Justin’s not ready

Let’s be honest here. Justin Trudeau is not exactly the most intelligent guy in Ottawa.

Nice hair, good looking, cute smile, famous and clever dad, “interesting” mum, but he’s not likely to be passing any difficult exams in the near future, is he? He’s a lightweight, a privileged beneficiary of Canadian political nepotism, and he makes all the old guys in Canadian media feel good as they remember their sex and drugs days during father Pierre’s reign.

But he may well become leader of the Liberal Party, and perhaps even prime minister. Which is more than a little worrying because he is, as I say, not enormously bright.

A few days ago he went to speak at yet another school, because there is apparently no need to have lessons and learn things when you can hear a politician with a famous daddy and good hair prattle on. He was at A.Y. Jackson Secondary School in Ottawa, where he responded to a student’s question about “the Catholic backlash against provincial anti-bullying legislation.” The dauphin said Catholic opposition to gay-straight alliances was “repulsive.”

Now, you might disagree with the Catholic position, you might oppose it, but “repulsive?” The inescapable logic is that everybody who opposes gay-straight alliances is repulsive, which is not very inclusive or tolerant, Justin.

The boy wonder then went on to say: “There’s not a religion in the world that says ‘tolerate thy neighbour.’ No, they say ‘love thy neighbour.’ Acceptance, respect, building friendships, being open to each other, that’s what we have to build on in Canada.”

Not sure where to start. First, Justin clearly has no idea what religions teach and believe. Islam, for example, which is a pretty big religion, calls exactly for tolerance instead of love, and that’s if you’re lucky. Christians and Jews, people of the book, are to be tolerated as long as they pay a head tax and are obedient and respectful to Islam and Muslims. Hardly unconditional love. As for pagans, those who do not worship one God, they’re not even to be tolerated.

It’s only Christianity that clearly speaks of loving your neighbour, even if you disagree with him, and that doesn’t mean encouraging your neighbour to indulge in what you consider a dangerous and immoral lifestyle. That would not be love but convenient and sugary disregard.

Then there’s the obvious logical implosion of what Justin said next — accept each other, respect each other, be open to each other. But you just called your critics repulsive! Hardly encouraging of respect and friendship, and harshly intolerant and arrogant.

Which brings us to why Trudeau was there in the first place. Jamie Hubley, who was just 15 when he killed himself last year, attended the school. He was gay, but we now know the poor kid had suffered from depression for years, and while certainly feeling isolated as the only homosexual student at the school, the bullying was more because he was a figure skater and rather flamboyant. His father has said that gay-straight alliances would not have helped matters and would probably have made things worse. So, the father of the boy opposes GSAs, so he is repulsive.

Justin Trudeau. Not ready for prime time; actually, not really ready for playtime.