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No wonder. It was a smarmy performance by any standard, but it’s especially bad for this prime minister. Grassy Narrows is a First Nations in Ontario. Its water supply was contaminated by industrial waste, specifically mercury, decades ago. To this day, the people of Grassy Narrows suffer measurably poorer health outcomes than other Ontarians; the fish that form a key component of their diet have as much as 15 times the recommended levels of mercury. The federal and Ontario governments promised aid (the jurisdiction of the issue is split between the federal and provincial governments). The water’s still polluted.

Photo by Tijana Martin/CP

This is, one would think, not an issue that the prime minister would want to be glib about. It’s one he’d be keen to run with, actually. And yet.

It’s amazing, in fact, how perfectly targeted this was. It’s a direct hit on the core of Brand Trudeau. Let’s pretend that Conservative dirty tricksters were trying to dream up something that would be opposite the prime minister’s brand. They’d think back to 2015, and recall the issues he made central to his (successful) pitch to Canadians. He wanted to prioritize reconciliation. He wanted to elevate women and be seen as Canada’s best feminist. He wanted to speak to the middle class, those working hard to join it. He wanted to connect with young voters.

Could you design a more perfect screwup for Justin Trudeau circa 2015 than the one he somehow flawlessly executed in 2019?

Could you design a more perfect screwup for Justin Trudeau?

The prime minister has had trouble enough of late, of course, with the ongoing SNC-Lavalin affair. He’s already been criticized for somehow finding himself in a prolonged fight with two powerful women, one of them Indigenous, while still insisting he’s a feminist and committed to reconciliation. Whatever your thoughts on the matter, it’s obviously an awkward place for him. He must be keen to escape that particular bind.

And on Wednesday, the prime minister openly mocked a woman who was demanding help for Indigenous Canadians.

Was he tired? Cranky? In the grips of some Conservative mind-control beam? Or is this maybe how he really feels about young female Indigenous protesters who dare interrupt a stump speech to Toronto’s big-L Liberal elites?