Article content

Wednesday was one of those days when the terra firma of reality seems to give way beneath one’s feet: when identity-politics fanaticism combines with partisan silliness to produce scenes of such solemn nonsense you truly cannot believe that what you are watching is actually happening.

It should not be surprising, perhaps, to find Justin Trudeau at the centre of it. There has always been an element of fantasy to his prime ministership, or wishful thinking at least, on the theory that if we all collectively pretended he was a G7 leader, he would become one in front of us. In the giddy whirl of Davos speeches and Vogue covers and quantum physics lectures, he may even have come to believe this himself.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Andrew Coyne: Hopefully MPs are merely playing a vastly cynical game over Trudeau’s shenanigans Back to video

Something, at any rate, must have put in his mind the thought that a bit of procedural shenanigans prior to a vote on the floor of the Commons could only be resolved by his personal intervention. Not the rules of the House, not the Speaker charged with enforcing them, not peer pressure or even the passage of time. No, it was up to him, and not merely on the strength of his personality or office, but by sheer physical force.