I haven’t been following too closely, but didn’t they find 3 or 4 separate incidents of him in blackface?
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Politicians don’t do that anymore. It’s a new era.
Some of his best friends, huh?
Trudeau probably isn’t a racist. His propensity for wearing blackface was, to be honest, really weird; who the hell does that as much as he apparently did? Jesus. The guy showed up to a formal event in blackface. Who the fuck does that? Are you SURE he isn’t a racist? But maybe he’s just a clueless doofus.
Even giving him the benefit of the doubt, though, his political correctness bona fides are, let’s be honest, all sizzle and no steak. He’s very good at talking a good game, but he hasn’t done much substantive. “Look, he personally welcomed Syrian refugees” is a PR stunt. Canada’s actual actions regarding immigration policy did not really change in any substantial way with this government.
Trudeau is basically a seat warmer. These days, I guess maybe that’s not the worst thing.
The numbers would suggest otherwise.
He was elected on October 19, 2015, and in 2016, we let in over twice as many refugees as the previous year, and about 4 times as many as more typical years of the Harper era. That year was a peak, but since then, the numbers have been consistently 2-3 times higher than during the Harper years.
It’s not just the written policy that matters, it’s how the government acts to implement those policies. It was pretty clearly demonstrated that Harper encouraged the people doing the work to drag their feet for as long as possible when evaluating these refugees, while Trudeau didn’t. Now, lots of people don’t like the fact that we’ve let so many in, but to claim there’s been no difference is ludicrous. The difference in attitude is particularly stark when you compare it to the US numbers in the Trump Era.
- Which was a small number still, and
- Was, of course, largely because the Syrian refugee crisis peaked at that time.
The number of refugees accepted into Canada - **which all major parties promised to increase **- was dependent upon the refugees being available to come. As all parties were going to allow more refugees to settle in Canada, the number was going to go up anyway. You’ll note the Liberals actually did not meet their promise of fifty thousand. That’s not because they suddenly didn’t want to meet it; there just were not enough suitable candidates.
Honestly, this is one of Trudeau’s more laudable policies and it’s still not really all that impressive in the grand scheme of things. Again, the relatively modest numbers aren’t his fault, though.
The “relatively modest” numbers are because we’re a relatively modest country. We’ll never be able to take in all the people who would like to come here, but if you can’t see the difference between 10,000 per year and 30,000 per year, you’re being wilfully blind. Particularly when you note that we’re now taking in even more than the US is taking in.
And it doesn’t matter how much Harper promised to take in, when what he actually did was to make it as difficult as possible for people to be accepted.
Compare him to Henry Hyde, who was a callow and naïve 41 when he committed his own “youthful indiscretion”.
That’s silly. Cabinet is about power. Being an MP is certainly something, but Cabinet is the seat of power. Having a diverse Cabinet is not symbolism or tokenism, if that’s what you’re implying. A diverse cabinet is a clear demonstration that you don’t have to be a white male in this country to be at the heart of power. It shows that the single most powerful group in the government is representative of all Canadians.
Even if it was PR (and I don’t agree that it was just that), PR is important. The symbolic actions of the PM help to tell the world what kind of country Canada is.
Compare:
(1) the PR of a country’s leader going to an airport to greet refugees from a war zone, hand out coats against a cold Canadian winter, and say “You’re home and you’re safe.”
(2) the PR of a country’s leader saying “Build the wall to keep them out” and pictures of children in cages.
PR shapes public opinion and public values.
I’ll take (1) over (2) as the representation of my values, and the message to send to the world about my country.
Just one more thing in addition to the excellent points already made – and thank you Northern Piper for the insightful comment about the diversity of Trudeau’s Cabinet.
You seem to have forgotten some of the things that really went on during Harper’s tenure in relation to refugees …
Harper shut Canada’s door during Syria’s agony: Editorial
Syrian Refugee Crisis: Ottawa Still Slow To Act On Applications
It was only with the Trudeau government that things really started to move, with a commitment IIRC to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees in the first year. I think they fell behind briefly but soon met and exceeded this number.
Neither Trudeau’s commitment to refugee resettlement nor his racially diverse Cabinet are token or symbolic actions, nor in any sane interpretation could they be seen as the actions of a racist.
I do not seriously think Trudeau is a racist. Honestly, few people are outright racists. Andrew Scheer isn’t a racist, either (though he might be a homophobe.) I’ve no reason to believe Jagmeet Singh is a racist, or Elizabeth May.
Trudeau’s primary weakness is simply that he is not very smart; he is, easily, the least intellectually gifted prime minister in my lifetime.
He might still be the best choice, though.
Seriously. You link to a Toronto Star Op-Ed and an article about staffing requirements?
Pffff.
As RickJay said, no real change in immigration policies exist here.
I was hoping he would show up at the press conference in blackface and apologized for nothing as it’s just makeup. I would have.