one also has a sense
that he doesn't mind still moving the levers of power when necessary and being a bit of
marionette when possible. I've actually found it really interesting listening to Obama lately.
It feels like he's ramped up in public more. He's taking more swings at the Trump administration.
I just found that fascinating. I think if Trump is going to revisit this whole idea of term limits,
It's okay, let's do it, but bring back Obama.
That would be a really interesting race.
Oh, that would be epic.
That's very clever.
Once he breaks the mold, that's a campaign.
Yeah.
Susan, you mentioned Stephen Harper earlier.
This is someone who I have some difficulty,
imagining in a celebrity relationship.
Justin Trudeau
was a product of the Harper years
in many ways, and Harper
has decided to take
a different path
post-politics. After
his 2015 loss, he launched
a consulting firm. He joined a global
law practice. He chaired a
conservative think tank founded by Margaret
Thatcher and George H.W. Bush.
He's also facing criticisms
about his dealings with
the likes of Hungary's authoritarian leader, Victor
Orban, generally, he has retained a certain political visibility.
What stands out to you about Harper's Post PM.
I have another nice little anecdote for you here.
I don't know if you're watching the speech when King Charles came,
the throne speech earlier this year.
And my favorite part of that, I am exposing myself as totally shallow here,
But my favorite part of that wasn't the speech.
It was watching who was talking to who and the little interplay between everybody before the speech.
And I was blown away when I saw Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau talking in a very animated fashion, laughing, gesturing.
And I thought, wow, I wouldn't have seen that 10 years ago.
Apparently what they were talking about was exactly what we're talking about now,
is how to navigate your visibility, you know, how to resist the temptation to weigh in when you want to, and timing when you appear and stuff. I didn't hear how that all came out, but it was Harper giving a bit of advice, Trudeau on how to stay low-key. I don't think Stephen Harper, as you said, would have counseled him to go on a yacht in a celebrity's yacht. But when I was thinking about this,
this show, I was thinking about how all the past prime ministers in my experience, and I'm not going to date myself by saying how many of them there are, pretty much go back to living the lives they were living before they became PM.
You know, Kretti, in jokes that he only made money after, he was a pretty big lawyer when I first got to Ottawa. He was out of politics and he was, you know, Lang Michener was his firm. And he was making some pretty good.
money and doing lots of business as a high-priced lawyer, and that's what he is now.
Stephen Harper was a reclusive guy in Calgary, and he's become a reclusive guy in Calgary again.
Paul Martin, we should mention Paul Martin. He was briefly prime minister, but he tried a bit to do
the sort of Obama-like thing. He set up a, I don't know whether it was called a foundation,
but he was working a lot on indigenous issues, which was a passion of his, doing lots of that
kind of work after he left office, too, which I thought was laudable. And that was very much,
you know, Paul Martin. Paul Martin and Brian Mulroney, incidentally, had places not far from
each other in Florida and kept up a friendship that had begun when they were Montreal businessman,
I think, continued in their post-PM life. That's a fascinating contrast with presidents,
because almost every president, except perhaps you could argue George W. Bush, maybe Georgia
H.W. Bush revolutionized their lives.
after the White House, from Donald Trump, who spent the next four years running for office,
denying the election results, to Obama and Clinton, who just, as I said, you know,
went into kind of both the celebrity stratosphere and a kind of monetary lifestyle they never had
before. And Jimmy Carter, who when he was 56, was an ex-president and then launched all his
foundations and his humanitarian initiatives. Gerald Ford, who had been a very modest
Republican congressman for many years, and then he all of a sudden he's on the corporate board
circuit. So the presidency is usually dramatically life-changing. I think you have to go back to maybe
Harry Truman also pretty much went back to Independence, Missouri. But on the whole, it just
changes everything, and it's addictive. As I said, it's also this very beautiful memoir by Jimmy Carter
and Rosalind Carter called
Everything to Gain,
making the most
of the rest of your life.
And they write about,
first of all, the blow
because they were one-term,
he was a one-term president,
and they talk about the blow
of losing the White House.
And then just sort of
going back to Plains, Georgia,
and in Carter's cases,
peanut business had gone
Billy up because there was an ocean
back then of the president
not doing anything financial
and not getting any financial gain
during his office.
And just trying to figure out,
we're in our mid-50s.
What do we do with the rest of our lives?
And the book is everything to gain,
making the most of the rest of your life.
It's actually a beautiful book.
You know, I've heard people say
or make the argument
that Carter's afterlife
might actually have eclipsed his presidency.
He won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ladies and gentlemen,
war may sometimes be
a necessary evil,
but no matter how necessary,
it is always evil, never a good.
