For me the bottom line is how Trudeau treats others. This was shown during the trucker protest and the vaccine election campaign, among other things. So his separation is politics, in the sense that he can ask for privacy, but since so many others' privacy were stomped on by him, it just doesn't wash. That's not an open door to grotesque commentary, but it certainly means I can wonder about his state of mind, and how he behaves and treats others. Telling everyone to can it about his separation really jars.
If your hunch that the listlessness of the Liberal government last year was due to Trudeau's marital problems, it's fairly damning point about how he runs his government. With 30-odd ministers in his cabinet, there's no good reason for government to lose its drive and grind to a halt because of the PM's problems at home. It points to a government that fails to delegate and tends to micromanage, and that's a bad government.
If Trudeau does try to double down on his work as a compensation for the breakdown in his marriage, that's also not necessarily going to help him out. I don't know how long these problems have been going on, but the performance of his government has never been particularly impressive. Doubling down on flawed management and policies isn't going to help. Similarly, Trudeau's schtick started to wear thin years ago. Stepping up the photobombing, staged media interactions, and wearing extra-colorful socks isn't going to counter a problem of overexposure. Ultimately, his ability to stay in the job isn't just up to him - he's also got to have the support of Canadian voters.
I rarely listen to this around my wife. Listened in the car together and she said, “they are being remarkably considerate.” For all the faults and as much as you may dislike the PM, there is a family involved here and we should try to be as compassionate as possible.
Given the rumors of problems going back several years, the timing seems kind of strange. I do agree that the announcement reeks of communications consultant.
I can think of only two reasons to announce now:
1) Provide Trudeau with the opportunity for a graceful exit, along the lines of "Not running again to focus on family"
2) Allow Trudeau to revive the brand mystique by dating some 20 or 30 something Quebecois or American celebrity
I hope number 1 is correct, because number 2 would be cringe.
I agree with Doug the timing of this announcement seems very strange but I also think contrived for maximum sympathy for the Prime Minister as well as distracting the public from some of the issues that need to be addressed. However because the parents displayed a great deal of poor judgement by presenting their family so openly over the last 8 years I find it a bit rich to now expect privacy. But I do agree that the children’s privacy must be protected from the public.
As the Prime Minister his expectation of privacy is limited as what happens in his personal life may have a very great impact on the Canadian public if he is distracted by personal issues.
As for Ms Gregoire’s privacy her book(s?) comes out in the spring in part discussing her mental health well being journey so maybe we will have a better understanding.
I do not like this man, he has displayed a complete lack of judgement and self awareness and has managed to rise to the highest office in Canada and it now remains to be seen if this personal crisis helps or hinders him.
I agree it's not so much the announcement as the timing - surely the timing would be calculated to provide the best political angle?
also, adding to your above comment about protecting the children's privacy:
Trudeau posted a selfie with his son today with the caption "We're Team Barbie" - incredibly poor judgment on his part (or maybe -for political motives- purposefully courting the negative comments that Tom Mulcair warned about when he wrote his opinion piece about the separation?)
I’m confused 😐 I thought we were to respect their privacy during this difficult time. I agree that this is poor judgement on Trudeau’s part. Go to the movie but stay the f**k off Facebook if you don’t want people poking into your private life. Good I feel for these kids their father is an idiot!
Yes ordinary people do care. And are sickened. And they do care about the green belt. And there is other land that people are fine with for housing construction.
Jenn and Matt's banter seems to suggest that the separation may add depth to a PM who has none. This is a leader who takes personal days. I agree the job is incredibly demanding, but for this PM that stress falls on the inner circle that makes the decisions, and the communications people that conjure his image.
I sure hope that Matt is wrong about Ontarians giving Doug Ford a free pass on the Greenbelt (and environmental legislation generally). To me, this is the defining issue of the current government, which will affect the local landscape, geography, and biodiversity for decades and likely centuries to come. It is unlikely to affect the housing crisis either way because, as was mentioned in a Line essay about a year ago, it's in the interest of all the powers-to-be to ensure that housing prices stay unaffordably high. We are quite capable of doing that by pushing urban sprawl as long as it is luxury housing that gets built with an eye to investment as the main goal. This leads to lots of spin-off economic activity including hardware stores, interior design, granite countertop marketing, landscape crews with leaf-blowers, the legal and other agencies involved in real estate transactions, etc. Development is to Ontario what oil is to Alberta.
