Trudeau’s day in the sun won’t last forever
Perceptions by Gerry Warner
“He haunts us still” was the first line of Stephen
Clarkson and Christina McCall’s critically acclaimed best seller “Trudeau and
our Times” about Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Canada’s 15tth Prime Minister and often
considered one of our greatest PM’s, though not without controversy.
Now his son, Justin Trudeau, appears to be doing the
same if anything can be gleaned from the rapturous welcome he received from
Americans of all stripes at the glittering state dinner held in Washington DC
Thursday.
“I have to say I’ve never seen so many Americans so
excited about the visit of a Canadian Prime Minister,” gushed US President
Barack Obama. Rebecca Ostriker, a columnist with the Academy Award winning
Boston Globe, described Trudeau as “Canada’s famously dreamy Prime Minister.”
“Justin fever” has hit Washington,” said John Ivison of the National Post. Some
of the gaga reaction even fell on Sophie Trudeau, who was described as a “soul
mate” by Michelle Obama no less.
Phew! Would someone pass the smelling salts, please.
But once you get past the glitter, is there any
substance to all this? Certainly it doesn’t hurt to have a Canadian prime
minister lauded in the most powerful city in the world, especially one that
just finished pulling our jet fighters out of Syria. But what happens when
Canada and the US go mano-a-mano in the next round of softwood lumber
negotiations? Will if give us any cred when the Columbia River Treaty is
renegotiated or when we sell our commodities into the American market? I doubt
it.
But for now you’d have to be an awfully grouchy and
unpatriotic Canadian not to feel at least a little tingle of delight to hear
the words Trudeau and Canada on the lips of so many American power brokers and
celebrities. And so what if Obama chided us for the Stanley Cup not residing in
Canada this year. He could have pointed out that it’s not likely a Canadian team
will even make the Stanley Cup playoffs this season.
The fact of the matter is we in Canada have good
reason to do a little bit of gloating over the current political situation in
Canada vis-à-vis the US with the American primary contests having turned into a
race to the bottom for the Republicans and a “revolt” against the
“establishment” in both parties with ugly strains of racism and fascism in some
of the rhetoric.
Don’t kid yourself for a minute. Most Americans,
regardless of party, are green with envy at the sight of our new prime minister
and his lovely wife. How can they be any other way when day in and day out they
are subjected to Donald Trump’s orange hair bobbing up and down as he
fulminates against Muslims, Mexicans and whomever happens to be on his hate
list at the moment or Ted Cruise proselytizing
like a fundamentalist preacher against the “establishment” of his own
party or Hillary Clinton boring everyone to tears in yet another dreary speech?
It ain’t pretty now in the Excited States of America.
So called “moderate Republicans” are playing a desperate game of Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde trying to euthanize the monster they created themselves by harboring
extremists, racists and hate-mongers in their midst for years. Purveyors of
hate and fear like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage have dominated the AM radio
waves for years with their fulminations about “Islamo-fascism” and hatred of
immigrants in general while “fair and balanced Fox News has never met a
fundamentalist, evangelical, right-wing extremist it didn’t like.
What goes around comes around, eh. And what is coming
around in the Home of the Brave and Land of the Free is nothing short of scary.
Fights are starting to break out at Trump rallies and even when he cozies up to
the Ku Klux Klan his acolytes cheer.
One can only hope that the fundamental decency and
common sense of most Americans will come out of the closet where it’s been
hiding the past several months and assert itself. Otherwise the next great wave
of refugees to cross the Canadian border will be coming from the South.
And I don’t mean Mexico.
Gerry Warner is a retired journalist
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