Will the real Justin Trudeau please, please stand up?
The fact we don’t know his character yet doesn’t auger well for the Grits’ chances
Who is Justin Trudeau when the cameras switch off? When the Instagram account doesn’t need to be fed?
Is he the ultra-feminist, ultra-caring, ultra-empathetic chap who would give the coat off his back to a Syrian refugee? Or is he the brutish bloke who bins attorneys general for siding with the independent application of the law and dresses in brown and/or blackface for (apparently) a laugh?
Trudeau has been a public figure since his father’s death at the turn of the millennium. The fact that we don’t know his true character at this late stage in his public life doesn’t augur well for the Liberal re-election campaign. The sudden surfacing of footage of not one, not two, but three instances of Trudeau in skin other than white has forced the question to the fore. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me thrice? Well, I humbly suggest you’re mugging us off, my Right Honourable friend.
“I am disappointed and I’m pissed off at myself for doing it,” a contrite-ish Trudeau told reporters on his campaign plane. But the apology was the least the prime minister could do with his hand caught in the minstrel jar. Left unsaid was whether he was pissed off after the first, second or third instance of his racism. Anyone can make a mistake. But three times? That’s something more than carelessness.
Let’s take it as read that nobody would give a Conservative in similar circumstances a break. One even suspects the Bruce Willis-iest of diehard Liberals are now wondering if their leader does what he says on his tin. While Trudeau has always felt like a construct to his critics, his supporters were convinced of his authenticity even if the broader world might have had too little information to go on. Now everybody is overwhelmed with evidence.
The proud feminist who banished caucus and cabinet colleagues for sexual indiscretions without full or transparent investigations is the same one who dismissed his own credible allegation of sexual wrongdoing with a blithe “people experience things differently.” And the proud anti-racist is now hoist on his blacked-out petard. Trudeau is in a hell of a bind, even if it is one entirely of his own making.
The question now before Canadians is this: Did Trudeau change before coming into public life, or has he kept his true self concealed while in front of the cameras? To be honest, I’m damned if I know.
Those who bleat the loudest about their values are often the same ones who fall the furthest short of them. The ultra-Christian is usually the one caught with the prostitute and the hater of gays is often himself in the closet. And Trudeau? Is his feminism the projection of a man who probably never had to work too hard to get a date? Or is it the honest distillation of an ethos cultivated in the shadow of his ultra-famous father? These are the questions the racism revelations are now prompting.
If you’re Trudeau, there is probably little to do at this point but insist that your casual racism is now a part of your history. And to Trudeau’s credit, his government has stood up for racialized Canadians (and to minorities seeking to come to our country). But it’s awfully hard to square with the Trudeau we see when the veil is occasionally dropped. What kind of a jerk says “thank you for your donation” when a private fundraiser is disrupted by Indigenous Canadians upset that the prime minister hasn’t followed through on his pledge to clean up their reserve? What ordinary person can read either ethics commissioner’s report into Trudeau’s law-breaking and not see a man who thinks he floats on air?
The Liberals who felt queasy when Trudeau flung his government into the SNC-Lavalin buzz saw are now surely keeled over a bin vomiting out what little faith they still had left in their man. How can they defend this racism on the doorstep? How much will Andrew Scheer have to suck for Trudeau to remain the brighter spark?
But forget about the politicos, most of who will beam these revelations through the dual prisms of cynicism and necessity. What of the millions of ordinary folks who thought Trudeau was a breath of fresh air on a political stage so badly in need of it? What happens to their belief in the system? What happens to their belief in “real change”? Who knows?
Trudeau’s supporters like to say he’s never as courageous as when he’s backed into a corner or facing long odds. We’ll see if that holds true now, even when so many other of our beliefs about Trudeau are being smashed into 1,000 pieces.
Andrew MacDougall is a London-based communications consultant and ex-director of communications to former prime minister Stephen Harper.
Trudeau is in a hell of a bind, even if it is one entirely of his own making.