On the other hand, Matt may be right. People are pretty distracted about the cost of living generally, and about the overall sense of decline and decay, not least in the mental health department. Relatively remote enclaves that are accessible only by car do provide something of a refuge from decay.
Completely agree about the loss of institutional credibility. And yes, I have point blank told people that I wouldn’t believe a future pandemic announcement. I’ve accepted that might kill me but I’d rather that than live in fear and have no quality of life. I disagree with so much of how things evolved and the harms that the government mandates caused that I wouldn’t participate again. (And I was pro lockdown with a whole lot of data and forecasting in the early days and watched the outbreak in China. So it really has been a fundamental shift that occurred due to watching how science became politicized and the disingenuousness that occurred.)
Is lost institutional capacity really a bad thing? Technology enables citizens to access services and information to solve many of the problems that government traditionally purported to solve. Media isn't the only industry suffering disintermediation. The problem is that government spending hasn't declined to reflected its diminished utility.
In order for government spending to decline the party in power has to say no to some of the plethora of activists who want money thrown at them and their every problem as the definitive solution. It’s not overly complicated to prioritize, by sound policy, the ones the party in power should accept and fund on a utilitarian basis, and say no to the rest, if the party in power is willing to be a one term government. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and we have an inconvenient number of squeaky voters to distort sound policy. Small wonder the sensible majority who does what they are supposed to do is getting a little perturbed and wants change? Round and round the wheel goes, and we are the guilty ones for facilitating its downhill roll.
For me the bottom line is how Trudeau treats others. This was shown during the trucker protest and the vaccine election campaign, among other things. So his separation is politics, in the sense that he can ask for privacy, but since so many others' privacy were stomped on by him, it just doesn't wash. That's not an open door to grotesque commentary, but it certainly means I can wonder about his state of mind, and how he behaves and treats others. Telling everyone to can it about his separation really jars.
If your hunch that the listlessness of the Liberal government last year was due to Trudeau's marital problems, it's fairly damning point about how he runs his government. With 30-odd ministers in his cabinet, there's no good reason for government to lose its drive and grind to a halt because of the PM's problems at home. It points to a government that fails to delegate and tends to micromanage, and that's a bad government.
If Trudeau does try to double down on his work as a compensation for the breakdown in his marriage, that's also not necessarily going to help him out. I don't know how long these problems have been going on, but the performance of his government has never been particularly impressive. Doubling down on flawed management and policies isn't going to help. Similarly, Trudeau's schtick started to wear thin years ago. Stepping up the photobombing, staged media interactions, and wearing extra-colorful socks isn't going to counter a problem of overexposure. Ultimately, his ability to stay in the job isn't just up to him - he's also got to have the support of Canadian voters.
I rarely listen to this around my wife. Listened in the car together and she said, “they are being remarkably considerate.” For all the faults and as much as you may dislike the PM, there is a family involved here and we should try to be as compassionate as possible.
Given the rumors of problems going back several years, the timing seems kind of strange. I do agree that the announcement reeks of communications consultant.
I can think of only two reasons to announce now:
1) Provide Trudeau with the opportunity for a graceful exit, along the lines of "Not running again to focus on family"
2) Allow Trudeau to revive the brand mystique by dating some 20 or 30 something Quebecois or American celebrity
I hope number 1 is correct, because number 2 would be cringe.
Also wanted to point out that this week's Hurle Burley mentions The Line a few minutes before the end
I agree with Doug the timing of this announcement seems very strange but I also think contrived for maximum sympathy for the Prime Minister as well as distracting the public from some of the issues that need to be addressed. However because the parents displayed a great deal of poor judgement by presenting their family so openly over the last 8 years I find it a bit rich to now expect privacy. But I do agree that the children’s privacy must be protected from the public.
As the Prime Minister his expectation of privacy is limited as what happens in his personal life may have a very great impact on the Canadian public if he is distracted by personal issues.
