, 06.30.2019 08:09 AM

My latest: hypocrisy, thine name is JT

“A hypocrite,” Adlai Stevenson said, “is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.”

That’s all that the first Adlai Stevenson left behind in the sands of time, pretty much. He was the 23rd vice-president of the United States, he was from Illinois, and he was a Democrat. His grandson was the Democratic Party’s candidate for president a couple of times, in the 50s. But old Uncle Adlai, as he was called? He was just remembered for his aphorisms, pretty much.

That one above, the one about political hypocrisy, should be printed out, laminated, and pinned to Justin Trudeau’s shirt (You know, like parents do with kids who might wander away during field trips to the zoo).

Trudeau’s PMO staff, too, should have Adlai Stevenson’s pithy maxim tattooed to their foreheads, so that they remember the cardinal rule when they are at their next “deliverology” meeting: In politics, you can get away with all manner of misdeeds and sins. But hypocrisy? Political hypocrisy is lethal. It is toxic. It is the scarlet letter.

To wit: Justin Trudeau and his PMO are hypocrites. There is no shortage of evidence.

This week, for example, Prime Minister Selfie tweeted out a nice photo of himself with something called the “Papineau Youth Council,” whatever that is.  Fresh-faced youngsters ringed a table listening to Trudeau talk about, as he put it, ways “to fight climate change.”  That’s a quote.

Eyeballing the taxpayer-subsidized snapshot, we see:

• Pizza (not weird, it’s a political backroom staple)

• Trudeau’s pizza slices, both flipped over (super weird)

• None of the kids smiling, not even a bit (also weird, but who can blame them, really)

• Right in the foreground, a pile of plastic cutlery (weird AND wildly hypocritical)

Plastic cutlery?  That’s weird – because, really, who uses cutlery to eat pizza?

And it’s hypocritical, too, because this is the selfsame Prime Minister, boys and girls, who just a few days ago said he planned to ban so-called single-use plastics. Like, um, plastic cutlery. He also said his family uses “like, drink box water bottles sort of things,” and none of us know what that means. Still.

Political graveyards are littered with the remains of political hypocrites. Pat Buchanan, for example. As I write in my must-have book, The War Room, when he was making one of his many quixotic runs at the presidency, Buchanan started promoting the Trumpist “America First” tagline everywhere. Hire only Americans, buy only American. 

So the advisors to George H. W. Bush discovered a key factoid about Buchanan’s “America First” private life: he personally drove a Mercedes, made in far-away Germany. They passed along that little revelation out to the media hordes, and that was the end of Pat.

Another example:  Democrat Gary Hart.  Back in 1987, when the family-friendly Senator was making his second run at the top job, rumours were rampant he was following his little soldier into battle a bit too frequently. Gary was indignant about this scurrilous assault on his personal life. Said he: “Follow me around.  I don’t care.  They’ll be bored.”

The media followed him around. They weren’t bored.  Gary – thereafter photographed with model Donna Rice balanced on his senatorial knee, on a yacht called (we kid you not) Monkey Business – ended up caring, quite a bit.  And that was the end of Gary.

Have Justin Trudeau’s well-documented hypocrisies similarly doomed him to defeat in October? The polls suggest the best the Liberal leader can hope for is a minority government. If that.

So, if Trudeau loses, LavScam, unbalanced budgets, the Aga Khan and decidedly unharmonious fed-prov relations will figure prominently as causes.

 But one politically-fatal word, above all the others, will be seen on Justin Trudeau’s headstone:

 HYPOCRITE.

58 Comments

  1. Ron Benn says:

    Talking the talk is easier than walking the walk. Talking and walking at the same time?

  2. Justin Trudeau spends $70 Billion on dubious green plans BEFORE doing the cost-benefit and environmental impact analysis to determine if the money is being wasted…

    The head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo is chairing an arm of a new independent watchdog that will hold Ottawa to account on its climate change commitments and policies.

    Blair Feltmate said in an interview that the new institute, which is being called the Pan-Canadian Expert Collaboration, will help Canadians see if their federal government is making decisions in their best interests when it comes to tackling global warming.

