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Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Coureur de Moi
Face it. They do look adorable. If the political thing doesn't work out, I'm sure the Bay would love to have Justin and family in their 2011-2 winter ad campaign. Maybe we could see the Son of Pierre doing a bit of fur trapping himself. Laying out the trap lines. Killing the hungry and wounded beavers. Gutting the carcasses. Pierre Le Pirouette might have been macho, but Justin and his merry band of coureur des bois? Forgetaboutit!
It would also be a subtle nod to his father's legacy. After all, Pierre famously imposed peacetime wage and price controls, which helped create our very own disco era black market. The coureur des bois were the original Canadian - or more accurately Canadien - backwoods black marketers. Full circle, eh? Your ancestors told busy-body officials to stuff their regulations, now you run off to Ottawa to become one of the regulators. The sad arc of French-Canadian culture. From bold adventurers exploring a continent, to the New World's equivalent of uptight Parisian bureaucrats.
This makes two high profile stunts in a row for Justin "I'm not my father" Trudeau. In trying to get Tony Genco elected in Vaughan, Justin hysterically denounced Julian Fantino's criticisms of the Charter of Rights and Freedom. It was a nice kick at Mr Law and Order, particularly after his peek-a-boo policing in Caledonia. Still, it was a defense of a pretty weak piece of law.
I'm not that big a Charter fan myself. Sure it's a bill of rights. We probably needed one too. But it's a constitutional safeguard in the sense that a submarine with a screen door is water-tight. You have all these rights, unless - under Section One - the Supreme Court decides you don't have any of these rights. An engraved invitation to judicial activism.
Continuing on the theme of defending good causes in a bad way, Justin has drowned - the little tykes look about to vanish beneath the furry waves - his family in dead animal skins. He's even sporting a leather jacket. So, that's at least two kinds of dead animal for the price of one PR stunt. Value for money. Just like the old man, really. All we need is another photo shoot, with Justin giving the finger to some PETA activists, while munching on delicious pemmican, and he'd make everyone in Alberta forget about the National Energy Program.
Now what was the point of playing One Millions BC with his adorable clan? Could he really have been clueless enough not to think this would cause controversy? Is he so obsessed with imitating his father he forgot about contemporary Greenista attitudes? A Trudeau courtier defended the furry photo-oping thusly:
Alex Lanthier, an aide to the Montreal MP, said the card wasn’t intending to make a statement on fur. The family wore the coats they own and because they know the people who run Canada Goose.
“It’s a good Canadian company,” he said. The coats are made from sustainable products, he said.
Unless the beavers - or whatever you're slaughtering - go extinct.
Justin missed a wonderful opportunity here. He should have followed in the foot steps of ex-GG Michaelle Jean, who snacked on seal meat to defend the right of the Inuit to hunt. Instead of giving his full throated support to the Canadian fur industry - which literally built this country - and putting many Greenista noses out of joint, his flack gave a half-assed excused.
Pere Trudeau impressed many Canadians with his guts. He stood down the FLQ - while bribing more moderate elements in Quebec - and told Richard Nixon to take a hike, something the sleaziest American President in living memory deserved. Pierre Trudeau defended bad ideas with panache. Justin only has the bad ideas and lame excuses about how killing animals is "sustainable."
Sure it is, in the sense that we've been doing it for thousands of years. "Sustainable," however is code for having as small an impact on the environment as possible. Slaughtering animals by the thousands for their coats is many things, but having a small impact on nature isn't one of them.
Now, what I'd really want for Christmas is Stephen Harper and his family (every bit as adorable as the Trudeau family) decked out in furs munching on a nice steak. It wouldn't make up for all the backtracking he has done over the years, but it would be a nice signal that he hasn't gone completely "native" up in Ottawa.
Posted by Richard Anderson on December 21, 2010 | Permalink
Comments
There're wearing coyote. You know, those adorable animals that killed a young girl in Nova Scotia, just last summer. There's very little danger of coyotes becoming extinct, in fact, their numbers are practically exploding. Ever since the government declared war on gun ownership, all sorts of nuisance animals have gained a big foothold across Canada. Bears, coyotes, and cougars are showing up in people's back yards, and all the government wants to do is deny the reports. Thank you Justin, for taking down a few potential child killers.
Posted by: dp | 2010-12-21 9:36:41 AM
Now I'm awake, and I see why I should have taken a typing course.
I've visited my old home town in Nova Scotia about a dozen times, over the last 30 years. Every year I see them sliding further down the anti-gun, anti-hunting, pro-police, pro-government path. Not one of my old friends owns a gun, and every one of them thinks gun ownership is a legitimate right. Since I left home, there has been a steady creep of nuisance animals into populated areas. Skunks rule the night in many small towns. You walk at your own risk, and hope you don't step on one. Coyotes rule the parks, where they never even had a coyote population 30 years ago. Bears help themselves to people's garbage, and crap on people's doorsteps. Cougars walk right through yards, while fish and wildlife officials deny their existence in the province.
When I was a boy, I walked the woods in relative safety, with a single shot 22, and a small dog. I can't imagine allowing a 10 year old that sort of freedom any more. For one thing, someone would do jail time for improper use of a firearm. For another, coyotes might eat the dog, and the boy. I suppose I should give up, and learn to live in the modern world.
You may think this is a different tangent than the original story, but it's really just another brick in the wall that's being built between individual rights, and the overpowering rule of the state.
Posted by: dp | 2010-12-21 11:54:50 AM
really just another brick in the wall that's being built between individual rights, and the overpowering rule of the state.
