Weighing the pluses and minuses of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first year in office was a tough job. He got off to a good start. How many refugees can claim they were welcomed to their new country by its Prime Minister? In person! And he kept his promise to fix what we used to call the Baby Bonus. Efforts such as that are worthwhile.
But he does not have to be so damn arrogant about it? Just the other day he told the Toronto Star’s editorial board that he was still going to do something about the way Canadians vote. Give us a break! Why should he also insult the special commons committee (including five Liberal MPs) who gave up their summer to study the question? They did an excellent job. They told him that his time frames were unrealistic. And they are. There is as much as two-years work needed by an expert committee to come up with anything that Canadians might buy. And then it will take more years to sell the idea to Canadians. Trudeau needs to listen to reason.
For him to crow about his success with the doctor-assisted dying file is also an embarrassment. He will deserve every word of criticism when the Supreme Court dumps that legislation back in his lap.
For many Canadians, it is his duplicity in regards to pipelines that sticks in their craw. Trudeau’s first problem is not the laissez-faire economics he is promoting but that he lies about the nature of these pipelines. They are not pumping oil. They are pumping diluted bitumen and that breaks every promise he has made about the environment.
Nobody can wash their hands of dangers of a spill or the extent of global warming that can be caused by sending that bitumen to be refined into ersatz oil in third world countries who cannot afford to worry about global warming. That is arrogant, And it is a sham. It is a serious insult to all Canadians who really care about our environment.
But what really annoys us is the changes he has made in the Liberal Party of Canada. It was never his party to screw around. He leads it. It is not his to abuse. It belongs to those who believed in it, tended it through the fallow years and kept it strong. He made promises to the party in his quest for the leadership. He promised not to interfere with riding nominations—and he immediately broke his word. He cancelled our memberships in the party and turned it into his crowd funding vehicle. He removed any controls party members used to have over the leader.
And you thought Donald Trump was arrogant. He should be taking lessons from Justin Trudeau.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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