The title of Ms. Bombardier’s article makes Bambi recall a conversation she had with a friend whilst visiting Lebanon in December, 2019. They were talking about Canadian politics. Her Canadian friend, who moved to Beirut a few years ago, described Mr. Trudeau in these terms: “I call him “Papa Noël” [Santa Claus, in English] because he is a dreamer”.
Well, our Santa is busy today with daily announcements. Ms. Bombardier has another good reason to call him Santa. You will see below… As usual, first the French original article published today in the Journal de Montréal. This is followed by a translation of her article:
https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2020/04/25/trudeau-pere-noel-de-la-pandemie
“Every day, Prime Minister Legault [this is how Premiers of Québec are called in French] announces the number of deaths in the past 24 hours since the National Assembly.
Ahead of him, Prime Minister Trudeau announces at noon outside of his residence, not from Parliament, billions of dollars for Canadians in precarious economic situations. Rarely does he address the issue of deaths from COVID-19, as if such contingencies would undermine his role as a distributor of hard cash.
To date, Justin Trudeau has provided nearly $140 billion in assistance to individuals and businesses. Certainly, it is the role of the government to ensure that the country’s economy does not collapse.
It is clear that no government can currently leave its citizens without employment income, a roof over their heads, and the money to support their families.
Generosity
What is problematic is this daily staging where Justin Trudeau appears as the generous distributor of the billions that will go to swell the public debt which will largely exceed the 200 billion; as our columnist Mario Dumont, a public finances and political analyst, so eloquently reminded us of yesterday [at the end of this post, you can read an earlier post about his article].
Justin Trudeau’s dramatization of his message can be summed up as follows. The bad news is transmitted by the provincial premiers while the good news remains the preserve [“chasse gardée”, in French] of the one who currently heads a minority government in Ottawa.
Fortunately, if one can put it this way in the circumstances, Ontario has high rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, because the barely contained irritability expressed by Justin Trudeau about how François Legault leading the fight against the pandemic would suggest that the situations experienced in Québec’s CHSLDs [long-term care centres] are proof of the endemic carelessness of Québec.
Like father
In 1970, we were treated to Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s War Measures Act [called Emergencies Act since 1988], which abolished civil liberties to subdue a handful of hotheads who played terrorists. Today, Trudeau Junior might wish to apply the Canada Health Act to CHSLDs and thus appear as a savior in the eyes of Québecers?
The $9 billion this week awarded to students by Justin Trudeau under the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) seems to be a way for the minority Prime Minister to buy the votes of young people in the next election. Giving $5,000 to students not to finish a semester, but to spend the summer on vacation also testifies to the vision of a bohemian bourgeois accustomed in his youth to traveling around the world in dilettante.
It’s also a trip up [“croc-en-jambe”, in French] to François Legault, who called on young people to work in the fields offering them bonuses of an additional $100 to help Québec agricultural producers save their fruit and vegetable crops.
Who would have thought that Justin Trudeau, during this crisis, would try to weaken Québec?”.
