I would like to focus this post on Prime Minister Junior. You know whom I mean? Justin. Son of Pierre, surname Trudeau. Likely no relation to the American cartoonist, Gary Trudeau, author of "Doonesbury". Born with a silver spoon in his mouth (Justin, I mean). Choking on his silver spoon every time he promises to support the middle class, and his other social inferiors.
What does Junior have to do with a village raising an adult, Gentle Reader? Or, maybe, a village raising an idiot? I think he could play quite a substantial role, depending of course on how he continues to carry out his mandate. He has recently caught well-deserved heat for letting the Aga Kahn fly him and his telegenic wife and kiddies on his own private helicopter to his own private island in his own private Caribbean to celebrate his own private New Year, but especially for his pay for access dinner parties that, at $1500 a pop, guarantee any wealthy Canadian special access to his Silverspoonship for special privileges and favours.
Smells pretty bad, eh?
I would like to propose an alternative approach. Continue throwing the access dinners. However, they have to be free of charge. And, each guest will represent a strata or demographic of Canadian life, generally low income, poor and socially marginalized. In these dinners, Junior could meet with representatives of our homeless population, people with addictions, working poor, low-income single moms, recent immigrants and refugees, First Nations people, and really hear first hand from those people least likely to be representatives of the Canadian middle class, and most likely to be victimized as part of the toxic fallout from middle class privilege. Or, one could say, the kind of people who never have access to the corridors of political power for being ourselves so chronically disempowered.
If Junior wants to be prime minister for all Canadians then he had better start getting to know all Canadians, on a regular basis and not simply during token town halls all over the country for maybe two weeks out of four years. He needs to start sharing the same amount of time that he spends with Multinational corporation CEO's and bank presidents with the most disempowered members of society.
Why?
Because we, the most disempowered members of society are all the collateral damage of the ruinous fiscal policies of globalization and neoliberalism that, whatever they have done to swell the economy, have also guaranteed that only the already wealthy are going to benefit from its largesse. We see this now in Vancouver and other Canadian cities as they become increasingly uninhabitable to anyone who isn't wealthy.
Justin Trudeau is going to have to accept that his honeymoon with the Canadian public is well over and that his well bred rent boy charm offensive has become more offensive by the day. If we are going to see an end to homelessness and effectively fight poverty it's going to take more than just jobs. We are going to have to remap and revamp our social infrastructure so that every person who lives here can live a life of dignity and inclusion. This isn't something that we should have to work for or earn, not anymore than he had to work for or earn his silver spoon. Access to decent housing, food and other resources is an inalienable human right.
When all Canadians feel they can equally participate in the running and governing of this country, and when all Canadians are satisfied that they have a voice, then we will be able to say that Canada is a functioning democracy.
In the meantime, Justin, keep your shirt on.
Please!
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