Trudeau's wounded pride is well deserved

A poseur is someone who poses for effect, or behaves affectedly, who affects a particular attitude, character or manner to impress others, or who pretends to belong to a particular group. A poseur may be a person who pretends to be what he is not or an insincere person; may have a flair for drama or behave as if he is onstage in daily life.

For more than a year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made himself the face and voice of parliament. He would pop out of his Harrington Lake cottage each day and talk down to the people in his domain, mainly about the latest efforts of his minority government.

His commentary, dutifully recorded by the mainstream media, clearly illustrated the wide gap between the federal government and the people it claims to serve. They could live on different planets except that the political class would have no one to tax except themselves, which would never do.

Most of Trudeau’s announcements and pronouncements meant little to a population anxious about their futures, fearful about the coronavirus epidemic, frustrated by efforts to find work to pay the bills and by what seemed to be an endless merry-go-round of business closures, mask regulations and isolation orders.

Trudeau took to appearing dishevelled, with overly long hair, a beard and a look of desperation. That, intentionally or not, accurately portrayed a parliament we have lost faith in.

The sudden change to a clean-shaven, youthful, smiling persona did not take. The magic is gone.   

Anxiety, fear and frustration eventually give rise to anger. We are angered by our inability to return to a tangible degree of normalcy thwarted at every turn by virus regulations. Our government appears incapable of stopping the spread of COVID-19.

Here we are, eighteen months after the virus was accepted as an epidemic and emergency, and instead of reduced risk and relaxation of regulations, we are assured we are into the fourth wave of infections.

Worse, extensions of COVID regulations push back our dreams of economic recovery and stability.

Businesses are closing down permanently along with the jobs they offered and their contributions to our economy. We are on a downward spiral.

Adults among us have sometimes discovered the hard way that when plans are not working, we must examine the reasons and adapt the assumptions we made in forming our plan. We may have to scrap the whole thing and start anew with different aims and objectives.

Our government is committed to the same regulations that have failed from the outset. What began as a few weeks of isolation and lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID had transitioned into fear of the fourth wave of infections. Instead of adapting to more effective virus plans, the government imposes penalties for not adhering to its dictates.

Trudeau put a capper on the divide between parliament and the people yesterday by affirming his commitment to fighting climate change through carbon taxes. We see higher prices for what we need to buy and less disposable income. Inflation is an enemy of workers as it erodes income.

Trudeau, the poseur, has made himself the lightning rod for the anger we feel at being talked down to as if we are incapable of shaping our personal lives. We were coping well before Trudeau. He appears as an impediment to regaining control over our lives and futures. Trudeau claims to be bewildered by the anger directed at him, but his lack of empathy and understanding is the cause of his tribulations.

As Abraham Lincoln observed: You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

Prime Minister Trudeau’s wounded pride is self-inflicted and deserved.