    The details of how the funding will be transferred to the group, and on what schedule, are still being finalized.

    Feltmate said the group’s objective will be to start from the “goals and the aspirations” of the Trudeau government’s climate plan, the Pan-Canadian Framework, and “apply the intellectual framework to execute on that commitment.”

    “How do we actually proceed to put an optimal price on carbon, to minimize carbon emissions? How do we proceed to embrace energy efficiency and renewable power, electricity storage? How do we proceed on those fronts, in a manner that will collectively benefit the country well?”

    https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/04/09/news/skeptical-trudeaus-carbon-pricing-theres-institute

    • Dawn Mills says:

      You want Canadians to roll their eyes and/or run away? Start quoting the ‘Pan-Canadian Expert Collaboration’ as source material.

  3. Close to half of Canadian program touted for electric cars is funding natural gas stations
    https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/01/25/news/close-half-canadian-program-touted-electric-cars-funding-natural-gas-stations

    The program has been promoted as fulfilling a commitment to put more zero-emission vehicles on the road. Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna recently touted the program as part of her announcement on new EV chargers across Quebec.

    What is less known, is that this program has also funded the installation of seven natural gas refueling stations, and three hydrogen refueling stations.

    While there are far fewer natural gas and hydrogen stations than EV chargers, the refueling stations cost much more to install, typically $1 million each, compared to $50,000 for an EV charger — meaning they are sucking up much more program funding per station.

    A National Observer analysis shows that, as of Jan. 25, a list of projects being funded under the program for which contribution agreements have been signed showed $6,502,000 had been given out for natural gas refuelling, compared to $7,967,000 for EV charging and hydrogen refueling. This would mean that the government has spent 44.9 per cent of the total program funding on natural gas stations.
    #SaveCanada #DefeatTrudeau and his #CarbonTaxScam We need to put the real price of pollution on all energy with NO exemptions, grants or subsidies in a #UserPay economy. #BewareOfFalseGreenProphet$ #cdnpoli

    • Dan says:

      Ya, ya, and solar panels used to cost a mint. Now the price is way down with new technology and higher sales. Everything costs big bucks at startup. Try to use common sense and a bit of business acumen and not so much partisan anti Trudeau blather, pal.

      • Fred from BC says:

        “now the price is way down with new technology and higher sales ”

        But the need for storage (batteries) to make them a viable energy source hasn’t gone away, nor has the onerous environmental cost of producing them (heavy metals, etc) or disposing of them.

  4. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Being labelled a hypocrite is usually fatal. But a PM should only go down for quite deliberate country-unmaking mistakes where ethics and the integrity of government are willingly compromised: read Norman and SNC Lavelin.

    Some of us will also never accept kicking JWR and JP out of caucus. But that’s his choice, an enormous political blunder that rubbed countless potential voters the wrong way, hence current polling results.

    Personally, I see us now venturing into the equally dangerous territory of petty, political overkill. I don’t give a shit about the PYC, or pizza delivered with plastic cutlery. Sure, boxed bottled water used personally by Trudeau and his family is another matter — but going down this dubious route won’t wear well with a lot of Canadians, already predisposed to give the Liberals the heave-ho.

    Canadians like their political attacks substantive and well-founded. Anything else only plays right into the hands of the person being attacked. Canada isn’t the States. That’s how Trudeau made it into power in the first place.

  5. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Even in America, guess who won even though those precious ties were then being made in China?

  6. Fred from BC says:

    “but c’mon man..
    if you think Andrew Scheer
    is ‘good for Canada’ … …”

    He only has to be better for Canada than Justin Trudeau.

    • Fred from BC says:

      “.. cancelling CPP plus OAS.. ?”

      Who is planning that? Where are you getting your information from….the NDP campaign committee?

    • jeanbatte says:

      …cancelling CPP plus OAS…would this be the Liberals’ new smear campaign?

      • The Doctor says:

        Sorta like Paul Martin claiming that the Tories were going to ban abortion — despite the CPC platform saying the opposite of that.

