Jack Mintz: Kamala Harris channels Justin Trudeau

financialpost.com:

After what may end up being the only debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, Americans have no better understanding of the policy positions of the Democrat nominee. Trump, whether you like him or not, is at least a well-known commodity. Harris is not and the debate did little to clarify her vision for the United States.

True, Harris has backtracked on a host of left positions that she made back in 2019 when running for the Democratic nomination. But neither in her CNN interview nor the debate was she forced to explain her reversals. “My values have not changed” doesn’t cut it.

Maybe with a little inductive thinking we can glean a smidgeon of her economic ideas at least. Those of her economic proposals that we do know about fit perfectly with the current agenda of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Perhaps this reflects the influence of her teenage years, spent in Montreal from 1976 to 1982. At the time, Canada was developing a single-payer medicare system of the sort Harris supported in her 2019 campaign and expanding a host of deficit-financed social programs, including employment insurance, regional development and social welfare. Harris doesn’t say much about her Canadian years, but it’s hard to believe her time here did not have some impact on her “values.”

To an almost eerie degree, the Harris campaign echoes Justin Trudeau’s winning 2015 campaign. Trudeau favoured “sunny ways,” referring back to Wilfred Laurier’s quip that “the sun’s warm rays are better than winter’s bluster.” Harris is pushing “joy.” As both Trudeau and Harris talk a lot about fighting for the middle class it’s not surprising their policy prescriptions are uncannily similar.

In 2015, Trudeau promised a middle-class tax cut financed by higher