美国国家公共电台 NPR Justin Trudeau Battles For His Political Survival As Canada Gets Ready To Vote

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

It's Election Day tomorrow in Canada, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in the battle of his political life. The young liberal leader swept to power four years ago on a message of change and hope, but he's been implicated¹ in a series of scandals. Polls show his Liberal Party narrowly behind the opposition² Conservatives. David McGuffin reports from Ottawa.

DAVID MCGUFFIN, BYLINE³: Barack Obama endorsed⁴ Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by tweeting this - the world needs Trudeau's progressive leadership now. And I hope our neighbors to the north support him for another term. Trudeau, dropping in the polls, welcomed the endorsement⁵.

JUSTIN TRUDEAU: I appreciate the kind words, and I'm working hard to keep our progress going.

MCGUFFIN: Opposition Conservative leader Andrew Scheer did his best to brush it all off.

ANDREW SCHEER: I've got millions of Canadians like the ones here tonight behind me. I'm not very interested in what former foreign leaders are saying.

MCGUFFIN: Obama remains⁶ hugely popular with Canadians, unlike most of the leaders in this election, says Greg Weston, veteran Canadian political columnist⁷ and strategist.

GREG WESTON: This is an election, in many ways, that comes down to which of these candidates is a credible⁸ leader. The answer is, in most people's minds, none of the above. And so when someone as popular as Obama coming in and - endorsing⁹ Justin Trudeau could have a significant impact.

TRUDEAU: The Conservatives are the ones obsessed¹⁰...

MCGUFFIN: Once a progressive poster boy, Trudeau's glow has since been dimmed by old-school political ethics¹¹ violations¹² and, at the start of this campaign, a scandal involving photos of him wearing blackface. But his main political rival, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, has been unable to capitalize.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: The next prime minister of Canada Andrew Scheer.

(CHEERING)

MCGUFFIN: At this rally in suburban¹³ Montreal, a couple of hundred Conservative supporters fill a ballroom¹⁴ to listen to Sheer push out his message of fiscal¹⁵ responsibility.

SCHEER: We have a plan to get back to balanced budgets over a responsible period of time so we can stop borrowing billions and billions.

MCGUFFIN: Tall, boyish unassuming and from middle-class roots, the 40-year-old Scheer is, in many ways, the opposite of the wealthy telegenic outgoing Trudeau. A devout¹⁶ Catholic and a married father of five, Scheer is a career politician who became the youngest speaker of the House of Commons at age 32. Isabelle Lapointe is a Conservative candidate from just outside Montreal.

ISABELLE LAPOINTE: He's a real person like you and I. He's a very family guy. He doesn't live in a golden tower. He's on the ground.

MCGUFFIN: But his Conservative Party faces an uphill battle in the crucial vote-rich province of Ontario. The provincial¹⁷ Conservative government there is deeply unpopular over cuts to health care and education. Voters could take their anger out on Scheer. And then there was the revelation that Scheer holds joint¹⁸ U.S. citizenship¹⁹.

SCHEER: My dad was born in the United States. I grew up my whole life in Canada.

MCGUFFIN: Despite beginning the paperwork to renounce²⁰ that U.S. citizenship, political analyst²¹ Greg Weston says it raises questions for some voters about whether Scheer's conservatism is less centrist and Canadian and more to the right and Republican.

WESTON: The Conservatives have always, always in this country been plagued by the notion they have a hidden agenda. And that hidden agenda that everybody fears the most is social conservatism and - are we going to be back into an abortion²² debate? Is somebody going to try to bring back capital punishment?

MCGUFFIN: The race tomorrow is still too close to call. But one thing is certain. If Andrew Scheer's Conservatives do win, he will be the first American prime minister in Canadian history.

For NPR News, I'm David McGuffin in Ottawa.

1 implicated   

adj.密切关联的；牵涉其中的

参考例句：

• These groups are very strongly implicated in the violence. 这些组织与这起暴力事件有着极大的关联。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Having the stolen goods in his possession implicated him in the robbery. 因藏有赃物使他涉有偷盗的嫌疑。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 endorsed   

vt.& vi.endorse的过去式或过去分词形式v.赞同( endorse的过去式和过去分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品

参考例句：

• The committee endorsed an initiative by the chairman to enter discussion about a possible merger. 委员会通过了主席提出的新方案，开始就可能进行的并购进行讨论。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The government has broadly endorsed a research paper proposing new educational targets for 14-year-olds. 政府基本上支持建议对14 岁少年实行新教育目标的研究报告。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 endorsement   

n.背书；赞成，认可，担保；签(注)，批注

参考例句：

• We are happy to give the product our full endorsement.我们很高兴给予该产品完全的认可。
• His presidential campaign won endorsement from several celebrities.他参加总统竞选得到一些社会名流的支持。

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

7 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

8 credible   

adj.可信任的，可靠的

参考例句：

• The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。
• Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法？

9 endorsing   

v.赞同( endorse的现在分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品

参考例句：

• Yet Communist leaders are also publicly endorsing religion in an unprecedented way. 不过，共产党领导层对宗教信仰的公开认可也是以前不曾有过的。 来自互联网
• Connecticut Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman is endorsing Republican Senator John McCain. 康涅狄格州独立派参议员约瑟夫。列波曼将会票选共和议员约翰。麦凯恩。 来自互联网

10 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

11 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

12 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

13 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

14 ballroom   

n.舞厅

参考例句：

• The boss of the ballroom excused them the fee.舞厅老板给他们免费。
• I go ballroom dancing twice a week.我一个星期跳两次交际舞。

15 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

16 devout   

adj.虔诚的，虔敬的，衷心的 (n.devoutness)

参考例句：

• His devout Catholicism appeals to ordinary people.他对天主教的虔诚信仰感染了普通民众。
• The devout man prayed daily.那位虔诚的男士每天都祈祷。

17 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。

18 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

19 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

20 renounce   

v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系

参考例句：

• She decided to renounce the world and enter a convent.她决定弃绝尘世去当修女。
• It was painful for him to renounce his son.宣布与儿子脱离关系对他来说是很痛苦的。

21 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

22 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。