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It seems to me the best way to understand Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s many examples of virtue signalling is this.

Because he perceives privileged white males as the impediment to social progress on so many issues, as a privileged white male himself he needs — not simply strives but needs — to distinguish himself from other privileged white males that he considers part of the problem.

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To make clear to everyone, over and over again, in case you missed it the first, second and tenth time, that he’s different. That despite being the son of a former prime minister who grew up surrounded by wealth and the same political power he now wields, he’s not the problem.

He’s the solution to the problem.

Which means we have a prime minister who’s constantly at war with himself inside his own head — worried about the countless dangers of white male privilege, while knowing he’s an example of it and it’s a major reason he’s prime minister today.

Surely, he must ask himself, at least occasionally, if he would, in fact, be the prime minister today if his last name wasn’t “Trudeau”.

Two caveats here. First, I’m neither a psychiatrist nor a psychologist. I’m not suggesting my views of Trudeau are medical ones.

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On the other hand, since American and Canadian media pundits, as well as many others around the globe, have established a cottage industry looking inside U.S. President Donald Trump’s head to explain his underlying motivations, surely it’s not unreasonable to do the same with Canada’s prime minister.

Second, while I wish I’d come up with this theory, it’s actually one posed by a very smart, politically moderate friend of mine, who is wary of extremism on all parts of the political spectrum.

And when you think about it, this does help explain, for example, Trudeau’s constant references to himself as a feminist. And to burnishing his feminist credentials by publicly correcting — to widespread mockery — a female questioner who innocently referred to “mankind”, whereupon Trudeau substituted his preferred term of “people kind”.

To tweeting that, “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada”, in order to publicly distinguish himself from Trump’s immigration policies, those of another privileged white male.