There is a compilation on the internet called “The Greatest Parliamentary Fights of All Time” compiled in 2008 by someone in Taiwan. Punches are thrown, furniture takes flight, someone gets a trash can on their head, and that’s in the first thirty seconds of a four minute video. There are headlocks, there are people getting sent to the hospital, it’s serious business.
Meanwhile, in Canada, the Prime Minister brushes against someone’s chest and it’s treated like the most serious thing that has ever happened in the history of democracy. Which is not to say that the incident isn’t disappointing – frankly everyone involved is a grown adult who should know better – but let’s gain some perspective here. This isn’t a real parliamentary row, and the person “injured” was so impressive at taking a dive that I think she should be on Canada’s team for the World Cup of Soccer, but as a whole the entire thing was such a non-event that we should just ignore it and move on.
Except we haven’t been ignoring it, and given that I’m spilling a bit of ink in order to talk about it I’m no better than anyone else. Why aren’t we ignoring it? There’s naturally the disappointment surrounding our elected officials behaving like a particularly unruly class of second graders, the disconnect between our “sunny” Prime Minister getting involved in what can very generously be called a “physical altercation,” in the same way that a non-alcoholic drink can be referred to as beer. In all honesty, I think it’s not getting ignored because it’s a chance to make a joke.
There’s a lot of stuff going on right now that you can’t make a joke about. Nobody would dare make a joke about the fires in Fort McMurray, for example, there is nothing remotely funny about that situation. Most political humor is going to be divisive, as people support their own political party and can get incredibly upset if you make fun of policy or their beliefs.
But making fun of this nonsense is incredibly easy! No matter what political party you support, nobody comes across well. The Liberal Prime Minister for supposedly “manhandling” people, the Conservatives cooking up dramatic phrases like describing him as having “anger in his eyes,” the NDP making it difficult for the Conservative whip to get to his seat in the first place. All of them are in the wrong, all of them acted like children, all of them deserve to be made fun of for turning parliament into a bizarre schoolyard fight. No matter what your political party of choice, you can find someone to make fun of in this situation. It’s a bit of levity in the heart of a difficult year.
Nobody comes off well, which is great! You can make fun of every single one of them! And since everyone comes off equally bad you can finally engage in political humor with anyone you know. Conservative and NDP supporters can bond over jokes about Justin “Elbows” Trudeau. Conservatives and Liberals can poke fun at MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau and her dramatic overacting after being lightly brushed. NDP and Liberals can make plenty of fun at the Conservatives making up dramatic turns of phrase to somehow spin an incredibly stupid non-event into political points. Everyone wins, because everyone loses.
It’s a unifying incident, because it’s something where everyone is so incredibly, obviously and aggressively stupid that all of Canada can unite and make fun of them. It’s sad and depressing, sure, but sad and depressing in a way that we can at least have a good time pointing that out. Most sad and depressing things are not a source of humor. Lots of stuff is divisive, because people believe that someone is right and wrong and can get aggressive when they think someone else is disagreeing with them. But we have a case where everyone is wrong and the only thing we have to be sad about is how a bunch of well-paid adults who should know better somehow decided to act like the world is an elementary school. I’m amazed that nobody challenged anyone to meet at the flagpole after, but it’s possible that we didn’t hear that bit of audio.
So this is a non-incident that gets a lot of play not because it’s something that should matter to Canada, but because it’s a rare unifying incident. No matter who you are, what you do, how you identify politically, you can all agree on one subject: The people in parliament were so stupid that we should make fun of them. In that way, Trudeau acted as a kind of unifier, because the country can come together and finally agree on something. Perhaps he would prefer it if that subject wasn’t that he and all his colleagues from every party were acting like idiots for no reason, but you can’t pick and choose what your legacy is.
Just ask one of his predecessors, best known for the Shawinigan Handshake.
