The Unimportance of Justin Trudeau

 Many Canadians find Justin Trudeau not only an annoyance and an embarrassment but see him as a worrying threat to a free society. And it is indeed true that he is foolish, arrogant, of a tyrannical disposition, and in addition, extravagant in the use of government aircraft for family vacations. For those reasons, however, he is not much to be feared, for although Trudeau presumes to govern and aspires to dictate, his influence over the direction of government is, in fact, slight to negligible. 

How can that be? 

Very simply. Government policy is not a matter of Prime Ministerial dictate. Policy is manifest in the form of laws enacted by Parliament. Laws must be drafted, and the drafting must be undertaken with due respect for facts, realistic expectations about the reaction of both members of  Parliament, who must approve the bill, and the public who must abide by it, and practical matters such as cost and feasibility. For Justin Trudeau, this is clearly beyond his mental depth and capacity for intellectual effort, as would be true of almost any Prime Minister. 

How then does government in Canada proceed? In a manner that is probably as close as one can expect to a democratic way. In the first place issues emerge via the news media giving rise to public reaction and debate. The consensus, so far as one is reached, is noted by members of Parliament who must respect the feelings of their constituents in order to keep their seats. As a consequence of gossip, media coverage, opinion surveys, and the need of the governing party to be seem to be doing something useful, agreement will emerge on desirable legislation. Such legislation is then drafted by highly qualified and experienced civil servants with an understanding of the limits of effective government and the necessity of covering every conceivable angle relating to the effectivenes of government legislation. 

Thus is Canada governed. Not according to the dictates of Justin Trudeau, who is merely a figurehead, and a slightly embarrassing one at that, but by qualified experts you've never heard of whose job it is to write the rules that Canadians generally agree are necessary for the sake of peace, order and good government.