Senate Scandal? What scandal? We've got Trudeau to cover!

As we left the House of Commons last Friday before a “break week”, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair — the leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition — had spent much of the week giving Prime Minister Stephen Harper the gears over the so-called Senate scandal. Noted curmudgeon political columnist Andrew Coyne called Mulcair’s performance the best he’d seen in Question Period.

But the triumph for Mulcair — and the doldrums for Harper — were to be shortlived.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was hitting the road as “break week” opened up — and was ready to steal the headliness.

First stop: A trendy meeting place in downtown Toronto for “Ladies Night” with JT. And a headline-making opportunity it was:

• Toronto Star: Justin Trudeau’s ‘ladies night’ furor just bluster by Conservatives, says Liberal leader
• National Post: Justin Trudeau hosts ‘ladies night’ fundraiser despite ‘firestorm’ of controversy over ‘patronizing’ ad
• CTV News:  Justin Trudeau’s ‘ladies’ event gets Twitter takedown
• Maclean’s: The problem with Trudeau’s ladies night
• (We reported on it too, of course, but some have accused me/us of having an “obsession” about this. I don’t think we do — we’re just reporting the facts, ma’am — but just to make a point, I’ll keep my organization in the background for the duration of this blog post)

Then, while at Ladies Night, Trudeau professes admiration for “China” and its “basic dictatorship.” What prompted this observation? Wasn’t a gotcha question from a reporter — it was a query from the event organizer, loyal Liberal Amanda Alvaro!

We reported it immediately. Completely. Included Trudeau’s “joke” about Sun News. For other news organizations, it took a day or four but the headlines would come:

• Huffington Post: Justin Trudeau’s ‘Foolish’ China Remarks Spark Anger
• Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, other Postmedia papers including, notably, The Vancouver Sun:  Conservatives, New Democrats jump on Trudeau over ‘admiration’ of pro-Chinese government
• CTV News: (2nd item! on its national newscast Friday night): Trudeau under fire for expressing admiration for China’s ‘basic dictatorship’
• CBC News (Sunday night, mind you, three days after he made the comment, it is first mentioned on The National): Justin Trudeau applauds China – but then, so does Stephen Harper

At this point, Toronto Star senior writer Susan Delacourt is able to write a very thoughtful and level-headed blog post about “Trudeau’s Three Thursday Mistakes”

So Saturday was a down day.

Then, on Sunday afternoon, Trudeau hauled out the iPad and engaged in some idle chit-chat with followers. He noted his favourite movie, gave up his last iTunes music purchase and, oh yes, he mused about rolling back some of those mandatory minimum sentences. Didn’t say anything else about it though. Just sit back and watch the fun!

And, again, while we reported on the mandatory minimum issue right away, the country’s columnists were still getting their heads around the China comment from the previous Thursday. So, Monday’s papers included:

• That Coyne fella on the front page of the National Post : Justin Trudeau’s gaffes reveal the gulf between his intellectual reach and grasp
• For other Postmedia papers — the Citizen, the Gazette, Van Sun, Cal Herald, Edm Sun, there was Michael Den Tandt: Justin Trudeau’s recent gaffes undermine his political strengths
• Margaret Wente in The Globe and Mail: Justin Trudeau does “Ladies Night”
• And, most witheringly, Terry Glavin, online only at The Ottawa Citizen: The Government Trudeau Most Admires

Again — I’ve not mentioned anything that went out across our chain — we reported and opined on this extensively — lest you think this issue was a hobby horse of Sun Media’s. But I’m sure you’ll find what I and my colleagues wrote/reported in the usual places.

On Monday, Trudeau ceded the headline-making ground to one of his MPs. Jim Karygiannis goes on CBC’s politics program and criticizes a Harper government program which gives wounded veterans a lump sum for a disability rather than pension. What’s Karygiannis’ beef with a lump sum for veterans? Well, it would encourage those disabled veterans to blow it on a fast car or booze. Karygiannis made this comment on, of all days, Remembrance Day. He issued a clarification some hours later.

All right, surely Tuesday would be better. Mmm. Not quite. First, Trudeau travels to Montreal, to the riding of Bourassa where he is rallying his troops ahead of the Nov. 25 by-election there. He does this by saying:

Great turnout for our rally with @EmmanuelDubourg tonight in #Bourassa. Montrealers are ready for change. #realpriorities

— Justin Trudeau, MP (@JustinTrudeau) November 13, 2013

But wait a minute. That begs the obvious question: The Liberals have held Bourassa since 1997. If they were indeed “ready for change”, wouldn’t they vote for anyone but a Liberal? Meanwhile, back on that CBC show, another one of Justin Trudeau’s colleagues was taking the hint Trudeau tweeted on Sunday and really, really running with it. Here’s Maclean’s John Geddes:

Liberal MP Sean Casey just made a sweeping call for review of all mandatory minimum penalties on @PnPCBC, which seems pretty out there. — John Geddes (@Geddes28) November 12, 2013

This is interesting because:

Liberal governments introduced mandatory minimums for gun crimes in ’95, for instance, and sexual offences involving children in ’05.

— John Geddes (@Geddes28) November 12, 2013

We are two days into a break week — and six days from the historic suspension of three sitting senators, suspended in a scandal that reaches right up to the Prime Minister’s Office. And yet — there’s Trudeau. Hogging all the headlines.

 

And….most read via http://t.co/vfIKbq5INa last wk? @davidakin The country Trudeau most admires? http://t.co/2gAVrQeoSr #natnw @SunMedia

— Bruce Anderson (@brucanderson) November 11, 2013