Justin Trudeau the person, and Justin Trudeau, the politician - personal political ramblings

I feel badly sometimes criticizing politicians, especially spoiled rich kids like Justin Trudeau. I admit I’m envious of spoiled rich kids because I’ve taken such flak from others for being a spoiled rich kid.  So many of these ‘comparison’s’ are relative.  Personally I’d left active participation in politics decades ago. When I was young I ran in elections and was on student councils and in media and served as “youth representative to parliament’ and served in secular and church authority positions. As a physician I served in my section of the BCMA and attended meetings and rallies. In work I’ve served on committees and been directly involved in preparation and presentation of position papers.  I’ve been a member of the Canadian Human Rights Association, The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Psychiatrists Against Political Abuse of Psychiatry, and still am involved in a few community organizations. I am a member of a church and have done service in that church organization.  Today I’ve been on Boards but generally over the years limited my ‘political public service’ to voting, membership in a political party and contributions.  Often these days my favourite contribution in my community is attending charity funding raisers and contributing to the ‘silent auctions’.
I’ve not been involved in city politics and admire a friend who has served there. My mother was very involved in local community politics but I’ve been more involved provincially and  federally, When I last voted in a city election I didn’t even know who or what half the parties stood for.  Provincially I’ve voted and I have been involved in some provincial based debates.  Federally I’ve been involved almost continuously since I was in my 20’s.  Indeed I always considered myself Liberal, having met Pierre Elliot Trudeau and thought him really smart ‘for an old guy’.  I actually considered like many in my generation that killing off anyone over thirty might make for a better country.  I rejected the liberal party some 20 years ago citing Churchill who said, “If you’re not a socialist at 20 you have no heart, and if you’re not a capitalist at 40 you have no brains.” I was increasingly dismayed by the corruption in the Liberal party and as an English western Canadian incensed at all the wealth that Quebec acquired through the Liberal party at the expense of the West. My friend was a member of the Western Canada Party and increasingly I saw that if Canada as a whole could vote on Quebec Separation we’d likely do better without them.  Meanwhile increasingly the decisions of Pierre Elliott Trudeau were increasingly the cause for so much that was problematic in Canada. I understood that his nearly bankrupting Canada had caused both Conservative Mulroney and Liberal Chretien to have so little money for health care.  Trudeau’s principal constituency was Quebec and lawyers.  So increasingly instead of science we were getting more and more government and less and less service directly as a consequence of Trudeau ideology.
Meanwhile the communist ideas I ‘d liked as a teen ager became apparently brutal with each year of mounting evidence of the millions killed in Communist regimes. I began writing letters on behalf of scientists imprisoned in communist countries.  The eventual falling of the Berlin wall with the increasing release of information and transparency finally destroyed my love affair with Trudeau.  After the horrors of communism became known it was for me like the exposure of Auschwitz to the world, I could never again respect Communists as I could never ever respect Nazi’s once I’d seen their gas chambers.  Trudeau fell from his pedestal, his lapel rose poisoned by history.
Now I wasn’t fond of George Bush, Jr.  I liked that he was a recovered alcoholic and made no bones about that. I also liked that he was a Christian.  I loved his mother and his father had been one of the brightest men in American politics.  That said, he was a Dynastic Ruler.  Genetics is important, especially in race horses, but the European history and Eastern history of Dynasties said mostly that they were best at serving themselves and least concerned with serving their countries. I liked democracy and elections because of the competition and the belief that ‘meritocracy’ would lead to the ‘best’ choice.  Trudeau is a Dynastic Leader like George Bush Jr.  I don’t like him fundamentally because he smoked dope and did so at work.
Because my work is partly ‘police’ work, as a Medical Review Officer, it’s been my job to ‘monitor’ doctors, nurses, pilots, ships captains and drivers who themselves have ‘smoked dope’ or ‘drunk’ or ‘done drugs in office’ or ‘work’.  I personally am in recovery.  I was advised to smoke dope by a psychiatrist I saw about anxiety and bought marijuana from physicians.  Somehow the whole ‘illegality’ of the process and the ‘criminality’ of ‘drug use’ given my position as a psychiatrist began to wear on me.  When I saw a drunken doctor’s decision cause a patient’s death and saw a dope smoking doctor’s decision cause a patients death I became very concerned about the whole issue of ‘impairment’.
When I became open about my smoking dope and drinking wine, no more than judges, lawyers, hospital administrators and members of the College and Physicians or police around me and likely less than what was going on in the Trudeau home, I was severely “punished’ and ‘grossly stigmatized’ and ‘subjected’ to an unforgettable near death experience at the hands of very dangerous doctors who could justify their behaviour because I was a ‘dope smoker’.  I was ‘invalidated’ and ‘lost all my rights’ and was horrendously abused as I told the truth.
