A few days after being sworn into office, Justin Trudeau bounded down Parliament’s steps, smiling broadly for a small gaggle of reporters. He greeted one, pretending to listen attentively to her question as he hurriedly walked away from the Peace Tower. After quipping a bit about his “big job,” he ignored her for another female reporter who was armed with a cameraman. After listening to the latter’s questions and beginning to answer, he ignored her too, this time to greet an acquaintance. Small glimpses of people’s interactions with others are often quite revealing. Watching Mr. Trudeau engage (or pretend to engage) with the plebeians reveals a chap who is energetic, easily bored, and at ease with the doting attention of others.
Over the course of his pre-parliamentary life, Justin Trudeau was a rafting instructor, a substitute drama teacher, a part-time activist, and a full-time trust fund baby. He studied literature, education and geography over the course of several years, oftentimes not completing his program of study in the allotted time, sometimes not completing his requirements at all. Like his father, he is a bit scatterbrained; a loving father one day, hustling the kids to grandma’s house to host a Cheech & Chong party the next. Amidst separatist musing and third person tirades, he sees nothing wrong with speaking against pipelines in French and championing oil in English, or hating Canada’s wealthy, but dining with them when they invite. He will proclaim that the Canadian middle-class is under attack when every global study (and Hillary Clinton) disagrees. For Justin, words are everything, tone is essential, and facts are inconvenient.
In the selection of his cabinet, Mr. Trudeau has placed his trust in the hands of over 30 opportunists, selected for their media-friendly stories, to repay personal favors, and to cater to every conceivable boxed demographic that ivory tower academics use to divide Canadians. Our body of ministers, with its overlapping egos and rampant inexperience, is now led by a youngster who has promised the world when he only governs half a percent of its population. The media will fawn over him for now – until a scandal breaks, and he suddenly learns how to stop flirting with reporters and start dodging them. The press will break the PM just as easily as it made him.
Mr. Trudeau grew up in opulence, well bred in the dark arts of populism and power plays – he is an empathizer one moment, a self-righteous prince the next. What Prime Minister Stephen Harper lacked in spontaneity and pomp he made up for through hard work, stability, and tangible results. The Canadian people enjoy a good show as much as the next nationality, but when the curtains close, there will still be a need for food on the table and funds in the coffers. In this new administration, amidst pirouettes, somersaults and poetic verse, one can only hope that some governing will actually get done.
