Hard to take Trudeau or his tour seriously

PM is unable to show he has thoughtful solutions to problems

Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau could not be more different in style.

As scowlingly nasty, dark, angry and unreasonable as Trump appears to be, Trudeau comes across as light, warm, inviting and accommodating. So dedicated are both to their respective images that it’s difficult to believe they are anything other than what we see before the cameras.

But if there is one similarity, it’s that both desperately need a filter on their public commentary ... or better yet, some serious and sober second thought on issues before spewing their inane public pronouncements.

Or so Trudeau’s recent listening tour teaches us. Rather than truly listening, this tour was really all about presenting the most positive images possible, while eliminating the chance of damaging confrontation as much as possible.

For example, those at the University of Saskatchewan wanting to attend Trudeau’s town hall in Saskatoon were directed not to a Government of Canada website but to a website run by the Liberal Party of Canada that asked for the inquirer’s email, phone number, postal code and address. What a public institute would be doing collecting data for a particular political party should be explained.

Also in need of explanation were the softball questions Trudeau received along the way. There again, stops like the one in Regina this week weren’t about any questions — tough or soft. There was always abundant time for selfies and positive images of the young, handsome PM. Admittedly, Trudeau does deserve credit for mingling with the public at all — something his predecessor Stephen Harper was unwilling to do for fear of ever being confronted by a live, non-Conservative human being. Trudeau and his strategists showed no such fear.

No matter how they try, political strategists will never weed out every “unfavourable” on a tour that has the genuine authenticity of meeting real people. Moreover, Trudeau did take the occasional hammering, like in Calgary where he faced hard questions on phasing out fossil fuels or in Saskatoon where he was immediately confronted by questions on his carbon tax.

But Trudeau’s tour won’t be remembered for sharp, pristine answers to the day’s tough questions. More likely, we will recall his ample bafflegab that strongly suggested he’s taken no more time to seriously think about problems than has Donald Trump.

And it wasn’t just the strange soliloquy on his Scottish immigrant roots or that he wasn’t up to date on a federal bail reform bill with which one might hope a prime minister would be vaguely familiar. It was issues like helping First Nations — an issue that should be in his wheelhouse because he campaigned on it a mere 15 months ago — where Trudeau badly fell short.

Consider his response to Chief Felix Thomas of the Saskatoon Tribal Council on the Liberal government’s disconnection with First Nations people: “I’ve spoken with a number of chiefs who said, ‘You know, we need a youth centre,’ ” Trudeau pontificated Wednesday night. “‘You know, we need TVs and lounges and sofas so they can hang around.’ And when a chief says that to me, I pretty much know they haven’t actually talked to their young people ...

“Because most of the young people I’ve talked to want a place to store their canoes and paddles so they can connect back out on the land, and a place with Internet access so they can do their homework.”

Canoes and paddles? Northern First Nations youth contemplating suicide or southern First Nations youth dodging gangs in inner-city Regina or Saskatoon are most in need of a place to put their paddles? Beyond being incredibly condescending to chiefs and First Nations people in general, how is this even an answer?

Good heavens, Trudeau just met with La Loche youth for one of his infamous photo ops while they were in Toronto for a Raptors game. What left him with the impression all they needed was a rec centre where they could go to do their homework?

It’s hard to take a prime minister seriously if he can’t demonstrate he’s seriously thought about solutions. Here is where Trudeau and Trump appear to bond.