Earlier this year Prime Minister Justin Trudeau began a cross-country tour to talk to Canadians on political matters, as well as answer the public’s questions.
This was a good thing for the Prime Minister of our country to do, and is something that Prime Minister Trudeau should do. However, cross-country tours shouldn’t be made to cover up wrong doings, and this tour was just that. A total cover up: a distraction from Trudeau’s potential vacation.
Trudeau was originally supposed to travel to Davos, Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum. The forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation whose motto is “Committed to improving the state of the world”. This seems like a logical meeting the leader of our country should attend. However, it seems Trudeau was potentially “Committed to improving the state of his lifestyle”.
Instead of heading to this meeting, Trudeau decided to take the family on a trip to a private island owned by Aga Khan, the multimillionaire who created Aga Khan Development Network (ADKN).
Several media outlets such as the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail took no time in making it public, since ethically the Prime Minister shouldn’t be taking vacations when there is important work to be done and especially not on a private island of someone who gets funding from Ottawa. According to a press release on ADKN.org, the Canadian government agreed to fund $30 million towards ADKN’s Global Center for Pluralism’s endowment fund back in 2006.
When Trudeau knew the news was out, he decided to cancel his “vacation”. He then went on to do his cross-country tour. The tour however, was a complete waste of money and over half of Canadians agree.
According to an Ipsos poll done for Global News, 52 per cent of Canadians said the tour was a waste of money and 51 per cent believed it was an attempted distraction at Trudeau’s mistakes. Yes, 92 per cent believed it was a good thing Trudeau met the public face to face. It is a good thing. But, Canadians are not being quick to forget about his travel plans.
The truth is Trudeau made an ethical error for his position and many Canadians are not happy. It really hurt the tour. The Prime Minister is already facing difficulties with the public. According to Trudeaumeter.ca, a non-partisan site that tracks all of Trudeau’s promises since he started in office shows that out of the 223 promises he has made, Trudeau has only achieved 41. Add a potential trip to a private island and you will have a rather unhappy public.
Yes, it can be said being the leader of a country can be a very difficult and demanding job, but that’s just it, running a country is very demanding. The people of Canada expects their leader will take care of the promises he made and will do what he can to help shape the nation. There is still a lot on the table, and Trudeau has to show the people he can do it.
