The death of Fidel Castro, the monster that has blighted Cuba for the past nearly six decades, may have another casualty. The collateral damage seems to be the reputation of Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose accolade for the fallen tyrant has made him the laughing stock of the world.
When Trudeau assumed the leadership of Canada, replacing the stodgy Stephen Harper, the world press swooned over the handsome, cool politician, the son of another Canadian prime minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who was also handsome and cool five decades ago.
However, when he stated, “It is with deep sorrow that I learned today of the death of Cuba’s longest-serving president” the world looked on in astonishment. When he went on to praise Castro as being well loved by his people, touting his alleged accomplishments in education and health care, with not a mention of firing squads, concentration camps, and torture chambers, the laughter began, as Macleans noted.
Castro has always had a fan base of useful idiots in the West, loving the bearded, uniformed revolutionary for his standing up to the big, imperialist United States. None of these rubes have been, until now, in charge of a NATO country. Now Canada’s prime minister is the butt of jokes throughout social media.
The country that he was elected to lead is mortified that the younger Trudeau exists.
No doubt the opposition Conservative Party, due to choose a new permanent leader next May, is going to not let Trudeau forget the mother of all gaffes. In any case, Canada’s young, vacuous prime minister is going to be out of step in the coming new world order, with right-leaning adults taking power in Great Britain, France, and the United States.
What the mercurial Donald Trump will do to Trudeau on the occasion when the two men first meet as leaders is something delicious to contemplate.
If the Liberal Party wants to remain in power in Canada for any length of time, it might consider getting rid of Trudeau and replacing him with an adult. Then he can go somewhere quiet and isolated and think hard and long about what he has done.