Now I appreciate that Justin Trudeau wants to ‘decriminalize’ marijuana.  Marijuania has been decriminalized essentially in Canada for more than a decade.  After my harrowing experiences which occurred as a result mostly because I did smoke marijuanai and associated with those who drank and drugged, albeit in high places, I remained ‘abstinent’ believing quite frankly with the political deceit and political dangers in Canada that I couldn’t afford to be ‘witless’ among so many rather sociopathic individuals. I found that the drug and alcohol abusers in general, especially those in high places, were the most sociopathic of all.  I gravitated increasingly to those who didn’t abuse drugs and alcohol and consciously didn’t break the law.  I simply like lawful people today. My brother has always been such and my family in general has been law abiding.  So it was fairly easy for me to return to my roots and accept that smoking marijuana hadn’t just been about the drug but had included an element of arrogance and just a touch of the ‘outlaw’ superiority that dominates the underworld.  I liked that I ‘got away with it’.
Yet I went to a psychiatrist and told him about my marital problems and anxiety and he thought my drinking wine and smoking a joint was just fine.
Today I would be smoking a joint and drinking a glass of wine if only because the ‘legality ‘of the thing’ would made that whole laissez faire easy going reality attractive.  Consciously not smoking, (I’d started smoking cigarettes which was my gateway drug for marijuana, and interestingly never thought anything of nicotine till I realized how dangerous it was) I began a journey of spirituality.  I also politically became increasingly informed and insightful about ‘morality’ and ‘ethical behaviour’.
I was meditating and very involved in pursuit of the truth and being in touch with my true self when I smoked marijuana again in psychiatry. I’d tried it over in Morocco but din’t really smoke it again till I was in psychiatry. Mostly my use of drugs or alcohol was highly circumscribed by my study of medicine, my work as a doctor and my onerous on call schedule.  It was only in psychiatry and on vacation that I used marijuana again, doing it with the psychiatry staff and gravitating to psychiatrists who drank and smoked dope. Most don’t.  It’s actually only about 10 % of physicians and 20% of lawyers and judges who abuse drugs and alcohol.   It’s amazing given the opportunity we all have that more than 80% of professionals are not impaired.  The head judge of the Supreme Court of Canada was a falling down drunk but the other four judges were sober caring.  I know the head of obstetrics was a drunk but the rest of the obstetricians I knew weren’t.
When I was younger I was highly critical of the one bad apple. Today I am utterly amazed and grateful for all the men and women in positions of power who do not abuse that power.
I have made amends for my poor behaviour. I caused no death, caused no harm to individuals, double and triple checked my work and asked colleagues opinions more if I was ‘hung over’. I was considered an exceptional doctor and psychiatrist and highly celebrated for my work and even my integrity both before and after my ‘disclosure’.  The worst doctor and most immoral unethical and corrupt was a doctor in position of power who was indeed to the best of my mind sober.  Psychopaths and sociopaths don’t need drugs and alcohol to hurt people. Yet drugs and alcohol commonly makes bad behaviour worse.
I worked on ‘wet reserves’ and ‘dry reserves’ when I was a physician with the Northern Medical Association and noted that despite all other variables the ‘wet’ reserves were the places of utter hell, depravity, disease and abuse while the ‘dry’ reserves were heaven by comparison.
Justin Trudeau’s mother was an addict and I have known so many Adult Children of Alcoholics and Addicts to appreciate the difficulties children experience growing up in families with active addiction.  Justin Trudeau brother was an addict as well. His father was aloof and intellectual.  Justin indeed has a fine sense of humour at times talking about his father.   But again I’ve had too many friends and patients who have been the children of the famous. It comes with major burdens.
My parents believed in work and I didn’t get an allowance but rather got a ‘wage’ for work I did in my home. I have this antagonism about the ‘idle rich’ a communist Canadian thing.  Yet, with protestant parents I was inured with the “protestant work ethic’.  I was also raised with a lot of ‘duty’.  It was my job to help those who were less fortunate, the young and the old.  I was raised on ‘noblesse oblige’ and ‘charity’ and heavily criticized if I ‘looked down’ on the disabled’.  It was however perfectly acceptable to criticize the lazy and the drunken.  When there was work to be done everyone had to pitch in and those that didn’t do their ‘share’ of work shouldn’t get any reward. This was fundamental in my upraising.
There was also this idea that as a member of the middle class we had a taxation system that was wrong as it supported ‘white collar welfare ‘ and ‘blue collar welfare’ , the ‘takers’ and the ‘cheaters’.  I loved singing Christians songs about Glory trains and what they carried and how they didn’t carry ‘cheaters’.
I have friends who were born wealthy.  A lawyer stole my grandfather’s estate. He stole the estate of a dozen of the richest men in northern manitoba.  Since the lawyers didn’t ‘catch’ their own, and our family and our friends family lost ‘millions’ we learned at a young age that the ‘courts’ were corruptible and judges there were laws for some and laws for others.  I loved Animal Farm. It was one of the very best books I ever read.
I don’t know Justin Trudeau.  As a person he suffered the loss of his father and the loss of his brother. I’ve lost both my parents now and empathize with those who have lost family.  I admire that Justin Trudeau is a family man but having married brilliant equal feminist female doctor and done 10 years in that rodeo I see Trudeau and his marriage as a 50’s sort of union and understand why he gravitates to the Islamic chauvinistic traditions despite his parroting the words of his female writer “It’s 2015”.