As for Ms Gregoire’s privacy her book(s?) comes out in the spring in part discussing her mental health well being journey so maybe we will have a better understanding.
I do not like this man, he has displayed a complete lack of judgement and self awareness and has managed to rise to the highest office in Canada and it now remains to be seen if this personal crisis helps or hinders him.
I agree it's not so much the announcement as the timing - surely the timing would be calculated to provide the best political angle?
also, adding to your above comment about protecting the children's privacy:
Trudeau posted a selfie with his son today with the caption "We're Team Barbie" - incredibly poor judgment on his part (or maybe -for political motives- purposefully courting the negative comments that Tom Mulcair warned about when he wrote his opinion piece about the separation?)
This is likley a ploy by Trudeau's comms team to motivate the trolls, and they took the bait.
I wish Trudeau would X/Tweet that he is on "Team Restrictive Fiscal Policy"
I’m confused 😐 I thought we were to respect their privacy during this difficult time. I agree that this is poor judgement on Trudeau’s part. Go to the movie but stay the f**k off Facebook if you don’t want people poking into your private life. Good I feel for these kids their father is an idiot!
Yes ordinary people do care. And are sickened. And they do care about the green belt. And there is other land that people are fine with for housing construction.
i think you couldve just mentioned JC's separation and moved on.
We definitely could have, but it's the largest news item of the week; and there are legitimate political implications that are worthy of discussion.
Jenn and Matt's banter seems to suggest that the separation may add depth to a PM who has none. This is a leader who takes personal days. I agree the job is incredibly demanding, but for this PM that stress falls on the inner circle that makes the decisions, and the communications people that conjure his image.
I sure hope that Matt is wrong about Ontarians giving Doug Ford a free pass on the Greenbelt (and environmental legislation generally). To me, this is the defining issue of the current government, which will affect the local landscape, geography, and biodiversity for decades and likely centuries to come. It is unlikely to affect the housing crisis either way because, as was mentioned in a Line essay about a year ago, it's in the interest of all the powers-to-be to ensure that housing prices stay unaffordably high. We are quite capable of doing that by pushing urban sprawl as long as it is luxury housing that gets built with an eye to investment as the main goal. This leads to lots of spin-off economic activity including hardware stores, interior design, granite countertop marketing, landscape crews with leaf-blowers, the legal and other agencies involved in real estate transactions, etc. Development is to Ontario what oil is to Alberta.
On the other hand, Matt may be right. People are pretty distracted about the cost of living generally, and about the overall sense of decline and decay, not least in the mental health department. Relatively remote enclaves that are accessible only by car do provide something of a refuge from decay.
Completely agree about the loss of institutional credibility. And yes, I have point blank told people that I wouldn’t believe a future pandemic announcement. I’ve accepted that might kill me but I’d rather that than live in fear and have no quality of life. I disagree with so much of how things evolved and the harms that the government mandates caused that I wouldn’t participate again. (And I was pro lockdown with a whole lot of data and forecasting in the early days and watched the outbreak in China. So it really has been a fundamental shift that occurred due to watching how science became politicized and the disingenuousness that occurred.)
Is lost institutional capacity really a bad thing? Technology enables citizens to access services and information to solve many of the problems that government traditionally purported to solve. Media isn't the only industry suffering disintermediation. The problem is that government spending hasn't declined to reflected its diminished utility.
In order for government spending to decline the party in power has to say no to some of the plethora of activists who want money thrown at them and their every problem as the definitive solution. It’s not overly complicated to prioritize, by sound policy, the ones the party in power should accept and fund on a utilitarian basis, and say no to the rest, if the party in power is willing to be a one term government. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and we have an inconvenient number of squeaky voters to distort sound policy. Small wonder the sensible majority who does what they are supposed to do is getting a little perturbed and wants change? Round and round the wheel goes, and we are the guilty ones for facilitating its downhill roll.
This is exactly correct. Btw, I am enjoying your comments. You should consider writing an oped. JG
I’d read that. We need a refresher on why these powers exist before we get knocked on our asses by something with more zing than COVID.
*lowers periscope, resumes vacation*