Trudeau’s ego comes at too high a price for the Liberals

As photos come out of Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, donning racist blackface in the past, there is an opportunity right now to change the nature of modern election campaigns.

The public has long been disappointed in contemporary attack tactics and we miss the good old days when politicians focused on explaining how they can improve society for everyone.

Every election season seems to be an increasingly scathing battle over who is the lesser of evils and, in the end, none of the leaders seem fit to represent our country.

Many Canadians, myself included, think that Trudeau should resign as the leader of the Liberal Party but my reasons are not based only on the recent scandal. There are a lot of Liberal candidates who shouldn’t be punished for Trudeau’s mistakes.

Many people in Ontario believe that Doug Ford was elected because the public was voting against Kathleen Wynne. If Wynne had stepped down early in the race her party could have more effectively challenged Ford in the voting booths. Trudeau is now putting his own ego and interests ahead of his party and that tells us a lot about whether or not he prioritizes the interests of the Canadian public.

It is Trudeau’s hypocrisy that is the problem, not the fact that he was incredibly stupid on numerous occasions in the past.

In response to questions from the media, Trudeau has said that whether or not a person is forced to resign should be assessed on a “case by case basis.” Trudeau’s “case” is one of the most extreme in the laundry list of people who’ve been thrown out for past indiscretions.

Trudeau also said that he was blinded by his “layers of privilege,” yet he continues to take advantage of that privilege by implying that he should get a special pass, as if different standards apply to Justin Trudeau by virtue of who he is.

At no point has Justin Trudeau had the epiphany that his refusal to resign will likely be at the expense of the Liberal Party. Perhaps Trudeau should have tea with Kathleen Wynne and they can reflect on the price of hubris.

The smear campaigns run by his own party, accusing the Conservative leader and his candidates of racism and white supremacy encourage schadenfreude now that Trudeau is exposed. But instead of continuing on that destructive path, this may be an opportunity to stop the ad-hominem approach to election campaigns.

I’ve believed for a long time that every one of us knows someone who’d make a better prime minister than the people we’re asked to vote for. So if we’re simply being asked to choose between the better of two evils it’s no wonder so few people bother to vote.

With Trudeau refusing to address how many times he’s donned blackface “costumes,” and his deflection of questions about whether or not he’d ask anyone else to resign in the midst of such controversy, the Liberal Party should now be asking themselves how much Trudeau actually cares about his own party.

For those who want to stop cancel culture and return to the social value of redemption, the entire scandal is distasteful. Unfortunately, Trudeau has made one thing clear: he himself should get away with it, but everybody else who disgraces the party should be tried on a “case by case basis.”

If anything is now clear, his “privileged” double standard makes Justin Trudeau an unsuitable candidate to remain as Canada’s prime minister.