No need to torment the Trudeaus

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/08/2023 (793 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“The Trudeau family is on holiday together. Should you really vacation with your ex?” National Post tweet — Aug. 14, 2023

What’s wrong with people? Honestly, I don’t get it.

There are few things in life more painful for any couple than breaking up. It’s one of the reasons Neil Sedaka scored a smash hit in 1975, with Breaking Up Is Hard To Do.

It is hard for any partnership to agree to a split. When the Beatles split, it was not easy. When Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman went their own ways, there was plenty of pain to be spread around the various musicians and families — not to mention the legions of Guess Who fans around the world.

Now we have Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Trudeau splitting up. And they have three children and millions who adore them deeply.

Despite any given public opinion poll produced on any day by any of the many polling firms that poll our every desire, mood and feeling, the truth is, no matter how arduous the polls are for Trudeau, there are millions who love him. There should be no doubt there are many millions who wish the Trudeau family all the best.

But this missive, on this day, isn’t about them. It’s about us.

What kind of a country would we be if we wanted the families of high-profile people to suffer in their personal lives, just because some of us dislike their politics?

Do any of us truly want to live in a country where we turn into a nation of ghouls, hoping that politicians we disagree with have their personal lives destroyed?

Less than a month ago in this newspaper I wrote about the “Brutes of Belleville.” This is what I called a herd of demonstrators that organized themselves on social media and disrupted a prime ministerial visit to the beautiful town in Prince Edward County, just an hour’s drive from Kingston, Ont.

The demonstrators screamed words that included, criminal, traitor and pedophile into the ear of the prime minister. It was precisely the sort of situation that puts a strain on any family. I am not saying it was the marriage deal breaker.

But the “Brutes of Belleville” ought to focus every Canadian on the real-life consequences of participating in public life. No matter how good some public people are at pretending that their private lives are not disrupted, they very much are.

It’s one thing for some goons to visit Belleville and shout things in the PM’s ear. It’s another for national media to be exploiting a break up by questioning the merits of the couple’s decision to disrupt the lives of their children to the smallest extent that is possible.

One way to provide continuity and harmony is by not cancelling the summer vacation to the western shores of Vancouver Island. It’s a place that the family has created many happy memories and it’s quite possible that more of them are being created right now. To be fair to the newspaper turning the Trudeaus’ decision into a questionable headline, the actual article it is attached to is not a Trudeau bash.

But in my opinion, the question is still out of line. “Should you really vacation with your ex?” deletes the essential point of the Trudeau family activity. It’s not about sharing a vacay with the ex. They’re not even exes yet.

The event is very much about the couple’s devotion to their children. The marriage has hit the rocks. But that doesn’t have to ruin the summer of 2023 for the children.

The political motivation of the tweet is clear. It has nothing to do with continuity and consistency for the Trudeau children. It is to remind people that the Trudeaus are about to become exes, and if your political message is consistently on the right, it is just one more reason to question the Liberal prime minister’s character.

Is that fair? Of course not. Marriages break up. Unfortunately, it isn’t even remotely close to unusual. And it’s not unusual to see stress breaking up families.

If anyone reading this thinks that being the highest profile political family in the country is unattached to a high level of stress in 2023, my polite suggestion would be to do more reading.

Charles Adler is a longtime political commenter and podcaster.

charles@charlesadler.com