  7. Nick M. says:

    Trudeau hints to the media that he has leaned on Trump to help out with Canada’s woes with China in the upcoming G20.

    But just before the G20, he disrespected him saying Canada will adopt California’s auto emission standards.

    These are the same emission standards that Trump administration is battling as illegal, at a time when the Auto industry wrote an open letter to California and the Trump administration to resolve this issue as the cost to satisfy multiple jurisdictions is too costly.

    You can’t ask someone to help you out, than try and complicate their internal matters.

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Nick,

      Let me at this one piece by piece: first off, who does not at least provoke a chuckle at the thought of this PM credibly leaning on anyone; IF Trump was even mildly sentient, he would RAISE national EPA auto emission standards to California’s levels but no, he’s too busy pawning off high-level administration positions to corporate lobbyists…but that’s OK cause the suckers in the States eat it all up.

  8. Mark D says:

    Warren:

    First off, I can appreciate that the incident between Justin and the Aga Khan was not appropriate. However, I do appreciate what the Aga Khan has done to promote multiculturalism and multi-faith dialogue within Islam, within Canada, as well as within the wider international community. So I kinda wince whenever he is brought up in association with Justin Trudeau in political discussion.

    Also, I agree with the bulk of the remainder of the article. With the exception of your bullet points up top, where I must take issue with the following:

    Eyeballing the taxpayer-subsidized snapshot, we see:

    “Trudeau’s pizza slices, both flipped over (super weird)”

    I’ve seen this frequently in Canada outside of Toronto and the GTA. It’s not common, but it’s not so uncommon as to be weird.

    “Plastic cutlery? That’s weird – because, really, who uses cutlery to eat pizza?”

    Eating pizza with cutlery isn’t weird. Especially pizza from fine Italian establishments. I do it in certain pizza establishments.

    What makes it weird is the following:

    1 – The cutlery is plastic.

    2 – That Monsieur Trudeau has the pizza flipped over suggests this is working/middle class pizza you order delivered to your home on a Saturday night while having a movie night with the kids, and not the type of fine dining pizza one orders out on a date night with one’s spouse after attending the opera.

    Basically your old Tim Horton’s vs Starbucks coffee analogy.

    • Max says:

      Mark D, wakey, wakey, take-out/delivery pizza doesn’t come with metallic cutlery. It either comes with plastic, and only on request. or none at all. So yeah, it is weird. And if you’ve seen it common for people to flip pizza over – wet, cheese side-down, well you’re either full of shit or on the ‘Katie T Ops-Ed Payroll’.

      • Mark D says:

        1 – That’s my point. You don’t eat pizza with plastic cutlery. Either it’s higher quality pizza you eat with metal cutlery, or take-out pizza you eat with your fingers.

        2 – The pizza is one piece flipped onto another piece. Basically a calzone. And yes, I do see it frequently.

        • Max says:

          Mark D, you’re reaching there with #2 there bud. That BS wouldn’t fly in The Maritimes. (Well maybe in Dominic LeBlanc’s New Brunswick.)

          • Mark D says:

            Recently saw pizza eaten this way in Halifax, Cape Breton Island…..and….. St John’s, Newfoundland!

            Again, not saying it is common, but not uncommon either.

  9. 416Firearmsowner says:

    Warren, you are correct. But I think the campaign to label Scheer as some kind of alt-right neo-nazi, and his ineffectual response to neutralize those claims, is proving far more effective than the CPC’s campaign to highlight JT’s hypocrisy.

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      416,

      Frankly, you have to be pretty brain dead to even for a second consider Scheer as some kind of a neo-nazi. It’s beyond laughable.

    • John Matheson says:

      It is so effective the CPC are at 40% in the polls and the Liberals are at 30%!

      • Dan says:

        Maybe some hack poll but nanos has it even at 34 apiece.

        • Fred from BC says:

          Yeah, why do all those other polling firms even exist, anyway?

          Everyone knows that Nanos is the only *real* pollster, right?

