Tuesday, June 12, 2018

A Better Way To Say It

By Sniffles

We cats are irritated by Robert DeNiro. Not because we disagree with what he said at the Tonys on Sunday night — and not because we're prudes (although we kinda are) — but because it just wasn't clever. You resort to the "F" word when you don't have something more witty to say.

Pierre Trudeau said as much 47 years ago. (That's Pierre, Larry Kudlow, not Justin. No wonder you had that heart attack.) Except in the senior Trudeau's case, it was about the "A" word, plus "SOB," epithets with which Richard Nixon had rudely tagged him. "I've been called much worse things by better men," Pierre sniffed. Game over.

So: Nobody wins in battles of rudeness. Justin has proved that very well.

How so? Through his measured performance at his press conference, after the G7 had concluded and the ever-petulant Donald Trump was wheels-up for Singapore. "Canadians, we’re polite, we’re reasonable," he said. "But we also will not be pushed around." Trump, from his perch as the world's supreme pusher-arounder, was outraged. Trouble ensued.

But did you catch what happened after that? The Canadian House of Commons condemned the Trumpsters' attacks on their Prime Minister. Unanimously. Across party lines.

When was the last time Canadian MPs voted on something without a single dissent? We're glad you asked, because Trump won't like this, either: It was on the anti-Russian Magnitsky Act, in October 2017.

Justin, meanwhile, has lain low while his House of Commons eloquently speaks for an annoyed True North. Which kind of brings us back to DeNiro. If Canada hasn't just said "F you" to Donald Trump and his nightmare Presidency in the most civilized way, call us cats Chihuahuas. And of course we PURR.

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