We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.
He built homes for the poor and Habitat for Humanity.
He mediated global conflicts.
He observed elections.
What do you make of that argument?
You know, I was at a conference back in the Carter Center about 15, 20 years ago,
and it was fascinating because first everybody talked about his amazing,
amazing
1976 presidential election.
And what a genius he was
and how he came from nowhere
and he was this
unknown southern governor
and all of a sudden,
boom,
became president of the United States
in the post-Wortigate era.
And then they talked
about his post-presidency
as he was the male mother
Teresa and he was practically
an American saint
and all the amazing,
wonderful things he did.
And then they talked about
his presidency as this disaster.
And I said,
are we talking about the same person?
Now, obviously,
there are certain values
that flow through.
obviously the presidency is a very different kind of job, but it was very funny the degree to which people just sort of kind of wanted to kind of tell one narrative, then a second narrative, then a third narrative. But indeed, I do have to, I didn't always agree with every position Carter took, but I think he was very much aware of Ford. And while there was a lot of respect for Ford, there was a certain feeling that he had monetized the presidency a little bit too much. And Carter was much more careful. And he said, wow, I have this opportunity now.
And indeed, we should add, not only does the president get a staff, but most presidents then get involved in building these presidential libraries, which the presidential libraries are paid for by the national archives, and they are formal legal bodies that collect all the papers in the White House and all the president's papers.
But then there's always a second part of a museum and a foundation that is basically dedicated to perpetuating the president's legacy and values.
And Jimmy Carter, like many of them, used that as the, really the launching pad.
And he really turned his life around.
And you have to kind of say, again, just sort of on a human level, it's very impressive to see someone who's just devastated.
He didn't think he was going to lose.
And he lost to somebody whom we have to go back to the 1980s.
He looked at Ronald Reagan as a threat to democracy, as a right-wing maniac, as a more on those words that were thrown around.
So it was a double blow.
He felt like he had let the American people down and he had lost his office.
And from that moment of devastation to then have, first of all, a very long run of it,
he only recently died and do good works, but also find purpose is, I think, something that all of us can learn that even in your 50s and 60s, you can pivot and you can overcome blows and you can make something about the rest of your life.
The last U.S. president that I wanted to ask you about specifically was George W. Bush, Gil, whose post-presidential life might be one of the more.
surprising
reinventions in modern
politics maybe the man defined
by the Iraq War has spent his political
afterlife painting portraits
kind of the opposite of Carter, right?
Often of immigrants and soldiers
although sometimes I think of
like animals. And so I hired
instructor and
the art community wasn't exactly
my basis support when I ran for office.
And
and so that instructor was slightly
She said, your objective.
I said, there's a Rembrandt trapped in this body.
And your job is to find him.
How do you interpret that transformation?
Is this an act of personal reckoning or a way of softening or reshaping his legacy in the public imagination?
Do you think?
I think actually was much more authentic.
I think it was much more that, you know, he had a previous life, which he quite enjoyed, a non-political life.
He had been a part owner of the Texas Rangers, a baseball team.
and he just wanted to go back to the ranch and go back to his life.
I think the presidency was extremely stressful for him.
I think the storms around it were not his thing.
But we should also do a flow through which links, I think, both the conversation about
Canadian prime ministers and presidents.
There's something really powerful and very lowercase de-democratic about the conversation
we're having, that most presidents, most prime ministers have a certain humility,
which is not the character trait that gets them into office.
And they understand that after the office, it's really not for them to politic.
And while, as I said, you know, Obama's been behind the scenes, and we see many of them are still in the public eye,
they do have clear red lines about not trying to micromanage their successor and not trying to continue to dominate the news.
Again, with Trump, it was, as always, it was a bit of an exception.
And I think that's actually – and so when we talk about, you know, the –
the story that you told Susan about two prime ministers chatting when we go and see at presidential
funerals, all the presidents and the former first lady is lined up in a row.
So, A, you get the certain sense of a club, but you also get a certain sense of people who
have a certain kind of respect for the sacred nature of their role and the civic virtue involved.
And I think at a time when those values are being coarsened and being undermined, it's important
to really acknowledge all of them
because any one of them could have
used their post-presidency to
be demagogic and to harm
Canada or the United States. And I think
on the whole, most of them haven't. And I think
it's a, you know, when we sit
and look at the list of all of them, they've
done much, much more good than harm.
And I think that's actually very moving
and could be a nice
model for all of us to learn from.
I feel like the big omission off the list that we've run through so far is the senior Trudeau, right?
I was just thinking that.
It's probably worth us going through him just a little bit before we rack up today.
