So what’s in the water for some of our politicians? In the House of Commons, Pierre Poilievre, playing his fake-Trump act, called Justin Trudeau a “wacko» (crazy).
At the Standing Committee on Official Languages, irritated by two Quebec experts on the linguistic question, Francis Drouin, Franco-Ontarian Liberal MP and president of the Canadian section of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie, told them in their faces that they were “ full of shit.”
In the corridors of the National Assembly, in reaction to acts of vandalism of the future battery factory of the Swedish firm Northvolt, Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister of the Economy, bluntly shouted “barbarism”.
Words still have meaning
He even added that those responsible would be “barbarians” who deserved to be “hunted out”. Phew! Yet the words still have meaning.
If acts of vandalism without loss of life are seen as “barbarism” by an influential minister of a peaceful society, one wonders how he would describe truly barbaric acts if he saw them.
In short, as the maxim goes, everything that is excessive becomes insignificant.
In the political class, that still causes a lot of verbal arrogance in a short time.
Among Pierre Poilievre and Francis Drouin, we also speak of a rudeness unworthy of their functions. Sorry gentlemen, but a parliament is not a tavern.
Devalue politics
Faced with citizens – also known as “voters” – do elected officials, whether they are MPs, ministers or prime ministers – no longer have a duty to set an example in their own political communication?
In the partisan arena, we understand that it can happen that tempers become heated. “Brain bubbles” that burst under pressure.
But in these three cases, obviously, the words spoken were completely voluntary.
In doing so, they devalue politics in the eyes of the population. Which, we hope, would merit reflection on their part.
