Adios to Fidel Castro

There are tourists and then there are American tourists. Every Canadian who travels outside of North America goes to great pains to avoid being mistaken for an American, but many people in other countries, particularly if they work in the tourism industry, can hear an American tourist coming from a mile away.

When travelling abroad, Canadians either try to muddle along, butchering the local language or they will rely on Google Translate.

Americans are known for just repeating themselves louder in English when they’re not getting what they want.

So imagine a place where Canadians could visit where there were no American tourists, where the food, music and art are local and distinct, where the locals know Canadians as soon as they get off the plane, where the sun shines warm and the water sparkles bright, where the most American thing you’ll find is a baseball game. Welcome to Cuba. Welcome to the paradise Fidel Castro built.

Or at least that’s what many people both inside and outside of Cuba would have Canadians believe.

Upon news of Castro’s death Saturday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau quickly issued a statement praising the Cuban dictator for his leadership and for working hard for decades to benefit the Cuban people.

That immediately kicked off #trudeaueulogies, a Twitter stream of pretend eulogies praising the world’s worst tyrants, past and present, real and imaginary, covering everyone from Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin to Vito “The Godfather” Corleone and Sauron from The Lord of the Rings. A suggested Trudeau eulogy for Darth Vader praised the Dark Lord’s excellence in space station construction and the formative role he took in developing leadership and vision in his son.

All joking aside, Trudeau’s praise was embarrassing, akin to the grown man with fond childhood memories of the old uncle, glossing over the routine beatings that uncle gave his wife and children.

For Canadians fond of sunny ways principles like democracy, human rights, the rule of law and free speech, Castro offered none of these things to his people during his dictatorship.

He did offer a place for Canadian tourists to go to get some sun and get away from the Americans.

He was also Pierre Trudeau’s convenient pawn 45 years ago. Canada’s support of Castro was used by every prime minister since Trudeau - even Stephen Harper who sat down with Raul Castro in 2015 - as a means of separating us from the Americans in the eyes of the world.

It was also a means of garnering votes in Quebec, where anti-American sentiment is highest, as is the willful blindness towards Castro’s many sins.

It was only Quebec politicians who leapt to Trudeau’s defence over the weekend for his lavish praise of Uncle Fidel.

Trudeau Sr. played up the friendship with Castro because it suited him politically, both at home and abroad.

Trudeau Jr. could have taken a diplomatic tact Saturday, following Barack Obama’s lead of acknowledging the grief of Castro’s family and followers while offering the support of a friend to all of the Cuban people. Instead, Trudeau Jr.’s reaction was as extreme in its admiration as Donald Trump’s “Fidel Castro is dead!” tweet was rude.

Now Trudeau is staying home, presumably to extract both feet from his mouth, instead of attending Castro’s funeral.

Governor general David Johnston will attend on behalf of Canadians, which would have been the proper protocol choice whatever Trudeau had said Saturday.

Cuba remains a dictatorship under the thumb of Castro’s brother Raul.

It can’t be forgotten, however, that Castro, like Mao in China, had wide public support while overthrowing a brutal and corrupt regime. In the case of Cuba, that corrupt regime was bought and paid for by American companies and mobsters until Castro kicked them out.

He turned to China and the Soviet Union out of political necessity, needing powerful benefactors to keep the Americans, just 145 kilometres to the north, out, but also because the enemy of his enemy could be a handy friend.

Castro may have been far more benevolent than Mao or Stalin but, like them and all other dictators, refused to tolerate dissent and did not hesitate to use force to maintain his power. Romanticizing a dictator because he thumbs his nose at the democratic United States is stupid, no matter how cheap the Caribbean holiday, how good the mojitos are and how nice it is to not have to listen to annoying Americans at the bar.

Neil Godbout is managing editor of The Prince George Citizen and a former reporter at The Penticton Herald.