Justin should have said no thanks
The prime minister, as he has likely realized since returning, was badly mistaken if he thought the pros of the trip outweighed the cons.
It’s not hard to understand why Justin Trudeau would have been reluctant to decline the Aga Khan’s invitation to holiday on Bells Cay, the Ismaili Muslim leader’s lavish private island in the Bahamas.
The Aga Khan is an old family friend of the Trudeaus, a respected philanthropist and an honorary Canadian citizen. Plus he has a yacht — and Trudeau is a known aficionado of sunny ways.
Still, the prime minister, as he has likely realized since returning, was badly mistaken if he thought the pros of the trip outweighed the cons. He should have said no for at least two reasons.
The first: ethics. The Aga Khan, after all, is on the board of a foundation — one that bears his title, no less — that is registered to lobby the government of which Trudeau is head. Since 2004, Ottawa has given $310 million to help the Aga Khan Foundation with its admirable and important aid work in Asia and Africa. That includes $55 million the Trudeau administration earmarked for the foundation last year.
It’s not so much that Trudeau would expect the Aga Khan to try to use their friendship to peddle influence or that the prime minister would be susceptible to such entreaties. Rather, it’s the optics of preference that matters here. Recent experience should have taught Trudeau that preserving the public trust depends not only on integrity, but also the appearance of integrity. Failing to do so gives ammunition to those who would use any pretext to attack government.
Which brings us to the second reason: politics. Though Trudeau remains quite popular, his numbers have been shakier in recent months in part at least because his government is developing a problem with billionaires. His visit to the Aga Khan’s island will do nothing to help.
As trust in government declines, so, too, does tolerance for anything that looks like privileged access. The persistent controversy over Trudeau’s cash-foraccess fundraisers, along with a growing list of minor spending scandals, is raising old questions about Liberal entitlement. The Conservatives have already called on Parliament’s ethics watchdog to investigate the holiday.
When you’ve travelled in powerful circles for your whole life, as Trudeau has, surrounded by players and influencers, perhaps it becomes hard to see how such scandals are perceived by people outside the bubble. Perhaps that’s also why Trudeau failed to grasp the optics of taking a government jet to a private island for the holidays. All this makes him seem out of touch.
Nor will it do for the prime minister to argue that vacation destinations are a private matter. That, he says, is why he likes to keep his holiday plans secret and why he marked this particular vacation as “personal” in his daily itinerary.
That’s a hard case to make at the best of times given that U.S. presidents, for instance, routinely announce their holiday plans. And this most recent incident has surely squandered the benefit of the doubt.
In an apparent attempt to undo some of the political damage, the Prime Minister’s Office has announced that Trudeau will immediately begin a tour from Ottawa to the West Coast, meeting ordinary Canadians in coffee shops and church basements along the way. But a trip from the yacht to the Tim Hortons may feed rather than reduce cynicism.
The perception of privileged access is dangerous not only for Trudeau, but also for democracy. To the extent that Trudeau seems not to get it, he reinforces the perception that he and his government are in the Ottawa bubble, far removed from the concerns of ordinary Canadians. And this, as we saw last year, creates room for the sort of populist politician who would channel legitimate concerns into destructive resentment.