Blackface blind spot
Re: Urgent questions for Justin Trudeau, Christie Blatchford, Sept. 24
Once again, Christie Blatchford sizes up our current PM exactly.
In four years, his only legislative success has been the legalizing of marijuana, which it now seems is fraught with pricing and marketing challenges.
In the meantime, he has discredited our country through his inappropriate behaviour … passion for “blackface,” family visit to India dressed à la Bollywood, impasse over trade with China, withholding key information from the RCMP regarding the SNC- Lavalin scandal, losing two of his most capable female cabinet ministers while professing to be a feminist, and the pipeline debacle that will cost taxpayers at least $7.4 billion and thousands of good-paying jobs in the energy sector. Why, in 2015, did the voting public not heed the advertising slogan “Justin Trudeau … he’s just not ready” ?
Let us hope by next month our country will have a leader who, rather than being photo- op obsessed, will restore prudent spending and good governance for all Canadians as well as our reputation as a respected ally on the world stage.
Susan Silverman, Toronto
Re: Is Trudeau a racist? No. He is a fraud. Andrew Coyne, Sept. 21
Andrew Coyne is correct. Trudeau is not a racist — he is a fraud.
All of these incidents and gaffes are evidence of a lack of judgment:
1. Who does not know that accepting a free vacation at a private island from one who receives grants from the government is wrong?
2. Who is accused of groping a reporter and recognizes that it is wrong, and then tries to explain it away or justify it as two different perceptions?
3. Who goes on a major international state visit to a foreign country and embarrasses his home country with a series of cringeworthy costumes?
4. Who without any credible evidence, destroys the reputation of a well- respected naval officer only to have the criminal charges withdrawn, and leaves the taxpayers of Canada holding the bag for an undisclosed settlement?
5. Who seeks to interfere in the administration of justice to defend a serial wrongdoer like SNC- Lavalin for his own political interests and those of the party and then lies about it?
All of these failures in judgment are confirmed by his own admissions and subsequent apologies.
Trudeau is not a racist. But Canadians do not want or need someone at the head of our country who does not have enough judgment to know right from wrong.
E. Marshall Pollock, Toronto