Politics

Just had an interesting conversation with a young woman who lives here in Orkney. When she found out I was Canadian, she said, “Oooh, you’re so lucky! You’ve got Justin Trudeau!”

Well, I assumed this was a reference to the fact that the Canadian Prime Minister is infinitely more competent than what’s on tap in the UK (to be fair, a badger with a drug habit would be more competent than what’s-his-hair in Westminster). But no, she went on to say, “Trudeau is so hot. You are so lucky he’s your prime minister”. As if somehow we get to date whichever of our members of parliament we would like.

I was going to point out that in Canada we try to look to our leaders to work in the best interests of the country, that our prime ministers have significant constitutional responsibilities, and that, whether one likes him or not, Trudeau is a reasonably sensible man trying to do his best based the counsel of the cabinet, and so on. But before I could say any of this, she went on to say, “And don’t you love his new haircut?”

Well, really, there was nothing I could add.