Trump, Trudeau both Think it’s never Their fault
Two things stand out about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s latest stumble into a blindingly obvious ethical fix. One is how often this happens to the prime minister. He can’t seem to go an extended period without getting himself caught in a glaring contradiction between what he says and what he does. The second is his refusal to ever accept or admit it’s his own fault.
There aren’t many areas in which the ethos of Canada’s prime minister overlaps with that of u.s. President donald Trump, but personal responsibility is one of them. The u.s. president has never found a problem he couldn’t blame on somebody else. In Trump’s mind the world is one big anti-donald conspiracy, fed by an inability to recognize his genius, ever plotting to bring him down.
Trudeau’s self-regard may by rooted in an entirely different sort of conceit, but is protected by a similarly impermeable conviction. Whatever the mistake — if it is, in fact, a mistake — the blame, without fail, isn’t his.
The freebie trip to the Aga Khan’s private island was “a family vacation with a personal friend,” for which he rejected fault until the federal ethics watchdog ruled it broke numerous conflict of interest laws. The allegation he groped a young reporter at a musical festival in British Columbia wasn’t a rank contradiction of his proclaimed dedication to “believing women,” but a lesson that “the same interactions can be experienced very differently from one person to the next.”
“I feel I am confident that I did not act inappropriately,” he insisted, despite the very different recollection of the woman involved.
The saga of his effort to save Snc-lavalin from prosecution over fraud and corruption charges, which cost him the resignations of two high-profile female cabinet members, wasn’t an improper attempt to strong-arm underlings into doing his bidding, but a reflection of his determination to “stand up for Canadian jobs,” a position for which “I’m not going to apologize.”
Even the humiliating emergence of his penchant for painting his face black, something he hid for years, only drew expressions of regret and responsibility while accompanied by declarations that it’s “not something that represents the person I’ve become, the leader I try to be,” and a lengthy self-justifying claim to “many concrete actions to fight against racism.” He blamed it on his upbringing: a “place of privilege” that gave him “a massive blind spot.”
Now he once again finds himself in trouble of his own making, over the entirely self-created controversy of WE Charity and the near-billion-dollar contract handed it by Trudeau’s government.
One dubious revelation after another has kept what might initially have appeared a fairly minor part of the Liberals’ Covid-fighting initiatives in the headlines, with Trudeau once again haughtily dismissing any suggestion there might be even a hint of impropriety about it.
There was nothing wrong with handing the deal to an organization with a long history of close ties to the prime minister and his wife. Nothing wrong with assigning the whole program to a single charitable organization without giving others a sniff. Nothing wrong with paying it $19.5 million in the process. Nothing wrong with insisting only WE could handle the project when civil servants regularly deal with much bigger operations, or in claiming the civil service made the decision, when in fact it was cabinet that gave approval. Nothing wrong with failing to recuse himself from the decision despite his close personal ties. And — most recent and most troubling — nothing wrong with the revelation Trudeau’s mother, brother and wife received payments totalling more than $350,000 in speaking fees from the WE organization, despite previous statements that no member of the Trudeau family had ever been paid for their work.
Trudeau’s response to his failure to distance himself from the contracting decision dripped with his sense of self-regard. “Getting young people involved in serving their country, recognizing their desire to build a better Canada, particularly due to through this time of crisis, is something that I believe in deeply,” he intoned. His office adopted a similar imperious approach in dismissing the payments to his relatives. The prime minister doesn’t busy himself with the personal business of his family, it said. “What is important to remember here is that this is about a charity supporting students.” As in, no need for the prime minister to observe such picayune matters as ethics rules when engaged in issues lesser beings may not understand. A man of his monumental morality operates at a higher level than we mortals can grasp. The Pope should be so holy.
What four years of this have made clear is that Justin Trudeau is a man so steeped in self-righteousness he is blinded to even the most egregious gaps between what is proper and what he wants and feels entitled to. He will reluctantly take responsibility for mistakes, but not blame. Every misstep is unintentional, a chance to learn, an opportunity to do better. While others may be condemned for their failings, his are always forgivable, as they come from pure intentions and an irreproachable heart. The fact he never does seem to learn, or do better, is also not his fault. We’re left to wonder whose it is.
He will reluctantly take responsibility for mistakes, but not blame