China, the government JustinTrudeau most admires

ottawacitizen

By Terry Glavin*

Perhaps the most appalling thing that Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s latest bimbo convulsion says about the state of Canada’s political culture is that there is no political capital quite so valuable as the currency of having certain rich and (to judge by the tone of the invitation) ditzy Toronto ladies think you cut something of a dash. You can say things as moronic as anything Toronto mayor Rob Ford ever mumbled between hauls on his crack pipe. You will remain a respected front-runner in the long race for the office of the prime minister of Canada. Not the half of it are the imbecilities that erupted from Trudeau at that nauseating “ladies night” Liberal fundraiser in Toronto last Thursday. Perhaps more noteworthy are the spasms of stupidity that gripped Trudeau in the aftermath. But first, here’s Trudeau’s response to a question about which foreign country’s government he most admired. “You know, there’s a level of admiration I actually have for China because, ah, because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and say ‘we need to go green fastest, we need to start investing in solar.’ I mean there is a flexibility that I know Stephen Harper must dream about of having, a dictatorship that he can do everything he wanted, that I find quite interesting.” We will set aside the fabulist absurdities Trudeau managed to pack into those two sentences along with any excuses to the effect that Trudeau was being merely facetious or ironic — as though sniggering about a mass-murdering tyranny is good form at any time, let alone so close to Remembrance Day. Here’s how Trudeau availed himself of the opportunity to rephrase or correct himself, during an impromptu sidewalk interview with a television crew last Friday. “Ah, in this world we are competing with countries that have the capacity to react to big issues quickly and completely. We need to make sure that even though we have to compete with them, ah, we can get things done completely, and that means that not, that not falling back on our, ah, not weakening on our human rights, making sure that we are still protecting all of the things we know. But we do need to get together to support people.” A Miss Teen USA contestant wouldn’t get away with saying something like that. In the interregnum between his Thursday evening indiscretion and his Friday afternoon inanity there was also a volley of tweets Trudeau fired off in that Edwardian drama-queen tone he adopts whenever he feels someone has been ungallant to him. It’s hard to say which was of these outbursts is the most airheaded. Here’s one: “It’s ridiculous for anyone to suggest that I of all people would trade our rights and freedoms for any other system of gvt.” Of all people, indeed, and can’t you just picture his tresses wobbling as he declaims in this way, just like in those shampoo commercials? Here’s another: “I pointed out that globally Canada is up against big countries (China, for one) that can address some major issues quickly.” Big issues like the health care system the decrepit Chinese ruling class keeps to itself and maintains freshly and quickly supplied with organs harvested from still-living dissidents and members of outlawed religious minorities, one is left to suppose.

Of course we shouldn’t be completely humourless about this. Thanks are due particularly to an anonymous wag in the New Democratic Party’s communiqué-production shop who came up with the explanation that Trudeau’s China shout-out was merely a matter of him letting out “his inner Sarah Palin.” But there is an unfunny side to it. For decades, the Trudeau family’s faction of the Liberal party has maintained a sleazy and cozy relationship with Beijing’s billionaire parasites, and these same Communist Party princelings, bloated from the slave labour of China’s masses, are abandoning China in droves and decamping into the tonier neighbourhoods of Canada’s cities. Nothing would please them more than having the Dauphin moving into the Langevin Block. This is not to impugn Trudeau’s intentions, of course. A more charitable and fair-minded conclusion is called for, one that recognizes the Liberal party as a shambles, and its leader, Justin Trudeau, as a ridiculous, morally illiterate and fathomlessly unserious person. -------------- *Terry Glavin is an author and journalist whose most recent book is Come From the Shadows.