Other concerns take back seat to quest for power

Trudeau struggles to justify why election needed now

It takes a special breed of callousness to announce an election that essentially amounts to a vanity project while a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions unfolds in Afghanistan. This just isn't any humanitarian crisis either; it's one Canada has a direct hand in and a moral obligation to stem.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gleefully strode through the grounds of Rideau Hall with his family to visit Governor General Mary Simon as reporters fielded frantic phone calls from Afghans fearing for their lives. He announced an election he absolutely did not need to announce now — or until 2023 — as photos emerged of hundreds of Afghan interpreters and their families huddled in the streets of Kabul, where they were told to report before the Canadian embassy abruptly closed and its staff got the hell out Dodge.

But, as always, other concerns take a back seat to Trudeau's quest for power. While U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson recalls parliament to deal with the Afghanistan crisis, our dear leader takes to the campaign trail.

To his credit, Trudeau began his remarks with a statement on Afghanistan. “Our commitment to the people of Afghanistan, including women and girls, and the LGBTQ2 communities, remains unwavering,” he said. “Canada firmly condemns the escalating violence and we are heartbroken at the situation the Afghan people find themselves in today.”

But Trudeau being Trudeau, he couldn't resist using the unfolding tragedy to score a few social justice points. Never mind that Canada's plans to help Afghan women, girls, and LGBTQ communities come far too late and remain shaky, at best, as Taliban forces overtake Kabul in brutal fashion. There are no feminist brownie points to be won as horrific human rights abuses and war crimes escalate with no end in sight.

To be crystal clear, the Afghan people did not simply “find themselves” in this situation, either. The Western world helped lead them here and to suggest otherwise, as though the Taliban's resurgence is some sort of freak natural disaster, is offensive.

Then, Trudeau took a hard turn into election mode. The shift was unsettling, like someone flipped a switch on an animatronic programmed for one sole purpose: campaign season.

Except his programming must have had some bad code, because Trudeau couldn't stop repeating himself. Clearly struggling to justify why Canadians need to go to the polls now, he resorted to a broken record of platitudes about democracy and voters having their say during a “pivotal” historic moment.

Trudeau attempted to paint himself as a champion of democracy, saying, “the answer to tyranny is to have an election.” This is, of course, the same politician who rose to power on promises of freer, fairer elections including electoral reform and open nominations. Promises he conveniently forgot once in office. If Trudeau really wanted more Canadians to have a voice, he would have ended the first-past-the-post system when voters gave him a clear mandate to do so.

Now, he wants voters to give him another mandate when he hasn't finished fulfilling the last. Trudeau spoke about providing Indigenous communities with clean drinking water and addressing unaffordable housing, two areas where his government is, at best, grievously behind schedule. It's not a good sign when you have to start an election campaign attempting to rebrand your failures as success stories.

Trudeau's repetitive talk of democratic values returned during the media's question period, and would have been enough to lull this columnist back to sleep if they weren't so enraging in light of Afghanistan. Canada was part of a coalition that made a commitment, one that included bringing democracy and human rights — particularly women's rights — to all Afghans. To pontificate about democratic ideals on a day of such dismal democratic failure, when there's a real risk that locals who helped our cause may be slaughtered in the streets, is nauseatingly hypocritical even for Trudeau.

It's been clear for a while Trudeau was going to hold this election over hell or high water, so long as polls showed a Liberal majority within reach. After today's well-rehearsed, but substantively hollow speech, it's clearer than ever where our prime minister's priorities lie. They aren't with Canadian voters, and they most certainly aren't with Afghans. Trudeau's one and only priority is winning a majority and he's not about to let a pandemic, let alone a historic humanitarian crisis, get in the way of that.