Making Sense of My Prime Minister’s Fuck-Ups

The pictures of Justin Trudeau in brown and black “make up” came as a slap in the face for those of us who have seen the Canadian prime minister as the embodiment of the enlightened leader of a first world country. Why have I been so naive as to believe that Trudeau, an extremely privileged white man, after all, could be our beacon of hope in a world divided by the rhetoric of politicians like Donald Trumps, Doug Ford and Boris Johnson?

Perhaps the answer lies in Trudeau’s roots: he is, in fact, his father’s son. And his father, Pierre Trudeau, introduced multiculturalism as official national policy— a country made strong not in spite of, but because of its diversity. Pierre Trudeau did more for defining what it means to be Canadian than perhaps any other Canadian politician, and in doing so he has helped create a Canadian identity.

Justin Trudeau walked closely in his father’s footsteps in matters of multiculturalism and diversity, significant considering today’s rise in nationalism throughout the world. But it’s not only Justin Trudeau’s views on cultural diversity that drew us all to him. A regular appearance at Pride parades all over Canada, he was also Canada’s first prime minister to ever march in Toronto Pride. After forming Canada’s first gender-balanced cabinet, one that was also young and ethnically diverse, Trudeau charismatically answered a journalist, both matter-of-fact and tongue-in-cheek, that he did it “because it’s 2015”. And then no one can forget the moment he welcomed a Syrian family, among the first refugees being resettled in Canada, by telling them “you are home.”

The brown and blackface images tainted this image of Trudeau that the world had embraced, causing a sort of cognitive dissonance in the consciousness of Canadians, myself included. Even though I have familiarized myself with the contradictory feelings of having to reconsider men I admire in the heels of the #MeToo movement and the general awakening of cultural awareness we’ve seen in the past few years, it stings to have to acknowledge that Trudeau is not the perfect leader I wanted him to be.

I already knew that he wasn’t perfect, though. Last year, we found out that he had groped a female reporter at a music festival when he was 28 — around the same time the brown and blackface photos were taken. We moved on quickly from that story, even though it highlighted Trudeau’s tendency to have one set of rules for himself, and another for others’ blunders.

It seems that Trudeau did a lot of questionable things nearly 20 years ago. How telling are those patterns of behavior? Were they “honest mistakes”, or were they incidents telling of his true behaviour and attitudes when he is out of the spotlight? Of course, Justin Trudeau was not the first and is far from being the last young person to behave questionably. But a 29 year-old teacher who also happens to be the son of a former prime minister should have known better. It’s also important to note that Trudeau’s Aladdin costume would have never seen the light of day if the theme for the school’s gala hadn’t been Arabian Nights, in itself a form of cultural appropriation.

If we forgive and forget we set a new precedent for what is acceptable. It would be problematic for Canadians to let him off the hook easily. If we don’t hold Trudeau accountable and truly probe him on why he behaved as he did, we are essentially accepting to be ruled by people with dubious patterns of behaviour. It would validate all the bad boys (and sometimes girls) of politics who have the power to bend the arc of the moral compass of a country, and who slowly, but surely, can normalize more than destructive ideologies.

It’s true that if it were any another politician then Justin Trudeau, these photos wouldn’t be so hurtful. Perhaps he will come up with a better explanation than that he was young and stupid but he’s changed. As it stands today, Trudeau’s behaviour nearly 20 years ago has implications not only for his political career, but also for the way the upcoming election will unfold.

I imagine that not a lot of Canadian voters will move left or right in next month’s federal election. But if they decide to, it’s unfortunate that they will probably have to decide among one of the lesser evils.