Even on a busy news day with governmental chaos in UK and USA, terrorists wreaking havoc in Kenya, and Syria, and Canadians kidnapped in Burkina Faso, there was still time for Canadian television national newscasts to dutifully pay homage to their favourite subject — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
This came in the form of a fluffy little story about a picture of his family in a canoe being used on a Kentucky roadside billboard; if you believe the PM, the picture was picked at random and used without his permission.
Presumably, few travellers in Kentucky would stop to study faces on a billboard, but any drivers who may have recognized those smiling features could very well be tired of having seen them in so many selfies in the past few years. Canadians have survived over three years of the Trudeau Self Promotion Experiment, and the many gimmicks that have been part of it; from the Silly Sock Diplomacy, to playing Mr. Dress-Up Bollywood Style, to falling from a kayak in ankle-deep water in what looked like a staged publicity stunt, to photo-bombing various private events, etc, etc. The list goes on and on, but with the election just around the corner, we have to brace ourselves for more of the same.
Hopefully, after votes are tallied in the federal election on Oct. 21, Canadians will get a break from the nonsensical narcissistic immaturity that has characterized his term as PM.
We can only hope that an adult is elected to govern the country this time around; someone who tries to get the deficit under control, and the business of running the country back on track.
This current selfie-stricken Canadian First Family are welcome to depart for Kentucky or anywhere else. Wishing them well in early retirement in a backwater somewhere far from the madding crowd and cameras, and bearing in mind the American proverb that became popular just before the Civil War: Love many, trust few, and always paddle your own canoe.
Bernie Smith