He was also kind of like a cultural icon, Prime Minister, for all he did across two terms.
Many will also remember him for who he dated, right?
like Barbara Streisand, actors like Marco Kidder and the classical guitarist Leona Boyd,
he's a charismatic bachelor PM that felt larger than the office in some ways.
Can you just tell me a little bit more about the senior Trudeau's post-politics life
and how you might compare him to his son?
That's a really interesting question.
And don't think that that hasn't gone through Justin Trudeau's mind, too.
You know, I think, you know, there's the famous book about Pierre Trudeau is he haunts,
still, I'm sure he haunts the son, who will be, you know, either trying to live up to the legacy
or do something different. When I first got to Ottawa, Pierre Trudeau, was just recently a former
prime minister. I got here in the late 80s. And he was famously reclusive. You couldn't get him
out on anything. He did go to a law firm. And I remember sending, you know, leaving messages
because the Constitution was coming up, right?
It was the big constitutional drama.
And then he picked his moments then,
much to Brian Mulroney's frustration.
Pierre Trudeau bade a famous speech at Maison-Egril
after the Meach Lake Accord was signed,
trashing it, and galvanizing the opposition to it,
which eventually did kill the Meach Lake Accord.
And he had no small hand in that.
I feel that we're heading for a Canada which will be weaker and provinces which really won't be, in the long run, better off.
Because I feel strongly about Canada and strongly about Quebec, I feel it's important to speak my mind.
I actually went to a speech when Brian Mulerney was leaving office, and he went on for about 70 minutes, I believe, largely about what Pierre Trudeau had done to ruin his.
his time in office. So Pierre Trudeau played almost a game of peekaboo with us after he left office.
And boy, did people love in Montreal, Pierre's sightings. The most exciting part of your day was if you actually had a moment where you saw him wandering around or you saw him in the law for him, it seemed like everybody male and female just had a crush on Pierre Lier Trudeau when I first moved to Montreal and it was kind of the thing.
Final question for you both. Since the Second World War, we haven't seen.
many former prime ministers make political
comebacks, right? John Devenmaker
and Joe Clark ran again, but
most made the decision to leave
politics entirely.
Earlier in our history, that wasn't
unusual. Leaders like
McDonald, McKenzie King, all returned
for second or even third acts.
And I guess, I think the first
question is why you think
comebacks have become so much rarer
today, and then a more fun one
is, could we see one day?
Maybe a comeback from Justin Trudeau.
like his father. I think this goes to what we were talking about earlier, is by the time
prime ministers leave office, if they've spent any long amount of time in the public eye,
the publicist gets tired. You know, celebrity or political celebrity, as they call it,
the old saying, politics is show business for ugly people. Never say never, but I think also the
job is hugely demanding. And, you know, once you know what it's like, I'm not sure you want to
dive back in. It is, as Gil says, I'm sure it's addictive, but I don't know that either the
former PMs themselves or Canadians have any appetite to see people back in the public arena.
Once we're done with them, we're done with them. Gil, final word to you.
The presidency and the American public chew you up and spit you out. And many of them after
four years, let alone, eight years in office, are exhausted. We should also point out the impact
that it has on their relationships, both on their spouses and their kids.
I think also the American people have much shorter retention span than they used to
and much less respect for the power of the office.
But we should also again end on a high note that beautiful idea, that powerful idea that
George Washington injected of the two-term tradition has also put limits, which is basically
saying that, yes, at that moment you are the most important person.
In your mind, but in the mind of the American people, and often in Americans, in an Americans case, they see it as the most important person in the world.
It is really important for the stability of a democracy, for you'd also have some limits.
And as much as you wield power, like Theodore Roosevelt did, expanding the presidency every single day, he knew also that when it's time to leave, it's time to leave.
And he tried to get back in because he had kind of a half two-term tradition because he succeeded William McKinley.
but that power of the two-term tradition is something that I think is really important
because in democracies, all democracies, it's very easy for the power to go to your head
and to know that there's a limit.
To know that it's time sometimes to pass on to your successor is also a way of trying
to find the next generation of leaders who are going to come up and replace you.
From your lips to Trump's ears, Bill.
I was just thinking.
Well aware of the need for those kind of speeches.
Amen.
Thinking the same thing.
Just so much of what you said today is such an indication or such an illustration of just how far
outside the norms. Donald Trump is from all of these other political leaders. This was a
tremendous amount of fun. You too. Thank you very much for this. I had fun too. I feel like I needed
this. Yeah, thank you. All right. That's all for today. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much for
listening. Talk to you tomorrow.
For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca.ca slash podcasts.
