Commentary
In his latest insult to the Canadian identity he denies exists, Justin Trudeau skipped Remembrance Day to fly to four international yak-fests. A lesser egotist might have delayed this 10-day, two-continent carbon-emissions photo-op festival by 12 hours to honour those who fought for “freedom” which, the lavishly state-funded CBC told us in February, “has become common among far-right groups, experts say.” Not him.
To be fair, Trudeau also skipped the first National Truth and Reconciliation Day to fly to a beach. Anything where he’s not the star doesn’t interest him much, and it’s one thing to preen about how much you care about aboriginals but quite another to sit through dull speeches about, and by, someone who’s not you.
So he blasted off late on Nov. 10 for Phnom Penh. The PMO skipped the usual itinerary for Nov. 11 but somehow it took nearly 36 hours to reach Cambodia, because the Nov. 12 itinerary had him touching down at noon. (Of course, when he skipped Reconciliation in September 2021 he also skipped Truth, as his official itinerary lied that he was in private meetings in Ottawa.)
So what is he doing at ASEAN in Cambodia, the G20 in Indonesia, the “Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ forum” in Thailand, and “a Francophonie summit in Tunisia”? Well, in Indonesia the PM, ideally not in costume, would “participate in a B20 session entitled ‘The Role of Digital Economy and Industry 4.0 in Accelerating a Just Energy Transition’” and “meet with the President and CEO of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Seiji Izumisawa.” With “Pooled photo opportunity at the start of the meeting.” Duh.
Supposedly this belated attention to Asia is part of a pivot toward geopolitical sobriety parallel to the one toward budgetary sobriety that lasted for days, from hints dutifully relayed by the subsidized press gallery to the actual, reckless fiscal update. Hence Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly droned to the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy last week that the “tectonic plates of the world’s power structures” are shifting.
Do not ask her to parse that metaphor. Is China sliding over Taiwan? The United States fragmenting into the People’s Republic of Portland and Jesusland? Besides, it only lasted until she said she would shun Russia’s foreign minister but wanted to work with China on climate change. Yup. China. Land o’ coal plants.
Trudeau’s take on China is equally frivolous. In 2019 he accepted the findings of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls inquiry that “what happened amounts to genocide,” including on his watch. But when asked on this trip about the House of Commons last February voting 266-0 to call China’s persecution of Uyghurs a genocide, Trudeau spewed this sludge: “The word genocide, acts of genocide are things to be taken incredibly seriously as a world. We have objective, historical, expert processes to put in place those words or designations. Designations of genocide need to be made by proper international authorities.”
To some extent he’s grovelling before the powerful. But of course his response to the question began with how he’d visited Yad Vashem, Rwanda’s genocide memorial, and Cambodia’s. It’s always about him, as Fr. Raymond J. de Souza just wrote, including his drunken London karaoke, “to be noticed, to transgress the protocol strictures that kept everyone else from generating headlines.”
Even his brother’s death inspired him, de Souza added, “‘to always be faithful to myself.’ Not faithful to God, to his country, to his principles or to his family.” Hence his birthday greeting to King Charles included, “Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting with His Majesty on many occasions and witnessed his commitment to building a better future.” One doubts it was mutual.
So off he went to spend spend spend, pose pose pose, and fly fly fly. As The Canadian Press put it, “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled a slew of funding announcements in Cambodia on Saturday.” And why not, with domestic debt charges barely set to top $53 billion by 2024? “This is a generational shift,” he bloviated at ASEAN leaders wondering who this twit was.
A guy with a big PR budget. For a mere million bucks he got to say, “When land is cleared, not only are people safer and children can play, but land can be used for farming and development,” at “a roundtable with local groups focused on women in peace-building.” (“Note for media: Pooled coverage of opening remarks.”) Which beats standing in the cold at a boring war memorial while people clap for some geezers.
If the cost of this trip had gone to re-equipping our military, it might have helped Asian nations cope with an overbearing China. But Trudeau has other priorities.
See, it’s all about him. Except when the bill arrives. Then you can eat his contrails.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