          • Dan says:

            Not the only one grumpy but he is the most accurate.

          • Fred from BC says:

            “Not the only one grumpy but he is the most accurate.”

            Except when he’s not. Like the 2015 federal election, where Forum proved to be the most accurate (and in 6 of the last 14 provincial elections as well).

          • Dan says:

            Wrong .forum had one accurate poll in the final stages. They also had the worst polls during the election. Nanos was consistent and had the best final pol by a mile.

      • Douglas Musk says:

        The polling aggregates have the CPC at 35 and the Liberals at 31%, what are you on about John?

      • Dan says:

        Nanos update has Libs 35, Cons 32. Gotta love it!

  10. Robin says:

    Trudeau stated early in his term that he viewed his role as largely ceremonial, leaving the heavy lifting to professionals.
    Somehow that doesn’t jive with all the radical anti fossil fuel anti pipeline ENGO executives that he and Butts placed in most ministries, making them responsible for policy development. The damage done is far worse than that by his father, Pierre.

  11. zing says:

    I eat pizza with cutlery. Weird? Certainly uncommon. I don’t care. I don’t want to get my hands greasy and stuff. But the point is well taken: I don’t think people who do weird shit like eat pizza with cutlery are an easy sell for PM.

  12. Mark D says:

    Even those traditional media with an admitted left-leaning bias are laughing at Mr Trudeau’s attempt to brand Mr Scheer a closet neo-nazi. It’s about as credible as accusing Ms. May of being a closet eco-terrorist because she leads the Green Party, or of accusing Mr Singh of being a closet religious extremist because he wears a turban.

    Canadians are smarter than this.

    • Fred from BC says:

      “are laughing at Mr Trudeau’s attempt to brand Mr Scheer a closet Neo-Nazi. ”

      I like left-wing icon Michael Harris’s assessment:

      “Andrew Scheer is about as scary as the Michelin Man”.

      • The Doctor says:

        Wow. That’s like the most reasonable thing I’ve heard form Harris in ages. He had positively lost his mind over Harper.

        • Fred from BC says:

          ” He had positively lost his mind over Harper.”

          That’s for sure. It may even be why he lost his gig at iPolitics…more and more people were starting to notice his serious case of HDS, to the point where his editor began to jump in and defend him in the comment section (never seen *that* before). It got so bad that the very first time he posted a column without a gratuitous, out-of-the-blue cheap shot at Stephen Harper (and it took over a year), people actually ribbed him about it. Not the kind of reaction a serious journalist (or his employer) wants to invoke…

          • Tom Quinn says:

            Harris wrote a book in 2015 about Harper, Party of One, that was pretty damning and pretty accurate as harper’s lawyers were unable to find a way to shut it down.

  13. Gord Tulk says:

    Warren I’m pretty sure that hypocrite quote is from Adlai the second not the Vice President.

  14. jeanbatte says:

    Hypocrite: One who shoves a carbon tax down our throats and tells us that we should limit carbon emissions, while he criss-crosses the country and the world in a tax-payer funded, carbon spewing Challenger jet.

  15. Tod Cowen says:

    A solid Bill of Particulars, to be sure. But why isn’t Scheer further ahead? Grenier has the delta at 5%, with JT on 30%. If we assume that 30% is the yellow-dog vote for the Liberals, then JT might squeak through with a minority if the Cons run a lackluster campaign, and the Greens underperform their recent polls.

    (Question: do readers consider Grenier to be a northern Nate Silver? Hard to tell from this distance.)

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Tod,

      I’ll be watching my usual three reliable metrics: Canada right/wrong track; Government right/wrong track; PM popular/unpopular.

      • Tom Quinn says:

        Nanos, who dos a credible job has JT up almost 4 points over Scher and about 9 points as better PM as of June 28th. I would expect JT to grow to 36/37% by end of August when th gloves formally come off

    • Fred from BC says:

      “But why isn’t Scheer further ahead?”

