If the Liberals win the 2015 federal election, will this country be governed by Justin Trudeau — or by Justin Bieber?
It’s hard to tell who’s who anymore, given Trudeau’s adolescent behaviour. First, it was calling then-environment minister Peter Kent a “piece of s—” in the House of Commons. Then it was smoking pot, an illegal drug, while serving as an MP tasked with upholding laws — and helping to enact them. Now, the man who wants to be Canada’s next prime minister used the F-word at a boxing event in Gatineau, Que., on the weekend.
“I will tell you, there is no experience like stepping into this ring and measuring yourself. All that — your name, your fortune, your intelligence, your beauty — none of that f—ing matters,” Trudeau said.
It was only Monday that he finally said he regretted using the word, and only after his wife, Sophie Grégoire, chided him for it. Good for Grégoire, but it’s too bad Trudeau doesn’t have the class to realize that if you’re the leader of a federal political party and aspire to be prime minister one day, you conduct yourself with dignity and decorum in public.
You need to understand the difference between the way you act during a public appearance and your behaviour on a camping trip with close friends.
Trudeau continues to disappoint with his behaviour. He’s 42 years old, and he acts and talks like a kid. We know that Generation Y, or the millennials, or whatever they’re calling themselves this week — the cohort born about 10 years after Trudeau — has made a fine art of prolonging adolescence far into their 20s and 30s.
Not long ago, a woman whose boyfriend was turning 32 told me that at his birthday party, the “boys” would be playing video games all afternoon. And I’ve seen the Facebook postings of young mothers who think it’s the cutest thing ever that their three-year-old used the F-word loud and clear for everyone to hear at the grocery store that afternoon. “LOL,” they write, “we’ve got to cut back our use of it in front of him.”
Yes, it’s the most riotously funny thing in the world that civility and good manners are no longer things to be taught to children, while what was once an abyss between proper language in public and profanity has shrunk to the size of a mere crack in the sidewalk.
Corinthians 13:11 says: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Nowadays, when you reach an age at which past generations considered themselves men (or women), it’s perfectly acceptable not to put away childish, or at least adolescent, things — including wasting one’s time getting high, and the public use of obscenity.
But at 42? Sixty might be the new 40, but 42 appears to be the new 12.
An even greater weight than ordinary adulthood rests on Trudeau’s shoulders. He wants to be the prime minister, but his behaviour is distinctly not prime ministerial.
Canadians have a right to expect better of someone who wants to be a world leader.
Yet, Trudeau remains pretty much unrepentant. After the Prime Minister’s Office publicly chided Trudeau for his poor judgment in using profanity in public, he responded by saying the Harperites shouldn’t take him to task for his judgment because of the judgment they’ve shown in the Senate spending scandal.
The Senate affair has nothing to do with how a potential prime minister conducts himself publicly, but Trudeau’s response is worrisome. It shows a refusal to take responsibility for his behaviour, as well as an attempt to mitigate the matter by deflecting attention to someone else’s unrelated actions — both characteristic of the immature thought processes of a person who has a lot of growing up to do.
Trudeau needs to understand that “your name, your fortune, your intelligence, your beauty” — none of that matters if you don’t set a higher standard for yourself and start acting like the statesman you supposedly aspire to be.