Posted by: dp | 2010-12-21 11:54:50 AM
As long as urban majority make the rules for the rural population we will continue this errosion common sense. The state would like nothing better than a unarmed society and the anti-gun activists have learned nothing from history. We have far too many people with social degrees and they all have to leave their mark. That's how nanny states are created. It's for the children of course , and the fact that they know what's better for you.
Posted by: peterj | 2010-12-21 2:35:48 PM
Hurray, to the liberal state of New Jersey that actually had its first bear hunt since 2005! The state's bear population has exploded from 500 in 1997 to about 3,500 now. The hunt was cancelled by the former left-wing Governor Corzine's appointees. Since then, there had been a large jump in run ins between citizens and nuisance bears. However, the hunt has been restored under the administration of conservative Republican governor Chris Christie. Hunters have bagged over 569 kills over the last week. Christie pushed for the hunt despite intense opposition from animal rights activists. Christie's strong support for the hunt also swung support behind the hunt. Originally, polls showed state residents leading slightly against the hunt. Yet, the lastest polling now shows residents in a pretty Democrat state supporting the hunt by 53%-37%. Many rural residents feel that Christie is the one NJ governor that actually cares about us.
P.S. Christie has also expressed some support for easing some of New Jersey's burdensome gun restrictions(2nd heaviest in country after California). Christie is trying to both cut spending and battle the public sector unions over pensions. He is pro-life and supports school vouchers. He supports reinstating the state death penalty which Corzine and his Democrat allies) did away with(without either public support or even making the public aware that the topic was being debated in the state legislature). Now, he is butting heads with the Democrat legislature over his failure to nominate for another term a left-wing activist judge who sits on the state supreme court. Its amazing what a true conservative leader will do! Christie in NJ, LePage in Maine, and the new governor of PA all conservative(both economically and socially) Tea Party supported men who striking a blow for conservatism in the bastion of american liberalism that is the northeast!
Posted by: Todd | 2010-12-21 3:55:04 PM
Spot on, dp and peterj! I find that the anti-gun propaganda has been just about as successful as the anti-smoking (pot excluded) propaganda in that the majority of people have lost all common sense. This results in what I call mass hysteria concerning the subject. It is amazing to see the number of people, almost to the last one urbanites, who now view all guns as evil and frightening. Yet I recall the time when even those who did not own a gun and never went hunting understood that guns were only tools and not the problem. They understood that some people were the problem.
As for explosion of predators resulting from all this, one can expect the typical mass denial. When a person is injured or killed by one, expect the blame to fall on the human not the animal.
Posted by: Alain | 2010-12-21 4:02:22 PM
I'm still haunted by the image of PET doing his televised Canadiana shtick in a canoe wearing his buckskin jacket. I've hardly been able to wear my Stoney Indian smoked Elk Hide vest ever since.
As to the Spawn of Satan becoming PM, he is your destiny, Publius!
Posted by: John Chittick | 2010-12-21 5:22:16 PM
Nothing like watching one of Trudeau's spawn hung on his own petard. No doubt he would have preferred to play to the PETA crowd and win their votes. Now, it appears that he will be ridiculed for poor judgement, among other things, for this latest faux pas. Given his father's skill at playing one group against another and winning, (to the detriment of all) it's pleasing to see that, in this case, the apple did fall from the tree.
Posted by: AB Patriot | 2010-12-21 6:51:46 PM
I'm sure someone made a political calculation before this photo went public. It surprises me a little, that they see this as a positive image. The liberal machine used to have this stuff down pat. Either I'm overestimating the intelligence of his PR people, or I'm misreading the general public's opinion on hunting, furs, guns, etc. Whatever the reason, I'm glad he did it.
Posted by: dp | 2010-12-21 7:33:56 PM
The only political calculation in effect here was to appeal to family values, which, as everyone should know, is not a strong Liberal suit. If anything, they fall flat on their faces. The concern I have, however, if that the Conservatives are much better at PR these days, yet, they are more than willing to tread down the same statist path that someone like Trudeau would have favoured. (Maybe Justin is in the wrong party?) In the end, what is threatened in the cause of Liberty, aided by an electorate that is too stupid to know when they are being taken to the cleaners.
Posted by: AB Patriot | 2010-12-21 9:46:42 PM
dp is right, there's no way Trudeau and his strategists would have not been aware of how this image would offend some PETA types. Come on, folks, believing your opponents are all stupid is a rookie mistake.
Also, "Unless the beavers - or whatever you're slaughtering - go extinct." - that's some kind of joke, right? Are you next going to start worrying that eating hamburgers is going to make cows extinct? And if they are wearing coyote, then this gunless urbanite says more power to them. I doubt a nuclear winter would take that species out.
Posted by: Left Coaster | 2010-12-22 12:46:49 PM
Compare this to Mr. Harper's bland if perfectly acceptable Christmas pictures. There never could be a Trudeau who wasn't a monster.
Posted by: Killer Kane | 2010-12-24 10:34:21 AM
Maggie T was too stoned to enter Monster territory
Posted by: 419 | 2010-12-24 1:00:23 PM
Speaking of stoned, how's Emery doing in his Georgia prison cell? If he hates it now, wait until summer. He should watch "Cool Hand Luke" for some pointers - except he's just an extra. Can you believe that guy said there was a government conspiracy against him? Yawn.
Posted by: Killer Kane | 2010-12-24 1:08:44 PM
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