How was the, umm, trip, sir?
PM’s fraught India visit was no honeymoon
Justin Trudeau’s muchlampooned expedition to India raises a number of questions beyond Ottawa’s basic ability to organize a credible foreign junket.
Was the trip a success? Was it even necessary? Was the abundant criticism fair, or — as some are suggesting — just a bunch of cranky pundits, many of whom weren’t even there, having a good time at the PM’s expense?
If anything’s clear, the sheer volume of the criticism indicates the bloom is definitely off the rose as far as Trudeau’s standing with many media heavies is concerned. In Year One of the Liberal mandate, Trudeau sailed through overseas visits on a cloud of charisma and selfies. No one appeared to expect much of the handsome young PM at that point; now — in Ottawa at least — there’s a distinct sense that more substance, and less style, is in order. You’d probably have to go back to Joe Clark’s bumbling performance on a 1979 trip to the Middle East and India to find an official excursion so engulfed by journalistic mockery.
There’s a reason for that. The visit, which came to a merciful end over the weekend, stumbled from one snafu to another. The invitation to a man convicted of attempted murder to dine with the PM was either incompetent or sloppy, or both. The paucity of official business on such a lengthy trip left people wondering why Trudeau had bothered. Trooping the entire Trudeau family around the sub-continent decked out as some sort of Disney version of India was just plain embarrassing.
Canadians take their international image seriously; they don’t appreciate looking like rubes.
If India had been the prime minister’s first foreign trip, it might explain the confusion. Rookies make mistakes. But the Liberals have been in power for more than two years — the next election is closer than the last one — and Trudeau’s most recent travels have been one disaster after another. There was his holiday freebie to the Aga Khan’s island, and Trudeau’s curious inability to understand what all the fuss was about.
His much-anticipated trip to China was billed as the precursor to a free-trade pact, which never developed and left Canada looking illinformed and over-eager. And his failure to show up at a crucial meeting in Vietnam led to accusations Ottawa had “sabotaged” the anticipated signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
In none of these instances did Trudeau’s people have a persuasive explanation for the cock-up. The prime minister initially claimed he was great pals with the Aga Khan, only to have it emerge they’d only been in the same room once in 30 years. The Vietnam confusion was alternately put down to a prolonged meeting with the Japanese prime minister, then to Trudeau’s refusal to be “rushed” into a deal — which doesn’t explain why the 11 other leaders had all gathered nearby in the belief the deal had been done, and why a lesser Canadian official was able to quietly sign the agreement in January.
Nor could Trudeau explain away his Indian debacle. One journalist asked point blank if there had been any reason for the visit other than photo ops. Though Trudeau dutifully insisted great things had been accomplished, the only substantial business deal was an investment package, which Trudeau mistakenly asserted would produce “over a billion dollars of investment in Canada.”
In reality, three quarters of the money will actually be Canadian investment in India. Canada’s share will be $250 million. Maybe he was tired after a long trip, but with so little else of substance to demonstrate, shouldn’t he have the details down?
Not only do the Trudeau Liberals seem slow to learn, they also show a reluctance to listen. There was plenty of time and opportunity to prevent Jaspal Atwal, would-be killer and former member of an illegal Sikh separatist group, from being invited to dinner with the prime minister, or posing for photos with Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, but the Liberals either didn’t bother or dismissed the plentiful information that could have been gathered with a simple Google search.
An inability to accept advice has become a hallmark of this government. Finance Minister Bill Morneau spent months resisting warnings about his attempted tax reform last year, retreating only when the opposition had become too serious to ignore. Trudeau’s electoral reform initiative collapsed over his determination to plunge ahead despite evidence Canada wasn’t ready for such a major change, that the complex details needed time for voters to absorb, and that the inexperienced young minister in charge wasn’t right for the job.
The Liberals’ inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls has suffered from a similar bull-headedness: despite repeated calls from Canada’s First Nations for the removal of Marion Buller as chief commissioner, Ottawa insists it will stand by her as the inquiry struggles along. Apparently it knows better than the Indigenous people it insists are among its top concerns.
When challenged on issues, the Liberals’ inclination is to counterattack. Morneau and his boss met complaints about tax reform with taunts about wealthy Canadians refusing to “pay their share,” despite Morneau’s own considerable wealth and use of tax breaks to protect it.
When Trudeau was mocked recently for suggesting “mankind” should be “peoplekind,” his top adviser compared the critics to Nazis. And rather than face up to the mistaken invitation to Atwal, the prime minister first tried to dump responsibility on a British Columbia MP who had submitted Atwal’s name, then a senior official was trundled out to anonymously accuse the Indian government of a dark conspiracy to embarrass Canada by removing Atwal’s name from a blacklist.
It all reflects a notable peevishness from a government that can’t seem to move from an intense reliance on optics and good fellowship to the difficulties of governing.
Trudeau won the 2015 vote because Canadians were tired of the humourless Harper years, and were willing to give the attractive young Trudeau a chance. Expectations were that time would bring a turn to serious issues, but one election promise after another has become bogged down or jettisoned. With little else to show for itself, the Indian expedition appeared largely motivated by a desire for colourful photos Trudeau could use to win over Sikh voters in 2019. If that’s the case, dozens of ministers, officials, business people, reporters and even a celebrity chef were carted around Indian tourist spots at enormous cost for a week so the Liberals could retain a few ridings.
While Trudeau was off looking for Indian investment, U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway revealed it will book an extra US$29 billion in profit from a reduction in U.S. corporate tax rates. It now has a cash mountain of $116 billion looking for somewhere to go. Trudeau could have saved the country considerable time, effort and expense if he’d skipped the subcontinent and booked a quick trip to Omaha for lunch with Buffett.
He wouldn’t need to take his own chef, and could have saved a small fortune in fancy clothes alone.
THE LIBERALS SEEM SLOW TO LEARN, AND RELUCTANT TO LISTEN.