Perceptions by Gerry Warner

He’s done it again.

Once again Justin Trudeau has made another bozo comment to the microphones that have many wondering if the oldest son of Pierre Elliott Trudeau is ready for the big time. And in an eerily ironic way, Trudeau Jr.’s comment shows that, unlike his father, he doesn’t seem to understand when statesmanship is called for instead of juvenile humor.

Especially in military matters.

Speaking at a conference Thursday hosted by a think tank called Canada 2020, Trudeau said Prime Minister Harper has failed so far to build a non-partisan case for Canada joining the American-led war against ISIS, the fierce Islamist militant force currently carving up Iraq and Syria.

Point made. So far; so good. But not good enough for Trudeau, who then went on to make a typically adolescent remark that he’s rapidly becoming famous for. “Why aren’t we talking more about the kind of humanitarian aid that Canada can and must be engaged in, rather than trying to whip out our CF-18s and show them how big they are?”

Justin, Justin, Justin! By all means talk about humanitarian aid instead of war, but did you have to cloak your comments in an off-color allusion like that?

Apparently he did and critics like Conservative cabinet minister Jason Kenney and others took to Twitter to have a field day with Trudeau’s intemperate remarks. “Remarkable that Justin Trudeau uses juvenile humor (“whip it out”) to describe use of force in combatting genocide,” said Kenney. And in another tweet, Kenney said: “This is the same Justin Trudeau who joked about Russia’s aggression in Ukraine while protestors were being shot.”

In an official statement, Harper spokesman Jason MacDonald called Trudeau’s comments, “disrespectful of the Canadian Armed Forces and made light of a serious matter.” Immigration Minister Chris Alexander also chastised Trudeau. “Shameful. Justin Trudeau ‘whips out’ another bozo eruption by insulting the work of our Canadian Forces.”

Ouch! Once again the clearly inexperienced Liberal leader starts out making a perfectly valid point then veers off into bathroom humor totally destroying the credible comment he was making and making himself the butt of negative stories about him. And this scion of one of Canada’s greatest prime ministers wants to be head of state himself someday. Personally, I don’t think so. At the very least a head of state must show maturity and tact. Trudeau has shown neither.

And yes, I know some of you will disagree with my previous comment calling Pierre Trudeau one of Canada’s “greatest” prime ministers. That’s fine. I know that many feel the same. However, I’m sticking with my guns so to speak even though I never did vote for the man or his party. However, my admiration for P.E.T. shot up when he made his famous remark to a CBC reporter while Canada was on the verge of breaking up and FLQ terrorists were killing people on the streets of Montreal.

Rumors were abounding then that Trudeau was going to impose the War Measures Act to stop the killings and stabilize the country. In a scrum, the breathless CBC reporter rushed up to Trudeau and said something to the effect that surely you wouldn’t do that.

“Just watch me,” Trudeau replied in his typically insouciant way and went ahead and did just that. And yes, civil liberties were suspended for a month and several activists were unjustifiably tossed in jail for a few days where they probably got better grub than they were used to eating at home and an opportunity to reflect on their political maturity or lack thereof.

And what was the result of all the uproar? Canada remains a united country today that allows journalists like me to make comments that infuriate some people and would-be prime ministers to make comments that put their political immaturity on display for all to see.

And that’s just the way it should be.

– Gerry Warner is a retired journalist and an unabashed Pierre Elliott Trudeau fan. He is also a Cranbrook City Councillor, but doesn’t speak for council.

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