      For me, it started with his capitulation to the Quebec dairy farmers. His reaction to the MMIW “genocide” claim didn’t help, nor did his response to an MP defending conservatives against a Muslim activist calling them terrorist enablers.

      I’m voting for JWR this time (sorry Ronald…I know it stings…:)

      • Ronald O'Dowd says:

        Fred,

        Au contraire, I’m only voting NDP because JWR and JP didn’t join a party. They denied us the national protest vehicle we wanted and needed. Had Scheer taken them in, I would have even voted CPC. And that’s saying something.

        People said I was arrogant for being absolutely indignent about their choice. My response: then so be it.

        • Dan says:

          In actuality you are voting Cpc. A vote for the dippers is a vote for Scheer. Very simple logic but unrefutable.

          • It depends on what kind of riding you are in and if the next Parliament is a minority.

            If the Liberal start unconditionally supporting a Conservative government like they did last time, a Liberal vote could be a vote for Scheer.

        • Fred from BC says:

          That’s what I was getting at: because I actually live in her riding, I can cast a vote for her…whereas you support her, but have no means to act on it (again, sorry…).

        • Vic says:

          Might as well not vote if you’re just going to waste it on the NDP. At least a green vote means something but Dippers are on the way to oblivion.

          • Vic,

            Like I told Warren earlier, I expect the Greens to generate considerable momentum in English Canada. If that wave can cross into Quebec, then, of course, I’ll vote Green instead.

            Sort of like in the dinosaur days when Mulroney took off in Quebec and then Ontario got on board, etc.

  16. NANOS: certainly good news for this PM. No doubt that Trudeau is moving his personal numbers. Which brings me to two observations: how much of the uptick is due to the Ford government and how much due to Justin Trudeau personally?

    It’s my guess that the latter will pay far greater political dividends for the Liberals if Trudeau has really turned around his personal numbers. It’s my hunch that growing Liberals numbers simply based on a bumbling provincial government will not generate as much long lasting political mileage for the PM and his party.

    But no doubt about it, this, even though it’s only one poll, is incredibly significant for the Liberals. It may very well be the break in the Conservative dam that could potentially snatch victory out of the CPC’s hand if this trend continues — and is also reflected to some significant extent in the other polling companies’ numbers.

    If I’m a Liberal strategist today, I’m happier than a pig in shit looking at these latest NANOS results.

    • Fred from BC says:

      “If I’m a Liberal strategist today, I’m happier than a pig in shit looking at these latest NANOS results.”

      I’d wait for at least two more polls, myself. Don’t plan the parade just yet…

    • Dan says:

      Remember the previous nano poll. It had a tie at 33 so this is a continuing trend. I’m telling you Ronald, Canadians don’t like a pile on , it pisses them off.

  17. Fred,

    What do you think? Are you in my camp in noting that it’s highly significant that the purported turnaround Trudeau personal number came up even before the writ was dropped? That’s what rings a bell for me. It’s one thing to turn it around during the campaign but what if this is ALREADY a barometer of increasing numbers to come?

    • Fred from BC says:

      “Are you in my camp in noting that it’s highly significant that the purported turnaround Trudeau personal number came up even before the writ was dropped?

      I’m thinking that it’s more along the lines of being in-between scandals; the dust has settled, the news cycle has moved on and people are back to ‘parking’ their votes where they feel the most comfortable. I know you already know this, Ronald, but Canada just isn’t a naturally conservative country.

      I’m 100% with you on the VA Norman thing, though. That issue isn’t nearly over with, and it’s only a matter of time until someone leaks a dollar figure and the reporters start asking if it’s correct (and Junior, of course, will nether confirm *nor*deny, which is all the answer we really need…).

  18. I can’t leave out advice for Scheer: I would hit on Norman, above and beyond the normal rotation of taking on the government, each and every single day between now and election day.

    I would ask why in the name of transparency is the Norman settlement confidential? Why are the parties contractually obliged to remain silent? What’s in there that the government doesn’t want Canadians to know? Will Trudeau agree to make public the terms of settlement so Canadians can judge for themselves what went down and how?

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