Election #3 The Problem With Being Perfect

Just a few days ago, I did a blog on the difficulties of deciding how relevant should the activities be of politicians when they were younger. Both the Conservatives and the Liberals have been active in looking at their opponent's social media pages searching for any previous sins. In hindsight Liberals should have been less enthusiastic looking for other people's sins, but perhaps they did not know about the skeletons that were hiding in Mr. Trudeau's closet.

I went to a small school just off the island of Montreal. The elementary and high school were attached and I don't think there were more than 300-400 students in the whole school. Sometime in the early 60s, when I was in elementary school, the high school students did a "minstrel show". I am sure I saw the show at least one year although it may have been for two years. The show was a big deal. The high school students all wore blackface and dressed up in costume, they sang songs and told jokes in fake southern American accents - acting like they and the audience assumed black people acted and talked. I can remember enjoying the show. I suspect that I was envious of the students who seemed to be having such a good time on stage and who clearly were appreciated by the audience.

It was a small school, in a community that always felt as if it was far off of the beaten track. In the early 1960s, there was no suggestion of what was about to happen in terms of civil rights to the south of us. I don't think the issue of racism was ever mentioned in any classroom I sat in. There were no people of colour in my school. The teachers, the students and the parents were all absolutely oblivious to the wrongness of these minstrel shows. Thankfully, well before I got to high school these show disappeared from the gym stage. It was wrong and it should never have happened but it was, at least on my part, unintentional racism. I had no way of knowing any better.

But certainly by 1970 - it was clear that people needed to start to think about these issues and by the 90s it is difficult for me to believe that anyone in Canada would have dressed up in blackface for a party - and think that it was okay. Someone can apologize all they want for doing so - I would accept that apology if there was some indication that it happened a long time ago and that they have taken steps to be educated on why it was wrong. The fact that Justin Trudeau wore blackface at least two times when he was an adult causes me to question his capacity to make intelligent decisions. I am reasonably sure that he is not a racist - but he has shown incredibly poor judgement. It is more disturbing that he did it as a teacher. He should have been a better model for his students.

There is no doubt that this news has been released at this specific time because it will hurt the Liberal's chances of winning the election. It was a crass political act that will ensure that the election will be about personalities, not policy. We deserve better.

The pictures/videos will confirm to some people that Trudeau is an ass and should not be the leader of a country. Those who will always support the Liberals will blame others for the news being released and say what he did 20 years ago is not important. It is far too early to guess whether or not the news will significantly sway people who had not yet made of their minds.

Within the war room(s) of the Liberal party, I am sure some have considered Trudeau resigning as perhaps he should. But that cannot happen. It would hand the running of the country to some other party - whether or not they deserved it. Perhaps the best that the Liberals can do is to suggest that the voters will decide whether or not the errors of two decades ago are relevant.

Scheer of the Conservatives has said that he would let anyone run for his party, no matter what they had said as long as they apologized. I bet that he will not be so generous to his main opposition.

Trudeau's failing is not that he did something stupid when he was younger - it is that he acted like he was near perfect in terms of his values and beliefs. He isn't and so some Canadians will be feel betrayed to find that their newest emperor is no better than their old one.