PM steals the stage again
The beginning of autumn is generally nice. The poet John Keats had a phrase for that period — “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.” But as Mr. Fall gets his teeth into it, hits the meteorological gas pedal so to speak, and sends out a clear invitation to Mr. Winter — well, in Canada anyway, it ain’t mellow by a long shot. Short days, long nights, chill winds, early snows — mid to the end of November in most places here is like a movie preview of the harder days of February.
It gave me some consolation, therefore, to know that Liberal cabinet ministers — with Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault leading a 335-Canadian delegation to the annual funeral deliberations for Mother Earth, put on by the always relevant United Nations — were out of country.
Out of country and in the super popular Egyptian beach resort of Sharm el-sheikh, staying in its first-class hotels, feasting on filet mignon and luxury delicacies, rubbing shoulders with the plutocratic owners of the 400 private jets that flew there, and in idle moments — there had to be a few at COP27 — doing a bit of dolphin sightseeing or taking a quad ride into the desert.
Bright days, happy nights, high-quality cuisine, the beach at your feet — Sharm el-sheikh is beautiful and far away from our bleak November. It’s a really safe place, too, surrounded as it is with a 36-kilometre concrete and wire wall and under the careful watch of Egypt’s famed security forces.
It is an ideal place for 40,000 of the most austere worrywarts on the planet to congregate.
“Well, where else in the world can you enjoy luxury dining overlooking some of the most iconic milestones of the human race,” asks an article on Euronews.travel. And where else would the monks of degrowth and net-zero, the evangelists of insect protein, wish to gather while they spend their souls worrying about the rest of us … far outside the wall.
Near simultaneous, Justin Trudeau, who forwent this Eden, did however — and we are glad he did — provide himself and Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly an equal Eden. He went to fabled Bali to gather in equal splendour with the leaders of the G20. Bali, to say the least, is not inner Siberia. And while there, our prime minister kept up, what is now, in his seventh year, a tradition. Every time he leaves Canada he becomes the focus of every eye — the cynosure, as the poets have it.
While in London for the obsequies of the beloved Queen, with the aplomb and insouciance he is justly famous for, he managed a little lobby bar entertainment with a touch of Bohemian Rhapsody and was rewarded with more press and notice than even some of the mourning Royal Family. He’d hardly landed in Bali when — according to many world press reports — he got a “dressing down” from the leader of Communist China, and to put a cap on it, managed to have it all, as they say, caught on film, including an awkward retreat once the exchange was over to a — thankfully — nearby door.
Got almost as much press out of that as his triumphal and much brocaded tour of India in the earlier days of his Pm-ship. It’s good to see the flair for headlines and the ability to get a starring role in every gathering has not abandoned him. He was featured in headlines and TV programs all over the world. He probably got a prime spot to shine on the vastly high-rated Chinese news shows. Take that, Joe Biden.
Quite a week for Canada on the world stage I’d say. But never underestimate Trudeau’s charismatic resources. Just as you believe the spotlight has dimmed, the play is over, the audience leaving, well … yet another feat. Go online and see the headlines from, once again, all over the world.
“Canada’s Prime Minister to be the first world leader to appear on Drag Race (Canada vs. the World).” And the promotional material says it all: “This will go down in herstory, said one of the queens.”
Herstory? Get it? Men dressed up as women — an epic demonstration of Trudeau’s male-feminist credentials.
Combat President Xi one day, hang out with the dragsters on world TV, flying under the famous Rupaul’s banner, the next — is there nothing this prime minister can’t do?
The Kardashians have to bring on the whole family to maintain this kind of celebrity power. Justin T. does it all on his lonesome.
You simply can’t buy that kind of talent. But you can elect it.
HERSTORY? GET IT? MEN DRESSED UP AS WOMEN.