On @EvanLSolomon @CFRAOttawa show. Asked why #LPC support didn't plummet after @JustinTrudeau racist blackface scandal broke. Me: "Because voters don't think he's a racist, they think he's an idiot. They always knew he was an idiot. So they weren't surprised." #elxn43 #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/ompd7qpf3B
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) September 24, 2019
My fellow Liberals, my fellow Canadians.
Last week, I spoke about the scandal that has hit my campaign. I didn’t do it right, so I’m now going to try again.
First things first: over and over, I used the wrong pronoun. I talked about how “we,” as a country, need to do better. How “we” need to be less racist.
I got that wrong. I shouldn’t have said “we.” I should have said “I.” Because I – not we – was the one who smeared stuff all over my face and my body and mocked black people.
It was I – not we – who was racist. Me. Repeatedly – as a high school student in Montreal, and then as a teacher of high school students in Vancouver.
When I was thirty years old. When I was a man, not a boy. When I was supposed to know better.
In the video that came out, everyone focussed on the blackface-style racism, and they should have. But they missed something, maybe because the video was grainy.
In it, I’m wearing a T-shirt with bananas on the front. I’ve stuffed something down the front of my jeans. And I jump around like an ape.
I did all of that to communicate something that I’m amazed so many of you missed. I did it to suggest that blacks are apes. Which was the worst kind of racism.
Oh, in case you are wondering if I did blackface more than those three times, the answer is yes: I did. I repeatedly, and gleefully, acted like a racist. I can’t remember every detail because I was wasted.
The people who work for me have all forgiven me, of course. What do you expect? When the boss asks people for forgiveness, they will always give it.
But I must say that Liberal MPs of colour – Navdeep Bains, Omar Alghabra, Greg Fergus – surprised even me with how speedily they pronounced me without sin. I think we all know that if Andrew Scheer had done blackface on Halloween at the age of five, Navdeep, Omar and Greg would be convening a Human Rights Tribunal right now to have Scheer thrown in a gulag in Nunavut for the rest his life.
Because black face is racist. What I did was racist. I wanted to communicate that black people are worthy of mockery. That they are apes. That they belong in cages. That’s as racist as it gets.
Now, last week, I tried to excuse away my racism by saying I was a child of privilege. That I had grown up with a “blind spot” about such things. But we all know that’s a lie.
Growing up rich, and going to the best schools – being a child of privilege – doesn’t excuse my racism. In fact, it’s the reverse: it makes my racism all the more wrong. I, growing up in the house of the man who gave Canada a Charter of Rights, should have known better.
Anyway, words are cheap. I apologize for stuff all the time, to the point where the apologies have no meaning anymore. All that matters is actions, not words.
So, I will now do what I should’ve done last week. I intend to resign the office of the Prime Minister soon after the election, win or lose. And, by the way, I’m amazed I could still win it. That says a lot more about Canadians that it does about me, frankly.
So, there you go. I need time to get away and learn to be a better Dad, a better husband, a better man. I can’t do that as Prime Minister of Canada.
Because words can’t excuse what I did.
Because what I did was racist.
Thank you.
The land is strong.
Sound familiar? Remember that?
The old-timers do. It was an actual slogan that was deployed in the 1972 federal election campaign. Didn’t work out too well.
In yesterday walks tomorrow, they say, and that is certainly true when one compares 1972 to 2019. The similarities are striking.
• In 1972, a Trudeau led the Liberal Party, as in 2019.
• It was a Liberal majority government seeking another majority, as now.
• Back in 1972, as in 2019, the Conservatives were led by a kind of boring, bland guy who everyone underestimated.
• The Liberals’ 1972 slogan, “the land is strong,” sucked. So does the Liberals’ 2019 slogan, “Choose Forward.” It’s ungrammatical and uninspiring.
But the Justin Trudeau folks are wedded to their crummy slogan, just like Justin’s Dad was to his. Everywhere Trudeau the Younger goes, he robotically repeats the “choose forward” mantra, and no one knows exactly what it means.
That’s never a good idea, politically but it’s potential lethal when a scandal hits – like the blackface scandal. When you have no positive message, it makes it easier for a negative message to take its place. And blackface has.
Is an election won or lost on a slogan? Of course not. But a good one should give voters a pithy idea about what is on offer. Like, you know, “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.” Or: “Just Do It.” Or: “The Quicker Picker Upper.”
The big problem with “choose forward” is that it actually reminds voters about Justin Trudeau’s biggest problem. Which isn’t LavScam, or the Aga Khan, or Gropegate.
It’s that he hasn’t done what he said he was going to do. And he hasn’t done much at all, really.
Let’s crack open the history book again.
From 1968 to 1972, when his Dad was Prime Minister and enjoying a strong parliamentary majority, lots of things were done: the Just Society, universal health care, regional development, parliamentary reform, bilingualism, multiculturalism, pro-NATOism, multilateralism, staring down separatism and terrorism.
When you examine the elder Trudeau’s first majority term – and whether you respected him or not, and this writer really did – it is remarkable how much was accomplished in a relatively short period of time.
But, despite all that, Pierre Trudeau was still reduced to a minority in 1972.
His son, meanwhile, doesn’t have much to brag about, legislatively. Legalization of cannabis, and … that’s it.
History will not remember Justin Trudeau for lots of important legislative achievements, because there haven’t been any. It’s been a lot of social media sizzle, but not much policy steak.
Broken promises and voter disappointments: they’re not predicaments unknown to incumbent governments, true.
But, if there’s enough of them, they’re why those governments get defeated.
And, at this point, Justin Trudeau isn’t known for any achievements at all. He’s known for being a racist, and wearing blackface.
Pierre Trudeau wasn’t defeated in 1972. But, despite a lot of legislative achievements, he almost was. He, the Northern Magus, lost his Parliamentary majority to the efforts of Bob Stanfield – who, like Andrew Scheer, was regularly mocked and maligned.
“Choose Forward” strongly implies that what preceded it wasn’t all that great. In Justin Trudeau’s case, he wants us to think of mean old Stephen Harper when we think about that past.
But what if voters start thinking about the more-recent past – and what, if anything, Justin Trudeau has achieved?
He hasn’t achieved much. There’s a reason why Justin Trudeau is less popular than Donald Trump, you know.
The land is strong? When compared to something like “choose forward,” the 1972 Liberal campaign slogan is practically a detailed 100-page policy platform.
Canadians are going to “choose,” alright.
Based upon his paltry, puny legislative record – based on his racist blackface stunts – Justin Trudeau may deeply regret asking Canadians to do so.
God, I love the chorus. Love Marisa Dabice’s voice. Dumb video, but the chorus is one for the ages. Epic.
For all of you who have written to me, depressed and dispirited about the choices in this awful election, don’t forget we have amazing, decent, courageous and principled people like Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott. Don’t give up hope. Be independent.
Late night drinks with Faith Goldy, multiple racist blackface incidents, groping reporters: seeing how the #LPC war room is responding, it’s evident to me that Justin Trudeau has been lying/covering up with his own people. I sort of feel badly for them.
Sort of.
#LPC TALKING POINTS ON PRIME MINISTER BLACKFACE
Show me the boy and I’ll show you the man, etc.
Sent over the transom. There’s a lot more of this coming, I’m told.
