The Trudeaus On the specifics of the Trudeau marital breakup, I have no comment. Everybody who’s been divorced and a lot of people who’ve been married, know that in the he-said-she-said aftermath of marital strife, you never know enough to know what you’re talking about. (And if you do, silence remains the best policy.) However, reading over the work of my friend and colleague Jen Hodgson, one can hardly fail to notice how the experience of the prime minister and his estranged wife, differed from that of most Canadians who go through separation and divorce. There is first the blatant duplicity of presenting the appearance of a happy marriage as the October 2021 election approached, when apparently things actually were on the rocks. Many struggling married people put up a false front of course, but it’s a different matter if you’re running for office and contented domesticity is part of the ethos you’re offering to the voters.One has to ask, was there anything else a bit fake?Second, for want of evidence to the contrary, we must assume that the prime minister made adequate personal provision for his estranged wife as any decent man would. We should also concede that the incremental cost of seating an estranged wife on the Challenger for a quick trip to Tofino (and other such photo opportunities) would not materially affect the national deficit, and may even have been paid for at the equivalent airline fare. (As was Mr. Harper’s practice when members of his family travelled with him during his years as prime minister…)The ability from time to time to park an inconvenient ex in the commodious surroundings of Harrington Lake, does however set Mr. Trudeau apart from the rest of us.These costs would be reasonable paths of enquiry, should the Opposition care to follow up.Nevertheless, when or if satisfactory answers should ever be received to all of the above, this remains: In this and much else, the Prime Minister Trudeau went to a lot of trouble to paint a false picture to Canadians.Why would anybody ever believe him about anything again? Buffie Sainte-MarieSpeaking of a sustained attempt to profit through deception, the CBC (of all people) is now making the case that acclaimed Canadian indigenous chanteuse Buffie Sainte-Marieis neither Canadian, nor indigenous. Hymie Rubenstein examines the matter in detail elsewhere. But two points.1) No wonder people in this country are disillusioned. It seems that everywhere one turns, there is evidence of grand deception, from the administration of public health to popular woke causes and now it seems, to the honour of Canadian celebrities. We wait with interest to see whether the CBC will be forced to retract. For now, their case seems a strong one.2) If the CBC has the resources to go after people like Buffie Sainte-Marie, we have some other names we’d like to see checked out, starting with the prime minister himself. Again, we wait with interest although sadly, not with great expectations. The carbon tax Any time any government cuts a tax, we applaud. So good luck to rural dwellers and the people of the Maritime provinces who scored a break on the carbon tax.Thing is, any Canadian could make the same case: It’s making everything from home heating to getting to work more expensive. So, how about a break for all of us?It also exposes the rot at the centre of the carbon tax idea. The principle was that if you make fuel more expensive by adding an accelerating carbon tax to it, people will use less of it.But, it turns out they can’t, can they? They can’t in Nova Scotia, they can’t in PEI, they can’t in New Brunswick and here’s news: They can’t anywhere else either, as anybody from Ontario, Quebec or western Canada can tell you.So, in order to work, the carbon tax has to hurt people. It really was a dumb, as well as mean-spirited, idea from conception through implementation and execution. Mr. Trudeau! (And Messrs Wilkinson and Guibeault.) “Tear down this carbon tax!”
