Trudeau’s Foreign Policy Is A Fieldtrip For Photo-Ops

When he was first elected in 2015 Justin Trudeau would receive enthusiastic receptions whenever he traveled abroad as a prince of progressive politics. In 2022 he has to enter 10 Downing street through the backdoor to avoid protestors. 

So what changed?

The utopia that he promised under “sunny ways” never materialized, the world has seen his strong authoritarian impulses to arrest and freeze the bank accounts of his political opponents, but most of all he is a deeply unserious person who has become a self-parody of progressive politics.

For example, it was the political philosophy of “Green Energy” domestically, powered by fossil fuels from despotic states that were a key factor in causing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Instead of reevaluating the core issues surrounding the Ukraine crisis, Justin Trudeau and his team are travelling around Europe taking photos for cookie-cutter statements on twitter.

The current Ukraine tour for Trudeau and his Ministers has more of a feeling of a highschool model UN field trip to Europe, than a serious foreign policy trip to deal with a devastating war. There is no real shift in any Canadian policy from before Trudeau took off, we are still backing the Ukraine. 

There have been however, a lot of professionally taken photos. Meet with another politician, fancy photo. Walking down the street with the crew, fancy photo. Meeting with Nato troops in Latvia, better take time out of their day for a fancy photo. The Holocaust, time for another photo op.

When a CBC journalist pointed out the obvious fact that all of this could have been done over zoom with pressing domestic issues back in Canada the reaction of Chrystia Freeland and Melony Jolie went viral.

Freeland absurdly asserted that no one but CBC journalist Travis Dhanraj, who asked the question, held that view. The question itself was a mini controversy among the sheltered journalist and political class in Canada. No one outside their ranks saw the problem.

The fact that a moderately difficult question from a friendly journalist shook Justin Trudeau’s elite squad of foreign diplomats to their very core is indicative that they do not have the strength and presence to handle the Russians. If military technology develops to a point where a hashtag can destroy a Russian tank, then it will be time for the world to look to Justin Trudeau. Until then, the Prime Minister will be ignored by more serious leaders.