Not since Laureen Harper told an Indigenous rights protester at a cat video festival in 2014, “Tonight we’re here for homeless cats” has a member of the Canadian political establishment screwed up so badly in the face of an ordinary person wanting to be heard.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about because you’re too absorbed in the Prime Minister’s other scandal (hint: it starts with an S and ends with an N), let me explain: Justin Trudeau was speaking at an event at a luxury Toronto hotel Wednesday night when a protester holding a large banner interrupted him.

“People in Grassy Narrows are suffering from mercury poisoning,” she called out, referencing the fact that people in Grassy Narrows — an Ontario First Nation — are indeed suffering from mercury poisoning because in the 1960s a paper company began polluting the river there. Many maintain, this protester included, that the government response to the crisis has been abysmally slow and insufficient. “You committed to addressing this crisis,” the protester said. But before she could continue, security approached her and escorted her away. And as they did the PM spoke.

“Thank you for your donation tonight,” he said. “I really appreciate it.”

It was in every way, the public speaking equivalent of kicking somebody when they’re already down.

And yet, laughter and applause followed — not from the protesters who presumably don’t think there’s anything funny about government inability to address a poisoning crisis, but from audience members who paid handsomely to be there, and whose experience with mercury poisoning is most likely limited to reading in a magazine that you can get it if you eat too much sushi.

Today they are eating their applause for a PM who is in apology mode.

Read more:

Trudeau apologizes for sarcastically dismissing Grassy Narrows demonstrators at Liberal fundraiser in Toronto

Grassy Narrows chief questions delay on promised mercury testing

‘I started to have seizures at the age of 2.’ Ontario residents describe the ravages of mercury exposure

The backlash to Trudeau’s sarcastic response was swift from every source: from activists, from conservative voices on social media (who surprise, surprise, suddenly seem to have a vested interest in environmental protections), and from regular people of all stripes.

On Thursday, the PM apologized before the press. In his own words:

“As I think you all know from time to time I’m in situations where people are expressing concerns or protesting a particular thing and I always try to be respectful and always try to engage with them in a positive way. That’s how I believe a democracy should function and I didn’t do that last night. Last night I lacked respect towards them and I apologize for that.”

Trudeau said he’d reimburse the protesters for the donation they made that granted them access to the fundraiser and he announced plans to revisit the Grassy Narrows crisis with his staff.

It seems like the least he can do but hopefully it produces some positive change (in this lifetime) for the protesters who told him off.

None of this, however, is positive for Justin Trudeau, a man heading into an election, whose approval rating, according to a new Ipsos poll conducted for Global News, has dipped below U.S. president Donald Trump’s. After this week’s events I won’t be surprised if we see another dip.

Laureen Harper’s response (“That’s a great cause but that’s another night ... tonight we’re here for homeless cats”) to a protester who wanted to know why she appeared to care more about felines than she did about missing and murdered Indigenous women was inappropriate. But it wasn’t smug.

On Wednesday night Trudeau was smug. To be precise, he was as smug as they come.

And it’s hard to recover from smug. In fact, much like a cat, once “smug” is out of the bag — you can’t stuff it back in. Once people see it on your face and hear it in your voice, they have a hard time seeing and hearing anything else when they look at you. And unlike SNC-Lavalin — a scandal that is complicated — “Smug PM” is very simple.

This could be Justin Trudeau’s Mitt Romney moment.

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In 2012 in advance of the US presidential election, American magazine Mother Jones released surreptitiously recorded footage of Romney talking about Democratic voters in disparaging terms.

Romney says in the recording: “There are 47 per cent who are with him [Obama], who are dependent upon government…My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

Romney never recovered from this incident, not only because it obliterated his nice guy disguise, but because his opponents ensured that everywhere you looked, there it was: that recording, online, on TV, and in your head.

From now until October, prepare to watch Justin Trudeau being smug again and again and again. Christmas has come early for Andrew Scheer. Meanwhile, the people of Grassy Narrows wait.

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