Newly-elected Federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is in deep, deep, deep political doo doo. He is practically drowning in the brown goo. You could barely see his manly and wavy dark hair above the political crap that has engulfed him. And is threatening to capsize the good ship "Moonbeams and Unicorns," on its first Liberal maiden voyage.
You know Trudeau is in deep political trouble, when the NDP come to the defense of their mortal enemy, the hard right Conservative Prime Minister Harper. And together they hammer the fair Justin for his insensitive comments about the vile Boston terrorist attack.
Hath hell frozen over?
Are those the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse over yonder?
Is the end of the world nigh?
And if the world ends, will I finally be able to break my permanent Rogers' smartphone contract?
These are the thoughts that went through my mind as I watched online yesterday, CBC's Evan Solomon as he interviewed a political panel of Tory MP Candace Bergen, NDP Public Safety critic Randall Garrison, and Liberal critic Dominic LeBlanc.
The issue was Trudeau's apparent insensitive comments about the Boston bomb attack. Which comments Trudeau conveyed in an interview with CBC Peter Mansbridge. That aired on CBC on Tuesday.
(Note to my loyal American readers, all four of you. Canada does have other television channels, aside from the CBC. That supply us with our daily fix of "American Idol", "The Voice" and "Dancing with The Washed Up Stars." Some of us even have cable.)
In the Mansbridge interview, Trudeau appeared to pay mere lip service to the tragedy of those victims who were killed and maimed. What he did not do in that interview, at the beginning of the interview, was forcefully condemn the terrorist attack and the terrorists who did such vile things.
What Trudeau did do, however, was to launch into a barely coherent apparent rationalization for the terrorists' behavior. He speculated that these terrorists may feel excluded from American society. And it was very important to understand the tensions in American society and to understand the root causes of this behavior. As if American society was to blame for producing the conditions which led to this terrible tragedy. As if the victims were somehow at fault.
Prime Minster Harper in London, upon hearing and reading Trudeau's comments, reacted by stating that as Prime Minster, he categorically condemned the terrorist attacks and he hoped the terrorists would be dealt with as harshly as possible.
Evan Solomon then interviewed the three political MPs.
Naturally, the Tory MP supported Harper's views and called upon Justin Trudeau to clarify his comments.
The Liberal MP Leblanc naturally defended Trudeau's comments and in turn criticized Harper for politicizing the Boston bomb attack for partisan advantage.
But when it came to the NDP Garrison's turn, he seemed transformed. Momentarily transfixed. Then Randall Garrison realized that probably for the first time in his political life, he will be coming to the defense of his party's mortal enemy, Stephen Harper. But as a true politician, Randall realized that Harper was right and that Trudeau had royally screwed up his CBC interview. And that Trudeau was politically vulnerable over his insensitive comments about the Boston bomb attack.
Randall Harrison then lambasted Trudeau and called his comments, "mystifying, troubling, and disturbing." He could not understand why instead of worrying about the victims and the first responders, Justin Trudeau was caught up worrying about the mental state of the terrorists. To Garrison, this was very disturbing.
To me this was historic. This was epic.
In all my years covering politics and commenting on politics, I have never seen or experienced the left wing NDP willingly and happily embrace the views of Stephen Harper. Who is like the anti-Christ to all leftist followers.
But Randall Garrison did the politically impossible. He leaped right in and defended Harper's harsh criticism of Trudeau. And then he turned to his Liberal adversary, Dominic LeBlanc and characterized Trudeau's Boston bomb comments as "mystifying, troubling and disturbing."
You should see the look on Leblanc's face. Utter astonishment.
Now that is great must-see TV. That is great drama.
Better than scandal. Better than revenge. Even better than "Dallas II."
But I must commend Dominic Leblanc. He is a true pro.
He stood his ground. And he strongly defended Trudeau's comments.
Leblanc argued forcefully that in fact Trudeau had strongly condemned the terrorist attacks in the Mansbridge interview.
But this is precisely the point.
Check out the transcript of Trudeau's initial comments.
He did not forcefully condemn the bomb attack or the terrorists, when he should have, immediately and at the beginning of the interview, when Mansbridge asked him how he would respond as Prime Minister.
Instead, Trudeau stressed his concern about the terrorists. As Randall Garrison stated, it was disturbing that Trudeau was unduly concerned about the mental state of the terrorists. Trudeau seemed more concerned about the root causes of their actions, than the victims themselves.
And still Justin Trudeau has refused to publicly clarify his comments.
And still he has refused to publicly apologize to the victims, their families and to the Americans.
And he won't.
Because he is trust fund Justin. The son of Pierre Trudeau.
He believes himself to be the entitled heir to the position of Prime Minister.
And the Liberal Party still believes that it is Canada's Natural Governing Party.
