‘All lies and jest… a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.’Those words were written by Simon and Garfunkel but they could just as easily apply to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who did an awful lot of talking during his second visit to Calgary in as many months on Friday but didn’t take the time — or effort — to hear what anyone else had to say.And if he did, it would have been the sound of silence, to quote another golden ditty. Everyone knows by now it’s damned near impossible to get a word in edgewise with a man who is utterly convinced in both his purpose and message.It was clear from the get-go that Trudeau’s Calgary whistle stop was just another contrived photo-op for the cameras than any meaningful attempt at dialogue — or contrition for a housing “crisis” of his own making..Just like the song.Why else would he blame the provinces for tripling the number of international students and temporary foreign workers for preventing Canadians from buying homes? Education is, after all, a provincial responsibility. No blame there.A meeting with the premiers on the issue of the carbon tax? “I‘m all ears,” he said, before dismissing the idea out of hand.Lies and jest, indeed.And then in front of an audience of business leaders he all but said he simply doesn’t want to listen to the likes of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on issues such as the emissions cap — which he also told the biggest oil and gas CEOs that there’s “no chance” of having lifted or removed.For their own good, of course.“You need the federal government to be there to be part of you, no matter what your premier (Smith) says, no matter how much she is poking me,” he said.If he didn’t come to listen, the overarching question becomes ‘why bother?’.“You need the federal government to be there to be part of you, no matter what your premier (Smith) says, no matter how much she is poking me,”Prime Minister Trudeau.At least this reporter had somewhat more luck actually getting into the popup presser, but it wasn’t looking good. At 7 am I still hadn’t heard from the PMO’s office after dutifully jumping through the requisite hoops — again. No matter. Armed with the phone number of one of his — many — press assistants, I called direct at 7:01 and was greeted with the distinctly groggy voice of someone who hadn’t had a single cup of coffee.“Are you in Calgary or Ottawa?” I asked. “That’s the magic question, isn’t it?” was the response.“Welcome to CowTown!” I chimed.The presser was pretty nondescript, as far as media events go. We had to be there an hour early to get sniffed by the bomb dog — a measure of a prime minister's distrust of everybody..To our collective dismay, JT was there the whole time taking a private tour of the facility that was closed off to all media except a single Canadian Press photographer.Controlling the message didn’t end there; the Q&A period was understandably brief due to his tight schedule. But priority was given to the usual bought-and-paid MSM questions from the likes of the Globe and Mail, the CTV and yes — the CBC.And I don’t blame the press secretary, who warned questioners to be brief in deference to their colleagues — that would be the likes of me, who wasn’t able to get a question in after being cut off by the CBC reporter. But I don’t take it personally, our government-funded media rivals don’t like The Western Standard any more than the Liberals do.Twenty minutes should have been more than enough for each of us to get in a query — it’s not like the PM comes to Alberta every day. In fact, I’ve only seen him here twice in the past eight years and they were both within the last four weeks.If that doesn’t spell E-L-E-C-T-I-O-N I’m not sure what does.But I don’t blame our media rivals, many of whom used to be former colleagues. We’re all trying to make a living..No, I blame the PM himself for blathering on trivial talking points until he ran out the clock without having to answer a single honest question. Going through my notes, he gave so much verbiage as to be rendered almost, utterly incomprehensible.Same for his appearance at Calgary Economic Development. He obviously didn’t hear a thing anyone said while taking free reign to lecture the very people footing the bill for his climate agenda on why they’re wrong to question his polices.Unlike his father, he at least smiled while sticking it to them.No matter, it was in one ear and out the other. It’s not like anyone is listening anymore. Not in these parts.
‘All lies and jest… a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.’Those words were written by Simon and Garfunkel but they could just as easily apply to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who did an awful lot of talking during his second visit to Calgary in as many months on Friday but didn’t take the time — or effort — to hear what anyone else had to say.And if he did, it would have been the sound of silence, to quote another golden ditty. Everyone knows by now it’s damned near impossible to get a word in edgewise with a man who is utterly convinced in both his purpose and message.It was clear from the get-go that Trudeau’s Calgary whistle stop was just another contrived photo-op for the cameras than any meaningful attempt at dialogue — or contrition for a housing “crisis” of his own making..Just like the song.Why else would he blame the provinces for tripling the number of international students and temporary foreign workers for preventing Canadians from buying homes? Education is, after all, a provincial responsibility. No blame there.A meeting with the premiers on the issue of the carbon tax? “I‘m all ears,” he said, before dismissing the idea out of hand.Lies and jest, indeed.And then in front of an audience of business leaders he all but said he simply doesn’t want to listen to the likes of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on issues such as the emissions cap — which he also told the biggest oil and gas CEOs that there’s “no chance” of having lifted or removed.For their own good, of course.“You need the federal government to be there to be part of you, no matter what your premier (Smith) says, no matter how much she is poking me,” he said.If he didn’t come to listen, the overarching question becomes ‘why bother?’.“You need the federal government to be there to be part of you, no matter what your premier (Smith) says, no matter how much she is poking me,”Prime Minister Trudeau.At least this reporter had somewhat more luck actually getting into the popup presser, but it wasn’t looking good. At 7 am I still hadn’t heard from the PMO’s office after dutifully jumping through the requisite hoops — again. No matter. Armed with the phone number of one of his — many — press assistants, I called direct at 7:01 and was greeted with the distinctly groggy voice of someone who hadn’t had a single cup of coffee.“Are you in Calgary or Ottawa?” I asked. “That’s the magic question, isn’t it?” was the response.“Welcome to CowTown!” I chimed.The presser was pretty nondescript, as far as media events go. We had to be there an hour early to get sniffed by the bomb dog — a measure of a prime minister's distrust of everybody..To our collective dismay, JT was there the whole time taking a private tour of the facility that was closed off to all media except a single Canadian Press photographer.Controlling the message didn’t end there; the Q&A period was understandably brief due to his tight schedule. But priority was given to the usual bought-and-paid MSM questions from the likes of the Globe and Mail, the CTV and yes — the CBC.And I don’t blame the press secretary, who warned questioners to be brief in deference to their colleagues — that would be the likes of me, who wasn’t able to get a question in after being cut off by the CBC reporter. But I don’t take it personally, our government-funded media rivals don’t like The Western Standard any more than the Liberals do.Twenty minutes should have been more than enough for each of us to get in a query — it’s not like the PM comes to Alberta every day. In fact, I’ve only seen him here twice in the past eight years and they were both within the last four weeks.If that doesn’t spell E-L-E-C-T-I-O-N I’m not sure what does.But I don’t blame our media rivals, many of whom used to be former colleagues. We’re all trying to make a living..No, I blame the PM himself for blathering on trivial talking points until he ran out the clock without having to answer a single honest question. Going through my notes, he gave so much verbiage as to be rendered almost, utterly incomprehensible.Same for his appearance at Calgary Economic Development. He obviously didn’t hear a thing anyone said while taking free reign to lecture the very people footing the bill for his climate agenda on why they’re wrong to question his polices.Unlike his father, he at least smiled while sticking it to them.No matter, it was in one ear and out the other. It’s not like anyone is listening anymore. Not in these parts.
