Trudeau: cute but far from perfect
Justin Trudeau might be the ‘‘wokest’’ politician of all mankind. Sorry, make that ‘‘peoplekind’’.
The Canadian prime minister interrupted a woman at a town hall to issue a correction, cutting her off when she mentioned ‘‘mankind’’. ‘‘We’d like to say ‘peoplekind’, not necessarily mankind, because it’s more inclusive,’’ Trudeau said.
Many in the audience applauded or laughed, including the question-asker. Many rightwingers on social media did not. Trudeau was cruel to chastise a constituent, they said. He cares too much about political correctness and too little about common decency.
In Trudeau’s defence, he was teasing. The woman he corrected had been rambling about ‘‘God the Mother’’ and ‘‘maternal love’’, which she said was scientifically known as mitochondria, or Midichlorians, or something. He has since called the mishap a ‘‘dumb joke’’.
Enough groaning over grammar and enough scrutinising Trudeau’s semantics. This is more than a case of performative allyship falling flat. It’s a lesson in a broader trend of performative progressivism obscuring illiberal policy making. The same day Trudeau held forth on our hopelessly gendered vocabulary, it surfaced his government had brokered a $233 million deal to sell 16 combat helicopters to the Philippines.
Philippine dictator Rodrigo Duterte will likely use these weapons to kill citizens he deems undesirable even more expeditiously than he has already managed. All this comes months after Trudeau decried the Asian country’s deplorable human rights record.
Trudeau’s forays on to the social-justice battlefield have distracted us before. Trudeau has earned accolades for penning an essay for Marie Claire about how ‘‘our sons’’ can change sexism, shouting out #Metoo at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and assembling a half-female cabinet. He won hearts when he apologised to victims of Canada’s so-called ‘‘gay purge’’, and when he welcomed to his country immigrants US President Donald Trump swore to keep out.
Also, he’s really, really handsome.
Trudeau has his charms, but even his victories come with caveats. Trudeau has promised legislation closing Canada’s pay gap time and time again, but none has materialised. And he has backtracked on his open invitation to the refugees of the world. Still, far too many in the United States are content to cheer Trudeau on for his sometimes surface-level commitment to liberal causes – and look how cute he is with these baby pandas – while ignoring the ways he isn’t liberal.
First there are the helicopters, which look less surprising to anyone who remembers Trudeau’s insistence on carrying through a $15 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
Then there’s climate change. Trudeau, as usual, says all the right things about the threat of a warming Earth. But he also loves oil, and he wants oil executives to love him. He touts a plan to pivot toward clean energy, and he’s imposing a carbon tax, but when it comes to constructing pipelines it’s drill, woman whom I respect deeply, drill.
Trudeau has also noted the ways Canada has failed its First Nations people – and then continued failing them.
American progressives can’t seem to get enough of Trudeau, but they also don’t bother to learn enough about him. He’s not Trump, after all, and he has adorable dimples. It’s the same way with other world leaders, from Emmanuel Macron to Angela Merkel.
These politicians are miles better than the far-right alternatives. They’re miles better than Trump. But that doesn’t place them beyond reproach. Americans who call themselves progressives should hold politicians accountable to the code they keep so close. At the least, they shouldn’t blindly celebrate leaders who miss the mark.
The Washington Post