Trudeau and hamburger made for media
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet arrived in Hamilton early this week for a retreat.
The meeting was to plan for the coming parliamentary sessions and “seize new opportunities for Canadian workers and businesses,” according to Trudeau.
Why they chose Hamilton was more of a mystery.
After all, it may have been easier (and probably cheaper) to meet in Ottawa, but such matters are always political. This spreads some of the wealth, and more importantly, increases the party’s profile locally.
Last year, they met in Vancouver for a similar gabfest, and Trudeau has been travelling the country recently to talk up the federal government’s plans to bolster the fragile economy and fix health care.
Any details on meeting discussions are often transmitted via communiqués or during scrums, or a so-called “media availability,” and national affairs journalists usually cover that. But some journalists also followed Trudeau for a luncheon outing at The Burnt Tongue, a Locke Street soup joint, where he apparently ordered a hamburger and a bowl of broccoli and cheese soup, key details widely disseminated by this news agency and others.
It was indeed a crass photo opportunity, a feed-the-media event, and we took the bait.
The details of such outings are usually irrelevant, but as both political operatives and journalists know, they are somehow irresistible.
And sure enough, our reporting Monday on Trudeau’s lunch, including getting a tote bag from the restaurant owner, shaking hands with some patrons and — yes! — admiring a baby in a stroller, was a winner with online readers. No other story was more popular the next day.
The article also mentioned various protesters, who were featured in photographs, including one of a man holding a sign calling Trudeau a communist, but it’s my guess it was the hamburger, the broccoli soup and the baby that got the most eyeballs.
Our newspaper and website are full of stories about Trudeau’s plan for the economy, his meeting with the Hamilton mayor this week, his visit to McMaster’s research and innovation hub …
There were other stories about Chrystia Freeland’s views of the country’s economic strength, or Mélanie Joly’s comments on peace talks in Cameroon — complex matters, and less relatable than a hamburger and some broccoli soup.
And other cabinet ministers were out and about in Hamilton for days, announcing, or simply reannouncing, how they are spending taxpayers’ money on worthy projects, but those stories, too, couldn’t compare to the main event — a prime minister in a local restaurant, saying and doing nothing of any import.