What a slip of the tongue! Finally, his true colours have emerged.

Our Prime Minister is a whirling dervish — appearing at the Calgary Stampede and then in B.C. to praise our firefighters with staged “selfies” that massage his ego and give the impression he really cares about us — especially Indigenous Aboriginals!

After renaming the Langevin Block to accommodate Aboriginal protesters on Parliament Hill and setting up an ineffective Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, his ego got the better of him in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

Does Justin Trudeau have any foundational principles?

The Sun’s Mark Bonokoski, writing about Trudeau’s highly publicized charity boxing match with Indigenous Senator Patrick Brazeau, nailed our PM’s hubris: “It was all calculated for the best result for him, and no one else.”

Trudeau, on the same subject, told Rolling Stone: “It wasn’t random. I wanted someone who would be a good foil, and we stumbled upon the scrappy tough-guy senator from an Indigenous community. He fit the bill, and it was a very nice counterpoint. I saw it as the right kind of narrative, the right story to tell.”

Bonokoski was right, too, that this staged fight “was much more than just a liberal versus a conservative, but a French colonialist versus a country’s conquered.”

Trudeau chose Brazeau — whom we now know was dealing with a number of personal problems at the time and was likely out of shape — who naively accepted a closely refereed boxing match.

Whether his cavalier remarks will hurt Trudeau remains speculation for now, but the criticism is damning from many Aboriginal leaders.

Pam Palmater, an associate professor and chair in Indigenous governance at Ryerson University, told the Globe and Mail, “To read this super arrogant, super-racist comment was really disgusting.”

Cindy Blackstock, a professional social worker at McGill and Executive Director of First Nations Child and Family Caring, criticized Trudeau’s “narrative about colonialization ‘where Indigenous Peoples are the savages and the non-Indigenous people are civilized.’”

Unfortunately, this episode distracts attention from serious issues, but confirms Trudeau’s pre-programmed, drama-like approach to politics.

Meanwhile, Canada’s relationship with its First Nations is in serious trouble.

“Billions of dollars are squandered each year while the problems of spousal and sexual assault, child abuse and neglect, suicide, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome [FAS] and addictions fester,” Professor Frances Widdowson, a Metis and faculty member at Mount Royal College in Alberta, wrote in her 2008 book, Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry.

Despite Trudeau’s promise to rebuild Canada’s relationship with its Indigenous people, there are hurdles to meaningful compromise on both sides — ranging from the emotional baggage and mistrust caused by the residential school scandal, to the cultural way of thinking among First Nations.

Kinship loyalty is one of the defining characteristics of Aboriginal culture, Widdowson wrote.

People are fearful of going to the police and xenophobia toward “whites” creates an entrenched resistance to any outside interference.

Regardless of legitimate past or current grievances, this helps neither First Nations nor Canada move forward — presumably a desirable path, given the dire situation on many reserves and the billions of tax dollars wasted annually trying to fix things that never bring about desperately needed improvements.

Enough is enough.

We have approximately 600 Aboriginal tribes that want to remain separate and apart, and yet why would anyone self-segregate in these circumstances?

Particularly when we have an entire industry dedicated to the “The Great Game”, as Widdowson and her husband, Albert Howard, described it, that enriches the army of consultants and lawyers who feed on the “Aboriginal industry”.

Today, it’s a mutually beneficial game for the federal government and the politically savvy Aboriginal Rights Movement, but not necessarily for average Aboriginals.

For now, the two sides fight it out in court, contesting land claims and the meaning of self government.

But long term, we need a political, not a legal solution, that truly reconciles, as Trudeau promised, Canada’s relationship with its First Nations, given that progress will inevitably displace some.

Canada can only realize its potential with a citizenry that is unified and unconditionally Canadian, and with a PM who is more than a mascot and a prop for photo ops!