Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to the media outside the Basilica of Sainte-Anne de Beaupré, east of Quebec City, during the papal visit of Pope Francis on July 28. Bernard Brough/The Canadian Press
Of all the things we resent politicians for, taking personal vacations with their families has to be the least.
No politician is truly immune: George W. Bush was often criticized for his frequent trips away from the White House when he was US president, including a five-week getaway to his Texas ranch in 2005. Ontario Premier Doug Ford was chastised for took a trip to his cottage in Muskoka in February, just as the convoy of protesters had descended on Ottawa. And now Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under fire for jetting off to Costa Rica for two weeks, which some see as particularly unaffordable at a time when Canadians are being squeezed by inflation and health care problems at home.
There certainly is worse times when political leaders need to take time off: when Ontario advised against travel due to COVID-19 and the finance minister decided to fly to St. Barts anyway, for example, or when Texas was in the midst of a devastating winter storm and Sen. Ted Cruz chose to board the plane to Cancun, or when Mr. Trudeau chose to mark Canada’s first day of truth and reconciliation with a personal beach vacation in Tofino, British Columbia. But never really good time for a politician (especially a senior politician) for leisure; there are always conflicts happening abroad or at home, and unless we take the unreasonable position that politicians should never take time off while in office, it is inevitable that the Prime Minister’s vacation will overlap with any number of crises – economic, social or political.
However, it’s a cheap and easy way to strike a political blow, and partisans usually take advantage of it when they get the chance (only to forget their outrage when it’s their guy drinking mai tais on the beach or flying to New York for a long weekend to catch a Yankees game). But it’s a stupid habit we should all try to break: politicians are human, and we can’t expect people to function at optimal levels if they’re denied the opportunity to spend free time with their families. Moreover, if we want honest, intelligent, thinking people to consider public service, the job cannot be too thankless (insofar as it is not already the case). After all, why would someone who could seemingly earn much more in the private sector choose to run for public office with all its stresses, knowing also that his every move will be scrutinized, his every expenditure scrutinized , all sorts of details of his personal life often exposed – and on top of that criticized for taking the occasional vacation?
Perhaps some would argue that two weeks is too long for the Prime Minister to be away from his desk. But Mr. Trudeau has been moving around Canada for the past few weeks anyway: meeting the Pope, smiling with fishermen in PEI, playing with kids at a summer camp in British Columbia, so a few weeks at the beach isn’t much of a departure from some of Mr. Trudeau’s other summer activities in 2022.
Others may insist that although there is never a good time for personal trip for a politician, this particular time – in these economic conditions – is especially deafening for a prime minister who claims to care entirely about the welfare of the middle class. While now is the wrong time for Mr. Trudeau to travel, it’s hard to imagine when the time was right. Last month when the Prime Ministers were meeting in Victoria and people camped out outside passport offices? Back in June, when inflation was 8.1% and airports were in crisis? Maybe February or March, when the fighting in Ukraine had just started? Or sometime in the future when inflation starts to ease, which may not be before parliament resumes in September?
There are many serious issues for which this prime minister deserves criticism: the government’s apparent abandonment of Ukrainian embassy staff before Russia’s February invasion; the continued abandonment of Afghans who worked for the Canadian government; his enduring and dear allegiance to the theater of COVID-19; the lack of clarity surrounding allegations of political interference in the RCMP’s investigation into the 2020 Nova Scotia massacre; the federal government’s failure, months later, to publicly provide compelling evidence justifying its invocation of the Emergency Act during the truck convoy crisis; and Mr. Trudeau’s capitulation in returning natural gas turbines to Germany despite Russian sanctions. (This is a non-exhaustive list obtained from just the last few months.)
I resent Mr. Trudeau and his government for all of this and more. But let the prime minister rest a little. If anything, maybe he’ll experience the ArriveCan problem firsthand on the way back.
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