D.C., Ottawa sigh in relief as bullies are sent packing
WASHINGTON—This week turned out to be a big continental detox, as the air was cleared on both sides of the border.
Almost literally, as U.S. President Joe Biden here in Washington issued executive orders to reimplement dozens of antipollution regulations as part of an ambitious climate change plan (that includes, to the dismay of many Canadians, a death blow for the planned Keystone XL pipeline).
But it was even more palpable metaphorically, as bullies who presided over “toxic environments” were sent packing.
Former president Donald Trump, defeated, de-platformed, disgraced and impeached, flew out of Washington Wednesday morning, refusing to say his successor’s name and promising to be “be back in some form” before his plane took off as the final defiant strains of “My Way” played over the loudspeakers.
Meanwhile a very different commander-in-chief more quietly stepped down, when Gov. Gen. Julie Payette resigned after the federal government received an apparently damning report into workplace conditions under her at Rideau Hall. She seemed to take a final dig at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in her resignation announcement, saying “we all experience things differently” in denying wrongdoing on her part.
The two departing government figures don’t have much in common — she’s a scientist who has been to space, he’s a science-denier who created a military Space Force — but it appears those who worked under each of them greeted their exits with a long-awaited sigh of relief. Both had become famous for being bullies.
Payette had been appointed as the representative of the Crown in Canada by Justin Trudeau — who reportedly hand-picked her after being advised against it. Her job description was essentially to be a symbol. To project stability and dignity and make people feel proud while avoiding any controversy.
To put it bluntly, her job was to be boring.
The role of president of the United States is significantly more complicated than that — the person with possession of the U.S. nuclear codes has earth-shaking moments of drama built into their job — but after four years of Donald Trump, many Americans were hoping for something a touch more dull. During the campaign, I saw more than one lawn sign here in Washington that said “Make Politics Boring Again.”
Trump wasn’t just known to be a bully to his own staff, though he was that, as evidenced by Dr. Anthony Fauci’s almost giddy relief in press events at being able to speak honestly once Trump was gone. Trump was a bully to the whole world.
Still, it was noteworthy that Biden, on his first day in office, made a public point of telling his own staff that a respectful workplace was his highest priority.
“If you’re ever working with me, and I hear you treated another colleague with disrespect, talked down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot. On the spot,” he said. “Everybody, everybody, is entitled to be treated with decency and dignity.”
Perhaps he’s indicating that the tone in your workplace reflects your attitude to your work. And his attitude to his work, so far, places a high priority on “decency and dignity” and “respect.”
His initial wave of executive orders cited those concepts directly in repealing some harsh and xenophobic immigration policies and forbidding discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.
He even promised to the world, in his inauguration speech, that the U.S. would “lead not merely by the exam- ple of our power, but by the power of our example.” It was a line familiar from his campaign speeches. It was a line that could serve as an anti-bullying motto.
The most powerful example of Biden’s attitudinal difference from his predecessor might have come this week when he choked up at a press conference in Delaware, talking with tears streaming down his cheeks about what representing the state has meant to him and about the loss of his late son Beau.
Trump mocked politicians who let the tears come. “Make liberals cry again” was a popular motto on Trump merchandise. Biden is crying again, though it’s fair to say neither he nor liberals who voted for him are sorry for it. Biden wears his emotions on his sleeve, and on his cheeks. He’s made empathy his calling card: expressing it, and inspiring it with his own stories of hardship and loss.
At this moment of hardship and loss in the United States — shared in Canada what with the pandemic and the economic circumstances that come with it — it’s a projection of a very different kind of strength and confidence. One rooted in humility, a concept Trudeau disregarded entirely the last time he chose a governor general, and one his government might still learn much about.
It may or may not prove effective in meeting the towering policy challenges of the moment. But it seems in tune with the mood of a world wearied by years of constant bluster, and conflict, and bullying.
“Everybody, everybody, is entitled to be treated with decency and dignity.”
U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN