An understandable parting

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This article was published 05/08/2023 (805 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“Trudeau, in an interview, told me he knew his marriage would become a target for his critics, but he was confident it could withstand the attacks.” — Susan Delacourt, Toronto Star, Aug. 2.

Justin Trudeau’s marriage to the love of his life, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, has ended. This week, on their Instagram accounts, they individually announced a formal separation, and for the sake of their three children, the youngest of whom is nine, requested privacy. I don’t rise at four in the morning to violate the privacy of the Trudeaus. But I’m requesting a few minutes of yours to ask: can any Canadian be truly surprised?

Only two weeks ago in this space, I told you about “the Brutes of Belleville,” so-called ordinary Canadians who chose to disrupt the prime minister’s scheduled visit to Belleville, Ont. They got far too close for comfort, causing the PM’s RCMP security detail to call off the rest of his tour.

The Brutes of Belleville were yelling words at the top of their lungs that I wouldn’t want heard by any Canadian, including the nine-year-old Trudeau child or the two Trudeau teenagers. The words “criminal” and “traitor” were shouted. Then there was a word rarely heard in the streets of Canada and even more rarely used to describe the PM, except in the dung-filled dungeons of social media: “pedophile.”

I am not violating the Trudeau’s privacy when I ask my fellow Canadians, how does Sophie Gregoire Trudeau deal with her children asking “Why is our Papa being called a pedophile?” Pedophiles by the very nature of their affliction bring harm to children. How does a child deal with dad being tagged with that disgustingly demeaning name in public? And how does a child’s mother explain it away?

Can she bandage the bruise by saying it’s just politics? Does that work?

“It’s just politics” are three words that may be effective on sterile Canadian TV talk shows that almost nobody outside of Ottawa watches.

But they do nothing to help a child understand why their father is enduring this sinister public abuse.

When the prime minister is not getting clipped by the Brutes of Belleville, he’s taking heat in the arena of partisan parliamentary politics.

We have a homeless problem, connected to an addiction problem in Canada. Must be his fault. We have far too much crime in Canada. His fault. We don’t have enough affordable housing in Canadian cities. His fault. The price of eggs is insidious and ridiculous — as are the prices of beef, pork and poultry.

Must be “Justinflation,” an intellectually vacant term that gains the currency of truth according to many Canadians who use it.

One of the Canada’s top pollsters David Coletto of Abacus Data, told us this week that over the half the country thinks inflation is worse in Canada than other countries. But in June, at 2.8 per cent Canada’s inflation rate was lower than the U.S., Britain, France, Brazil, Australia — in fact, lower than all but five of the G20 nations (China, Spain, Switzerland, South Korea and Saudi Arabia).

You don’t need a PhD in politics to know that if multiple millions of Canadians think inflation is worse elsewhere, they are buying the central Conservative Party message in 2023: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the architect of high inflation in Canada.

How does a mother go about telling her children that Papa is not the reason Canadians feel squeezed, frustrated and angry at the grocery store. Just politics? Only in TV talk show world, do those two words close the discussion so we can safely proceed to commercials about medications, make up and pizza.

But Sophie Gregoire Trudeau isn’t running a talk show. She is trying to be the emotional support for a young family.

The continuous buzz saw of political attack never gets easier at the family kitchen table or the family picnic, or the family summer vacation.

I am not violating the privacy of the Trudeaus by asking this question. Could anybody blame Sophie Gregoire Trudeau for encouraging her husband to step away from politics, to pass on the baton to the next Liberal leader, to take a walk in the snow after three straight election victories?

I am not violating the Trudeaus’ privacy by publicly asking. But I’d be insulting the public by not asking.

I don’t know that the woman Canada’s PM married 18 years ago requested that he hang up the political skates.

But I do know this. Nobody who loves a human being and his children wants to endure any more of the unprocessed sewage, now passing for “just politics” in Justin Trudeau’s Canada.

Charles Adler is a longtime political commenter and podcaster. charles@charlesadler.com