The Incontinence of Trudeau

I went into a used bookstore today. The crooked shelves were stacked to the roof with novels, textbooks, and reference books without discrimination. Almost every book in the store took on a life of its own with broken spines, torn joints, and the wayward markings of previous owners who took a pen or highlighter to important sections. Discarded among the treasures was a brand-new copy of Justin Trudeau’s self-aggrandizing fairy-tale “Common Ground”. For some reason, I find it highly amusing that most books ghostwritten for political clowns in the mold of Trudeau share a commonality in used book stores across the nation and, perhaps, across the world: they are always the least read book in the store.

Bemused, I opened to a random page in the book expecting to read a nauseatingly banal passage, and lo and behold, our little aristocrat was writing about freedom.

“I believe very deeply in the liberal idea of freedom”. Trudeau wrote before going on to say that “My idea of freedom is that we should protect the rights of people to believe what their conscience dictates, but fight equally hard to protect people from having the beliefs of others imposed upon them”.

Much of the next page centers around the importance of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in protecting individual rights as Trudeau launches into a tirade against the Harper governments’ refusal to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Charter. He unironically claims that the Charter had been used to "curb many of their autocratic tendencies”.

In Trudeauistic fashion, he hearkens back to Pierre Elliot Trudeau trying to instill in him the importance of protecting minority rights. He notes that “'[t]he idea that a majority of the people—or, given our electoral system, sometimes far less than a majority—could use the government’s immense power to restrict minority rights appalled my father. He called this the ‘tyranny of the majority’”. At that point, I put the book down and laughed.

The problem with Trudeau is he listened, but he never learned. He completely lacks the ability to apply anything he’s heard. I suspect this may be due to the fact that he has never had to apply himself. The man has had a remarkably easy life being brought up as Canadian royalty and living off his inheritance. After being dismissed from his teaching position at West Point Grey, he washed out of an engineering degree, which may have been the first attempt in his life not to live off Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s coattails.

Listening but not learning seems to be his only original trait. Trudeau parrots every fine-sounding idea he has ever heard. Ever wanted a lecture on gender equality from a man credibly accused of sexual assault? How about a lecture on government transparency from a man guilty of multiple ethics violations? Why not a lecture on racism from a guy that cannot even remember the number of times he has worn blackface? Or a lecture on truth and reconciliation from a man who did not even bother to go to the first Truth and Reconciliation holiday because he was partying in Tofino?

Trudeau continually walks on the rake because Pierre Elliot Trudeau was successful in instilling in the younger Trudeau a sense that words matter, yet because of his privileged upbringing, our little aristocrat never had to negotiate in the real world on his own. He does not understand that only actions matter.

The rest of us understand that groping random women — or trying to install ourselves as authoritarian dictators — is not acceptable. Under normal circumstances, we feel no compulsion to scream that fact to the world. First principles would tell us that nearly everyone (albeit with an obvious exception) agrees that these behaviors are bad. Because we do not scream that they are bad and he does, Trudeau considers himself above us. The difference is if a normal person and Trudeau were in a room where a woman is being uncomfortably groped by a creepy dude—or a creepy dude was trying to install himself as an authoritarian dictator— the normal person would be the one trying to stop it and Trudeau would be the creepy dude.