On June 22, 2019, the Prime Minister’s itinerary showed him taking a personal day. I guess he was tired after flying to Toronto to attend the Eid dinner hosted by Canadian-Muslim Vote and back to Ottawa again the day before.
He flew back to Toronto again the following day to walk in the Toronto Pride Parade.
In between, the body of Bombardier Patrick Labrie, who was killed on a training exercise with NATO in Bulgaria, was returned to Ottawa airport. In a solemn service, Labrie’s colleagues lifted Labrie’s flag-draped coffin from the plane into the hangar with full military honours.
Labrie served with the 2nd Regiment of the Royal Horse Artillery stationed in Petawawa. He was killed in a low altitude parachuting exercise.
Why the PM couldn’t be bothered to show up to pay respects for the fallen soldier and his family who attended the ramp ceremony isn’t known. He was taking a personal day.
Frankly, it’s outrageous.
Apparently attending an Eid dinner and walking in the Pride parade are important virtue signalling events, but showing respect for those who served and died in the line of duty is not.
It’s about priorities.
Earlier in the week, the PM gave a much-ballyhooed speech effectively claiming they were going to ban single-use plastics in things like plastic straws and water bottles. It was part of their fight against the “Climate Emergency” as they have taken to calling it.
He claimed that Canadians dispose of over 57 million plastic straws a day. A day. Turned out that information came from an American website created by a nine-year-old.
Just a few days later, a photo op picture was uncovered on social media showing Trudeau at a picnic table holding a soda can with two plastic straws in it, several plastic water bottles on the table and some plastic utensils. Not to be outdone, another photo op picture showing the PM sitting with a bunch of folks around a meeting table containing boxes of pizza and a spray of plastic utensils was also released.
Some emergency. Meanwhile, the government approved the dumping of billions of litres of raw sewage (again) into the St. Lawrence River in Quebec.
It’s about priorities.
In the same week, Bombardier Inc. announced they were selling their regional aerospace division to Mitsubishi for $550 million. There was no mention whether any of the low-interest loans, grants or subsidies given to them will be repaid or returned. According to the Canadian Taxpayers Foundation, the amount given to this Liberal-supporting, Quebec company has been in the area of $4 billion since 1966.
The Fraser Institute pegs the number at $1.1 billion from Industry Canada alone.
There was no word from the government what efforts would be made to recover tax dollars from the Montreal-based company given their windfall from Mitsubishi.
It’s about priorities.
Trudeau is jetting off to the G20 meetings in Osaka, Japan. From the airport in Ottawa, embarking on what is, by my count, his 105th flight this year on the RCAF V.I.P transports, he tweeted:
“Wheels up for Osaka, Japan with a busy few days ahead at the #G20 Leaders’ Summit. We’ll focus on fighting climate change, advancing gender equality, and creating more opportunities for the middle class.”
There are tens of thousands of unemployed energy sector workers in Alberta. They used to have good middle-class jobs in that province. Now, if they are working at all, they are working in Texas, North Dakota or Oman.
The government’s actions have killed investment in the energy sector in Alberta. The carbon tax has been an unmitigated disaster. Multiple provincial governments have filed lawsuits to fight the federal tax.
The winds of western separation, many decades still, are blowing again. Trudeau has a national crisis on his hands.
China has stopped all importing of canola, primarily produced in Alberta and Saskatchewan. With the burgeoning trade war, they have now halted the importation of Canadian beef, again, primarily Alberta produced.
Two Chinese fighters buzzed the Canadian frigate HMCS Regina in the Taiwan Strait and the Chinese are holding two Canadian citizens prisoner, and the President of China won’t take the Prime Minister’s call.
But Trudeau is going to the G20, where China’s President Xi will be also attending and he wants to talk about “fighting climate change, advancing gender equality, and creating more opportunities for the middle class.”
It’s about priorities.
