President Donald Trump has broken every rule of politeness in American presidential behaviour. It started on inauguration morning when he and Melania carried some huge, flat, wrapped thing — a crossword puzzle? a cheeseboard? — up the White House steps.

It was a hostess gift for then-president Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, which was abnormal. But even then, most people would bring bonbons or a Cire Trudon candle. I still think it was a pizza stone

Then it went on, as in downhill, with rules breaking like Greek plates. Trump has been clocked with lying over 14,000 times since then. He ruined the friendly handshake, touched a Saudi magic orb, imitated an orgasm at a political rally, threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans, and brazenly engoldened his office space.

“Norms” is the shorthand for the normal things that people do, especially in the workplace. I think three years of normlessness may have subconsciously affected other people, even those who despise Trump.

Which brings me to Jody Wilson-Raybould, the gift that keeps on giving. Breaking the norm is spreading. She just pulled a Trump move.

The former Liberal MP, dropped as attorney-general and minister of justice and expelled from the Liberal caucus in the spring, is now an Independent. She will have to move out of her ministerial suite with private washroom, which she kept even after she was no longer in cabinet.

But there is a new government and a new cabinet including Dan Vandal, a Métis MP from Winnipeg who will be minister of northern affairs, a huge job in this huge country. He has been assigned that ministerial suite.

Wilson-Raybould won’t move. She suggests giving up part of the suite, leaving Vandal without a full set of ministerial offices, but she herself is staying put.

Why? “I just want to stay in my office which I had blessed by an elder and felt comfortable there,” she told the CBC. She is referring to Algonquin Elder Claudette Commanda who “cleansed” the office with an Indigenous ceremony that included praying that Wilson-Raybould could keep her old office. “So I’m hopeful they’ll see the appropriate thing is to let me stay in my office.”

Two American pop culture references spring to mind. In my favourite movie, “Office Space,” a twitchy long-time office worker, Milton Waddams, played by the great Stephen Root, is going quietly mad.

He declares, OK, mumbles: “And I said, I don’t care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I’m, I’m quitting.” His desk has been moved four times in a year. He does not quit. He never will.

But in the process, they took his treasured red Swingline stapler. “But if they take my stapler then I’ll set the building on fire,” he warns. He does.

I am not suggesting for a moment that Wilson-Raybould would set the Confederation Building on fire. But here’s her second pop culture doppelganger, George Constanza on “Seinfeld.”

In season two, episode seven, titled “The Revenge,” Costanza quits his job after he is no longer allowed to use the executive toilet.

But then he regrets it. Jerry Seinfeld suggests going back to the office the next day and pretending nothing happened. It sort of works in that Costanza’s boss relents. But Costanza is Costanza, and Costanza is refired.

Back to the HR problem in the House of Commons. The Speaker’s Office decides who gets what office, according to each party’s seat count. The prime minister has nothing to do with it. This is a norm.

Like Milton, I too have changed desks a lot. Here’s what would happen in my workplace if I was asked to change my desk one more time. They would change my desk lock, pack up my stuff in moving bins and plunk me down somewhere else, possibly nicer.

It’s not like I’d have a say in the matter. Why should I? I’d be told there’s a seating chart and we can’t change the chart. It’s the norm.

Here’s what will happen in Wilson-Raybould’s case. Men in overalls and work boots arrive. They decline coffee. They change the locks on your office doors. You can pack or they can pack, but the stuff’s leaving. The chart says so. They are implacable. That is the norm of office space.

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What puzzles me is how Wilson-Raybould appeared in the Liberal cabinet with great fanfare, especially from feminists like me, and managed to fail in a large political institution. Perhaps she didn’t understand political norms.

One may not secretly tape a phone call with a colleague while asking him leading questions about SNC-Lavalin, for instance, as Wilson-Raybould did. One must make one’s case in cabinet but understand that not every battle will be a win.

“It seems a little bit petty to me,” Wilson-Raybould says. Yes, many people who once admired you are saying exactly that today.

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