Trudeau back in Teflon suit
When we’re feeling a little lost, a bit off-kilter, we all like to retreat to our comfort zone.
Justin Trudeau is doing just that this week.
He is donning his Teflon suit once again.
The Prime Minister staggered to the new year, it would seem, convicted of a serious ethics violation, shielding a finance minister who was trying to dig out of his own hole, taking it on the chin about unrequited trade.
Or so it seemed in the so-called Ottawa bubble, the snow globe I called home for many years.
Maybe only the bubble denizens thought the Prime Minister was a little lost.
So, as he hits the halfway point in a cross-country town hall tour, Trudeau reminds those who pack these events that it’s “easy to get sucked into the Ottawa-centric” bubble around Parliament.
He calls these town halls a grounding exercise.
More accurately, it is an exercise in getting out of Dodge to rebuild your image.
This is how Trudeau was elected prime minister. He was out meeting voters before the 2015 writ was issued rather than standing in the corner of the Commons firing questions to a government on message track.
The fact is, Trudeau is not a stellar performer in the Commons.
But he is good in the town hall format, and he should receive much credit for ensuring questions were not vetted — unlike the slick, partisan events put on by Stephen Harper as Mike Duffy lobbed him softballs — and dealing easily with hecklers.
But at this week’s session at McMaster University in Hamilton, no one asked him about the holiday with the Aga Khan, though he was asked a day earlier in Nova Scotia. No one asked him why his MPs voted against him appearing before the Parliamentary ethics committee.
No one asked him about trade with China, or the future of NAFTA.
No one asked him about Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s foibles or insults from Minister of Persons with Disabilities Kent Hehr.
No one was allowed to ask a followup. And, unlike the daily question period, Trudeau could take as long as he wanted in response, rhapsodizing about diversity and equality and freedom of speech as long as he wished.
It is his show, his sweet spot, and it must gall the opposition that he is still treated like a celebrity in those settings. Conservative leader Andrew Scheer would likely only get a viral clip from a town hall if he fell off the stage.
That doesn’t mean there weren’t perceptive questions for Trudeau. One man asked him why, as a champion of Indigenous reconciliation, he did not acknowledge the traditional territories of Hamilton (Haudenosaunee and Mohawk).
Another asked how Trudeau could protect Canadians from returned Daesh fighters when he didn’t even take proper security precautions for his Hamilton event.
But even in an event that promises spontaneity, there are rules.
Make sure to have a lot of diverse faces behind you for the cameras.
Take a breather every now and again. Call on the guy sporting the Liberal button and invite the Grade 5 student to ask a question. Charming, but a nice break.
He was asked if he believed in freedom of speech and what his legacy might be. It beats having questions shouted at him in a media scrum.
Trudeau, like all successful politicians, shines when handling hecklers.
Brian Mulroney often fought his way past angry demonstrators to enter an event, responding with a smile and his baritone, “ah, I’ll put you down as undecided.”
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh re- ceived international attention and praise by preaching love and tolerance to a racist heckler right in his face.
An alternative approach? Jean Chrétien famously delivered the “Shawinigan handshake” to a protester at a Flag Day event, grabbing him by the neck. It worked for Chrétien. Trudeau won a standing ovation in dealing with a heckler’s diatribe about the Omar Khadr payout, and it won him this front-page headline in the Hamilton Spectator: “Prime Minister is a chip off the old Trudeaumania.” So far, the Teflon suit fits well. But there is a reason we vote for men and women and place them in that bubble.
They must be accountable to Parliament, and they should be required to take questions from Parliamentarians on their misconduct.
Trudeau can revel in his town hall love this week, but he should have sat and taken questions from Ottawa’s ethics committee.
And when Parliament returns, he won’t be fielding any questions about his legacy. Tim Harper writes on national affairs. tjharper77@gmail.com, Twitter: @nutgraf1