Hope and, ah, hard work

He was the only global leader mentioned by Barack Obama in his speech at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. He pals around with Prince Harry. The host of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah, says he is “completely in love” with him.

I’m talking, of course, about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the best thing to happen to Ottawa since they let people skate on the Rideau Canal. Like a lot of Canadians, I liked the new tone in Ottawa. And I have freely admitted to voting Liberal for the first time in years.

But something has developed that’s driving me crazy. Justin Trudeau is OK when he speaks from a teleprompter or when he did that nerdy thing explaining Einstein’s theory of relativity (or whatever he was talking about) although the words may well have been memorized in advance.

What’s making me nuts is how Trudeau talks when he’s responding to a question from the media or commenting on something for the first time. He inserts “ah” in his sentences when he doesn’t know where he’s going next. In a thirty-second TV clip, he’ll say a “ah” three or four times all the while sounding like he’s sucking in his breath.

This is not good. Leaders should seem like they know what they’re talking about, even when they don’t. With this new tic in in his diction, Trudeau appears to be admitting he hasn’t thought things through, that maybe he doesn’t have an idea in his head.

It’s gotten so bad I can’t listen to him anymore. The honeymoon may still be on for some people but my relationship with him has reached that stage in a marriage when one half of the couple is no longer paying attention to the other. All I can say is: that was a fast fifty years of marital life.