Say that again? Some zingers on PM’s tour

Unintended humour in town halls

In Dartmouth, N.S., Monday, Justin Trudeau said that because his maternal grandfather was born in Scotland, he understands the immigrant experience.

In Kingston last week, Trudeau was asked what to do if he got a spot on his tie — and he had a handy tip.

And, of course, in Peterborough, Ont., he forced his aides into some damage control when he blurted out that the oilsands ought to be phased out.

These are all part of what passes for the outtakes so far at the six town-hall-style meetings Trudeau has held in Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick on his national ‘listening’ tour.

They are also illustrations of the potential perils of letting a political leader go before a few hundred citizens for an hour-long unscripted and unplugged questionand-answer session. For the Liberal Party, these sessions are a sign that they trust their leader completely in these kinds of situations and that even if there are a few verbal hiccups, Trudeau wins more points than he loses just for doing what almost no other federal or provincial party leader would dare do.

On the other hand, Trudeau’s political opponents are almost certainly gleefully building a clip reel of some of the odd things he’s said on this tour for future use.

THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE

In Dartmouth, a 25-yearold man who identified himself as an Italian citizen complained about the hoops he was going through to become a Canadian citizen. Trudeau started his reply this way: “I’m a 10th- or 11th-generation Canadian on one of my sides but my maternal grandfather was born in Scotland so I do have some idea of the challenges it takes to come to Canada and has took over the sweep of history of Canada.” Huh? The grandfather in question was James Sinclair, born in Banff, Scotland, in 1908, who arrived in Canada with his family when he was three. He adjusted to life as an immigrant so well that he served as an MP from B.C. for 18 years, a career that had been over for 15 years before Trudeau was born.

THE TROUBLE WITH TIES

One of the oddest questions came in Kingston when he was asked by a smallbusiness owner named Paula, “What happens to your neckties when you accidentally spill something on them?”

His answer: “Not a question I was prepared for so I have no answer to give. Uh. It depends. Sometimes a little soda water and salt gets out the stains. Sometimes I send it to the dry cleaner and sometimes, as happens regularly, my wife goes through my closet and, all of a sudden, my favourite old ties and favourite old shirts are gone.”

To which Paula replied: “The reason why I asked is because I’m looking at your tie and thinking it would make a fabulous dog collar.”

This was all broadcast live on national television and streamed to the Web.

RILING ALBERTA

In the six town halls so far — all in eastern Canada — there has not been one participant encouraging Trudeau to approve more pipelines or accelerate development of Canada’s energy resources. In fact, it’s been precisely the opposite. Trudeau has been attacked from his “green flank,” criticized for continuing fossil fuel subsidies, approving the Kinder Morgan pipeline, and not giving citizens enough information about the Energy East pipeline.

In the face of that criticism, Trudeau presented arguments he’s made several times, saying, for example, in Peterborough, that “We have to move in a smart way off of fossil fuels. We can’t manage that transition overnight. There are too many jobs and too many economic benefits to families who are working hard (in the energy sector).” OK. So far so good. But then he was challenged on his government’s approval of the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion, which will take Alberta crude to Vancouver. Somewhere in the midst of the six-minute defence of that decision he said this: “You can’t make a choice between what’s good for the environment and what’s good for the economy. We can’t shut down the oil sands tomorrow. We need to phase them out.”

And that’s where it went off the rails so far as the likes of Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean and many other small-c conservatives were concerned. “If you want to ‘phase out’ the oilsands, you’ll have to go through me and 4 million Albertans first,” Jean said on Twitter.

At the end of the month, Trudeau will take his listening tour to open town hall meetings in Alberta and B.C. Those promise to be fun.

James Sinclair