Disrespect

Jeff Green | Aug 18, 2021

Justin Trudeau met with the new Governor General Mary Simon at Rideau Hall on Sunday. He did so in order to request that Governor General, as the representative of Queen Elizabeth, dissolve Parliament to make way for fresh elections.

This quaint detail about how elections are called in Canada is a nod to our colonial past. It gains some added irony in this case because Simon is an Inuk woman, and yet she is the representative of the institution in whose name her ancestors have been nearly brought to extinction. Simon has spent her entire life working to reverse that trend. She is a substantial figure, and was selected as Governor General to add some necessary dignity to the role.

Yet, minutes after visiting with Mary Simon, Trudeau emerged in the sunshine and started the election campaign by twisting the truth.

He claimed that, because his government was elected before the COVID pandemic hit, it needs to hold an election, now, in order to give Canadians a say in how the country should emerge from the pandemic. The only way to respect Canadians, he implied, in these urgent times, is to give us a say on September 20 and no later.

He then said that we should all be asking the other political parties, who say holding an election in the midst of the 4th wave of COVID is a bad idea, why they oppose giving Canadians a chance to control our own destiny by voting.

This is sophistry of the worst sort. He is implying that anyone who says we should not have an election now, is opposed to elections and to democracy.

This is not true. What people who oppose a fall election are saying is that the government is stable, any measures that are necessary to get us out of COVID will be supported by at least one of the parties who support is needed to keep the government afloat, and the timing of the election is irresponsible.

There is no good reason why an election in the spring of 2022 would not accomplish everything that the country requires at what Mr. Trudeau calls “these consequential times”.

The Liberal Party is taking a calculated risk that when it comes time to vote, people will prefer them over the other parties even though the election call is blatant opportunism.

All of that is fine and dandy. Provincial governments have done the same thing throughout the pandemic, with a pretty high rate of success, so for the Liberals to succumb to the temptation is not in the least bit surprising.

But for Mr. Trudeau to stand there on Sunday and claim his party is the only one that is wiling to give Canadians their say, saying we should ask the opposition parties why they aren’t as committed to democracy as the Liberals are, is more than a bit much.

And to speak so falsely in front of Mary Simon’s house, was an insult to her.

The Prime Minister of Canada used the Governor General as a prop on Sunday, and the Governor General is an indigenous person. We can all draw our own conclusions from that.