The election campaign was off to an unexciting start even by Canada’s standards. A well-known but fluffy incumbent, Liberal Justin Trudeau, faced a Conservative leader, Andrew Scheer, whose strategy had been to lay low. The Trudeau message these past four years has been total political correctness: equal numbers of male and female cabinet members, ‘peoplekind’ instead of ‘mankind’ and requiring summer employment project hirees to sign a pledge to uphold abortion rights. Probably as many Canadians groaned at these fatuities as were impressed by them, but it assisted the Liberals in taking votes from the left, as the Conservatives unhistrionically asked for common sense. The Liberal plan for 2019 was to send Justin around cooing about good things while his campaign office smeared Conservative candidates as closet homophobes, misogynists and bigots. It was a sensible plan for a party that can’t really ask to be re-elected on its record. Then it blew up.
‘The most woke and politically correct leader in the world dressed up in blackface,’ read one incredulous headline. Trudeau had attended an Aladdin-themed party in 2001 painted black, including his hands. Trudeau told people how repentant and annoyed he was at himself, and was on his way to his family to confess and apologise to them. There had been only one other such incident in his life, he said. But as he spoke, others came to light, including one with an Afro wig.
As American commentator and Fox News columnist Tucker Carlson remarked: ‘It’s like you’re finding out your super–sensitive brother-in-law, the one who tells you he’s a feminist and is always scolding you for your sexism, is hitting on the babysitter.’ Canadians are sensitive about the overwhelming contiguity of the United States, always trying to distinguish themselves from America.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in