He’s an actor.  I can’t understand why the Elite in Canada don’t hire the Sutherland.  Both father and son are better actors than DiCaprio and certainly way better than Trudeau. But Trudeau has the ‘brand’ name. He’s like Kardashian’s in that way.  I’d love Keefer Sutherland for Prime Minister.  He’d give us a show like Reagon did.  America went with an actor and I don’t know how much material of his was ‘original’ but do know that when Trudeau ‘improvises’ he tends to put both feet in his mouth. He’s not that bright.  I am considered very bright and I know people like Colonel Hadfield who are extremely bright. So I rue the new politics where ‘accomplished men’ like Colonel Hadfield aren’t able to be prime minister because we get ‘brands’ or ‘lawyers’ or ‘actors’ instead.
I liked Mr. Harper because he was a western English Canadian who was an accountant and kept Canada from the fate of Greece during the world’s toughest economic times.  I’ve increasingly like the Conservative economic model too.  The Liberals and Conservatives are really two sides of a corporate coin. I like think the Liberals are Quebec Mafia and the Conservatives are American mafia.  If I have to pick between the Hell’s Angels and the Tongs being western I’m going to pick the Angels. It’s not very advanced. I make decisions in my area of expertise with great erudition but in politics I’m often limited by the horrendously dumned down and biased media filter. I miss the early days of the Winnipeg Free Press when you could actually read a newspaper and learn what was going on in the world because journalists were picked based on their knowledge not on the ability to sell cereal.
The fact is that if Justin Trudeau were to go against ‘legalization of marijuana’ and agree to be randomly drug tested (especially every time he smirks) I’d be less antagonistic. He seems like a pretty nice guy as a person.  I have a friend who is an actor and he’s a hell of a nice guy.  Good father and family man too.
It’s just that in Canada we are encouraged to question every aspect of the person who is our leading politician. I objected soundly to Mr. Harper being demonized. The Liberal followers called him Nazi, Hitler, and some actually said he ate babies.  I didn’t like the tone of the new politic discussion but since that’s where we are I find I have a real penchant for this kind of mud slinging. The Democrats and Republicans in the US have been attacking each other since the days of Nixon. I learned later that Nixon’s impeachment for what he did was only because he go ‘caught’. The democrats were doing the same.
They say ‘all’s fair in love and war’ but in truth ‘politics is mostly a war of words’ and the victimization of Mr. Harper was no greater than the victimization of Mr. Ignatieff. That poor intelligent fellow who left academics to teach Canadians was pulverized by everyone.  Canada is a collectively stupid thuggish country with little respect for accomplishment or intelligence.  Some say this is the consequence of the Brain Drain to the US.  It’s like the “tall poppy syndrome’ of Australia. Stand up and you make yourself a target.  It’s the new politics.
Justin Trudeau is our Prime Minister. He has won an election with a third of the popular vote but he’s the winner nonetheless.  The corporate party of greed of the Liberals has beaten the corporate party of Greed of the Conservatives and the NDP.  Each ‘Party’ represents it’s own base of Big Money.  The pollyanna lies each tells comes down to let me ‘spend your money’ and ‘make myself and my friends rich’.  Also all Canadian and American parties ‘promise change’ but in fact the very nature of government is to stop change because ‘reform is the enemy of those who benefit from the status quo’.
I loath the corruption in the liberals with the Chief Financial Operator having the greatest investment in the Legalization of Marijuana. Conflicts of interest like this are common. Given the recent ‘physician assisted suicide’ position I wouldn’t be surprised if some politician didn’t have an investment in a particularly effective gas agent for killing people.  But that’s just politics.
It’s all just politics.
People didn’t think America would survive George Bush and then they didn’t think we’d survive Obama.  The same was true for Mulroney and Chretien and now Harper and Trudeau.
I think it’s all above my pay grade.
In the Scottish Irish home of my birth if anything went wrong you first blamed it on the weather.  Next you blamed it on government. Then you could blame anything that went wrong on the Communists or the Catholics.  Bankers and the Elite were sometimes the cause of blame if weather, government, communists, catholics didn’t cover it. Always the tax man was as bad today as he was in the day of Jesus.  Then you could blame things on outsiders or newcomers.  As kids we liked to blame things on the old.  Then you could blame things on religion. Now you can blame things on polluters.  For a while there you could blame things on science and always you could blame things on lawyers.  We never blamed things on each other. We loved our dogs but we did blame things on the dog especially farts.
So the bottom line is we collectively get the leadership we deserve. That’s the spiritual way of looking at things.  Justin Trudeau for whatever negative I think of him represents those negatives I won’t own within myself. That’s called projection.  I am not all I could be so I blame someone. Justin is the devil in the secular world. He could be the saint too. It’s really just a matter of weather or whether the dog farted in the end.
Personally my own struggle is always with God.  I am the orubunga and I mostly think I’m the tail of the snake being bitten by the head of the snake.  Does the butterfly think the philosopher or the philosopher think the butterfly?