John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN MOON OVER ALABAMA
"Justin Trudeau Is Finished”
Here's hoping, but not just because of his embarrassing, blundering performance in the face of two honest ministers who resigned owing to their principles, an act, as we all know, that is rare in government.
Trudeau has been a steady disappoint.
Actually, “disappoint” is the wrong word because I was virtually certain before he got the job that he was just not up to it.
His father, Pierre, was made of far sterner stuff, as well as having a sharp intelligence not demonstrated in any of Justin’s acts and words. No, Justin has only disappointed in showing he is not able to overcome earlier low expectations.
He appears literally to kowtow to American wishes at every turn. You name it, Russophobia with tanks in Latvia, the dark Monty Pythonesque coup effort in Venezuela, China and the deplorable enforcement of an American request for the arrest of senior Chinese businesswoman (from Huawei), which reflects nothing but American efforts to hobble a competitor.
His father gave America the finger over the Vietnam War, throwing Canada’s doors open to tens of thousands of American war resisters. He did the same for America’s mindless, vicious policies in Cuba, where he established new business and personal ties.
Justin promised vote reform, promised it strongly, and then dropped it when it appeared a little difficult, and vote reform is something sorely needed.
He has been completely ineffective in solving the serious problems of Alberta’s land-locked oil industry. Here is an important natural resource which commands low prices and completely misses new markets, and it represents a true national problem.
He has not been a strong voice for human and democratic rights, something his father definitely was.
As far as words go, his oratory skills are flat, but worse are the words he wraps things in. Justin’s were recently described as “verbal porridge,” a deadly accurate description.
Justin’s record on other matters is touched on in my remarks below about his Foreign Minister, Chrystia Freeland, a regrettable appointment, one who is not only supported by him but is seen more frequently with him, by far, than any other minister.
Freeland was called in to attack with slighting words ("She's told 'her' truth") the testimony of a genuinely honest and decent minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould.
If there is one member of Trudeau's cabinet I literally cannot stand, it's Freeland., yet she holds a very important and sensitive post.
I regard her as genuinely prejudiced on many matters, as against Russia, and I regard her as someone who fails to speak up seriously for human and democratic rights, something which always should be a hallmark of our country.
I resent stunts like her recent taking a well cared-for, upper middle-class 17-year old runaway girl from Saudi Arabia who wanted to smoke and break parental rules and playing publicity games by allowing her to be a "refugee" in Canada. Meanwhile other Saudis are tortured and die miserable deaths, and we hear not a word. Nor do we hear a word about Yemen or the horrors inflicted in Syria largely with Saudi money. And meanwhile, too, Canada keeps selling billions in weapons to the Saudis.
She's preachy without having anything worthwhile to preach, she manages to find genuinely unattractive ways of expressing herself, and her views resemble something from an American cheerleading squad. Of course, with her grim hound-dog looks, she would never have made it to a non-political cheerleading squad.
She actually is serving as a leader in the CIA's front outfit, the Lima Group, against an elected government in Venezuela (with other Latin American targets coming up in the near future), a shabby business no Canadian Foreign Minister should be involved with.
This is not my idea of a voice for Canada in international affairs, yet Trudeau clearly likes her and depends on her.
