Prior to the 2015 federal election, the Conservative Party of Canada bombarded Canadians with attack ads against Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, with the tagline of “He’s just not ready.”
(Of course, the Tories would have run a campaign with the tagline of “He’ll never be ready” if they could).
Canadians didn’t heed the Tories’ warnings. The Liberals were elected with a strong majority, and Trudeau became a second generation prime minister with a healthy helping of optimism and charisma, but a shortage of pragmatic policy.
In the last 28 months, he has given the Tories lots of ammunition for their “He’s just not ready” slogan.
The latest came last week, when he used the term “peoplekind” instead of “mankind” at a town hall in Edmonton. He wrote the gaffe off as a failed attempt at humour, but it’s not the first time he’s found himself in trouble for statements he has made.
Remember his tribute to Fidel Castro after the Cuban communist dictator died in 2016? That didn’t go over too well, either.
Trudeau was scorned by pundits and ridiculed online for his comments about Castro. And now he’s being mocked for the “peoplekind” comment, too.
The social media peanut gallery was quick to go after Trudeau for the blunder. And it wasn’t just in Canada. Many outside of the country quickly ridiculed the PM for the statement.
Trudeau’s popularity outside of the country is greater than it is in Canada, so when he’s getting panned beyond our borders, you know he’s made a mistake.
He might claim it’s a case of a joke that fell flat, but he should have known better than to utter it in the first place. It came in the wake of the senate approving changes to the Canadian national anthem, altering it from “in all thy sons command” to “in all of us command.”
People didn’t think he was joking when he said “peoplekind.” They viewed it as another example of Trudeau’s love for political correctness. And they saw another case of our nation’s leader putting his foot in his mouth.
In spite of all his gaffes, and all the evidence that he wasn’t ready to be in charge of our country, Trudeau remains very popular in the eastern half of the country. As much as residents of the west don’t want to hear it, Trudeau is almost certain to be re-elected in 2019, although he might wind up with a minority government.
He deserves credit for the way in which he has handled U.S. President Donald Trump, and he’s proven to be adept at building bridges sharing a positive message.
But from a legislative and economic perspective, he has struggled, and he has shown on multiple occasions an ability to make people across the country cringe with his comments.
