So yesterday the governor general delivered Justin Trudeau’s Throne Speech from the Senate, and then Justin Trudeau delivered his Throne Speech once again on live TV after lying to the networks and claiming he had something apolitical to say that couldn’t be said in press briefings or in Parliament. It was the sort of schlocky thing we’re all used to by now, with Trudeau exercising his searing powers of observation and noting that “we are Canadians,” assuring Canadians that the government’s pockets are bottomless, and stating that Canada is already in the thick of the “second wave” of COVID-19. Somebody should relay that to Dr. Theresa Tam, as she apparently is unaware of this.
There isn’t a whole lot to say about either speech, because essentially this is just an extraordinarily expensive way of getting past the WE scandal and giving Trudeau a reset before an election comes along. He desperately needs it: From the sunny ways progressive and Last Best Hope of Earth in a populist era, he is now renowned as an ethically-compromised and scandal-plagued prime minister who attracted international headlines for wearing blackface as a grown man and securing less votes in Canada’s bid for a UN seat than Stephen Harper did. Trudeau needs to get past this scandal fast and do something big, or this sad collection of failures may well define his legacy. Liberals generally don’t lose—they get crushed to death by the weight of their own accumulated corruption. But even by Liberal standards, Trudeau is setting new records.
Of course, Trudeau was sure to pepper his breathy evocations of the Greatest Generation with reminders about what “Canadian values” are according to himself, which is primarily the fact that he and a handful of the elites can often be seen “celebrating with pride the contributions of LGBTQ2 communities or embracing two official languages.” (He now refrains from embracing reporters.) He also promised that the pandemic would receive “a feminist and intersectional response” from his government, although nobody has any idea what that means and even fewer people care. Jason Kenney noted in his response that intersectionality is a “kooky academic theory,” and promptly faced the outrage of folks like this woman, who denounced him on Twitter: “Just admit it, Mr. Kenney, you’re frightened of the power that womxn, non binary folx and BIPOC and disabled people hold with their votes- and you should be.” To which the only response can be LOL.
All of this was expected. Trudeau essentially promised to pay for everything imaginable and that it would all somehow work out, despite the trillion-dollar debt. The only real question is why the NDP still exists, considering the fact that any leftie voter who finds Trudeau’s intersectional feminist buying spree attractive can now vote for a Liberal Party as left-wing as the NDP, but with actual power. As for the rest of us, I suspect that somehow, some way, we’re all going to end up paying for this.
