He’s made of sterner stuff than I

Thankfully my son is less flighty than I. While I am quite capable of never setting foot on an OC Transpo bus/train again, he has brushed off his disappointments of yesterday and was, this evening, keen to take up Mrs. Ottawacker on her offer of a ride on the new train service to the airport. If you live downtown, you need to change twice, but it seems from our house, which is about halfway between the two, you only need to change once. I might be mistaken, my eyes tend to glaze over when listening to lists of bus routes and train timetables. Anyway, off they went as soon as Mrs. Ottawacker had finished work, returning at 7pm, eyes shiny, cold and hungry. Everything went like clockwork – mostly because Mrs. Ottawacker paid the exorbitant fares on her Presto card. Significantly, they both managed to get to the airport and back without the train breaking down. It was only -14º, but this is Ottawa and OC Transpo, so there is never a reason to count chickens. Once home, I heated leftovers and we sat in front of the television to watch two episodes of Ottawacker Jr.’s latest favourite, The Durrells.
 
This brought a rather happy conclusion to what had been, for me at least, a rather frustrating day. The main reason for this was not the news that Justin Trudeau was going to resign, but the fact that Ottawa Hydro had cut off all our electricity for 7 hours so they could do some remedial work on branches in the sector. While I don’t want anyone to be killed because of electric shocks, I do wonder if this sort of work could perhaps be done during, say, the summer, when it isn’t freezing cold. Though, I suppose, with a full canopy of leaves, it’d make the trees harder to trim. Anyway, the upshot was that the electricity was cut off and so there was nothing I could do in terms of work. Mrs. Ottawacker demanded requested politely a drive into work, so I was up at 6.45 to comply, then came back, had a coffee, and drove Ottawacker Jr. into school. But after that, much of the morning was a loss.
 
I don’t know about you, but I am one of those irritating people who only wants to do what he can’t do. And most of those things involve electricity to some extent. So, I found myself trying to read, trying to nap, trying to sort through some of the many boxes of things I need to get rid of – all without any success. I even tried to write; while the laptop’s battery wasn’t affected by the power outage, my heart wasn’t in it. So, I decided to pop down to the Beijing Legend and have lunch. There, while I was chopsticking my way through a piece of shrimp shumai, I learned that Justin Trudeau had announced he was going to step down.
 
Now, Justin Trudeau is a complicated case. Quite frankly he gets on my tits. I find his fake, genteel smarm incredibly difficult to bear, and if he were in a room with me, I wouldn’t go out of my way to make conversation. As a politician, he has failed to live up to his father, which is no surprise as his father was one of a kind. I don’t hate him, he just annoys me. But, and here I have to be exceptionally clear, I don’t vote for people on how little they irritate me. If I did that, I’d never vote. I vote for people on their policies and on their track record. Up till now, I’d not paid too much attention to Trudeau’s track record, but I honestly had no idea how I would vote in the next election, because he’d just made too many mistakes and not done what he said he’d do. The biggest letdown has been the slowness of action on truth and reconciliation, but that was closely followed by the flip-flop on proportional representation. He pissed me off when he accepted the holidays from the Aga Khan, when he ducked out of the first national truth and reconciliation day to go surfing, when he forced public workers back to the office, and, worst of all, when he failed to stand up to the Orange Turd most recently… and there are plenty of other issues too. But, he also had many good points. He navigated Covid exceptionally well despite the development of a rabid lunatic fringe in Alberta; he brought Canada through the subsequent economic issues relatively unscathed; he made significant steps with the Indigenous file; he introduced a national child benefit and $10/day daycares (when we had Ottawacker Jr., we were paying $1200/month); introduced a national Pharmacare idea, and so on. His policies have been reasonably progressive and equitable. Most importantly, he is not Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party, who is a toad (and that is, believe it or not, the nicest thing I can say about him). The NDP, which would be the party I probably most strongly align with in terms of progressive policies) is weak, and led by a buffoon. All that to say that Trudeau was probably the best option; until now. His shameful kowtowing to Trump – which led to the Orange Turd’s covert threat of a 1938-style Anschluß of the State of Canada – made his position untenable. His party let him know it. And he has said he would resign once a new leader has been found.
 
It hasn’t come at a very good time. With Trump coming into office down south and a federal election here having to be held by October, it leaves little in the way of wiggle room to keep Poilievre and his wack jobs at bay. The NDP remains a nonstarter. So, somehow, the Liberals have to find a successor who is good at their job and who can rally public opinion. It also has to be someone who would stand up to Trump. Chrystia Freeland pissed Trump off during the first round of NAFTA negotiations – so she might be an option; Mark Carney is also being touted, but he is another Man in Grey. There are shamefully few politicians who have made a mark over the past few years. Personally, I’d go for Freeland. One thing is sure, it’ll be an interesting couple of months.