Good Grief

By Matt

From The Washington Post:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the selfie-snapping Liberal leader who swept to power and international fame four years ago with promises of “sunny ways,” heads into Monday’s federal election with his star dimmed and his political future in jeopardy.

Polls show Trudeau’s Liberals and Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives locked in a tight race, with neither party building the necessary momentum to win an outright majority in Parliament. That would leave the winner dependent on smaller parties to maintain power.

Despite Trudeau’s blackface scandal and a lesser kerfuffle about Scheer’s U.S. citizenship and resume claims, the state of play as the race comes down to the wire has changed little since the campaign began nearly six weeks ago.

I don’t follow Canadian politics, but when Justin’s Trudeau’s blackface scandal—or should I say multiple blackface scandals—really got me interested in Canada’s election. I’ve been aware of Trudeau fancying himself to be a champion of diversity and tolerance, and yet he dressed in blackface at least three times (and probably more) as an adult who should have known the racist implications of doing so.

My initial thought when this first broke was that he’ll probably survive. The political left, more often than not, tends not to be held accountable for such things. For example, Virginia governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, refused calls to step down despite having dressed in blackface or a KKK uniform in his 1984 yearbook for Eastern Virginia Medical School. He’s rode the storm and survived.

The question is, will Trudeau? Despite the fact that he has, on multiple occasions as an adult, dressed in racist blackface, he was endorsed by Barack Obama last week. A curious move for someone who couldn’t even come out of hiding to defend Joe Biden against accusations of racism.

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