By now even someone living off the grid in the Australian outback knows that American president-elect Donald Trump is a narcissistic megalomaniac and a bully. But even he has descended to an alltime new low with his appalling tirade criticizing the lowering of the flag in Washington to mark the passing of another former president, Jimmy Carter. Unbelievably, Trump sees this as a personal affront. How else to explain his outrage at the decision to keep the flag lowered for the traditional thirty days, which happens to cover his inauguration date? In Trump’s own words, “The Democrats are all ‘giddy’ about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half mast’ during my Inauguration…They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves”.
Apparently, it is Trump who thinks only about himself. Who else would even have noticed such a trivial thing? And, despite having not only won the brass ring himself, but having control of Congress and the Supreme Court as well, this is is obviously not enough. Nothing is enough. Every aspect of government must be framed to reflect his world view, no matter how insignificant!
Which brings us to his Canadian counterpart, Pierre Poilievre. The man is more than 20 points ahead of the governing Liberals in the polls. Barring some horrendous unexpected setback, he is about to win the largest majority in Canadian history in the next federal election. ‘Thoughtful’ or ‘statesmanlike’ would obviously be asking too much of someone previously known as “Harper’s pitbull”, but is he at least mellowing as he savours his impending victory? Certainly not. The closer he comes to taking power, the more vicious his attacks on the government and almost everyone else he disagrees with. Over the past year he has repeatedly called the prime minister of Canada a liar, in the House of Commons and in public, and emboldened others to do so as well. Not once has he denounced the vitriolic language and behviour of many of the convoy supporters and their ilk. His only noteworthy reaction to the “F… Trudeau” Tshirts sported by so many of his supporters has been to tell the cameras filming his meeting with some of them to avoid showing the offensive language.
Now, as we enter 2025 with the certainty of a federal election in the offing, Poilievre has conclusively demonstrated that he has no other setting but attack mode. We evidently cannot expect to see him, as Leader of the Official Opposition, make any attempts at outlining a platform or addressing the many challenges facing government in these troubled times. Instead, for his New Years’ gift to Canadians, Poilievre and his Conservative Party have launched an unprecedented 11-minute video entitled “Wackos”. The attack ad pieces together a wide range of clips of the prime minister and several of his cabinet ministers, taken out of context and deliberately misleading, and labels all of them “wackos.” (The term was first used by Poilievre months ago in the House of Commons to describe the PM, a stunt which saw him ejected from the chamber by the Speaker when he refused to retract it, but now it appears that he believes it applies to anyone in the Liberal Party.)
This juvenile effort, so revealing of Poilievre’s character, should alone be enough to give many Canadians pause. Like Trump, it appears that the Conservative leader is out of control. And, like Trump, it appears that he has no advisers capable of restraining him or preventing him from giving in to his worst instincts. More ominous still is the fact that both men have not yet even taken power.
Political philosopher Thomas Hobbes famously described life without government as “poor, mean, nasty, brutish and short.” Under the governments of these two seriously flawed individuals, life may look much the same.
