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So now we once again have Justin Trudeau, moral crusader. Speaking in Hamilton, Ont., where he was supposed to be unveiling a sort-of pharmacare program — minus any details, timelines or cost estimates — he spent most of his time going after Ford, who just happens to be the person in charge of Ontario’s health-care system, that being a provincial responsibility. His message appeared to be that unloading a backhoe of insults on Ford would somehow make it easier to negotiate with the guy should the Liberal pharmacare plan ever come to be.

You think it’s easy campaigning when you have to constantly worry what horrid reminder of your past may pop up on the Internet?

“Who do you want standing up for you?” Trudeau demanded during a prolonged assault in which he accused Ford, and Conservatives in general, of every kind of crime this side of selling Ottawa to the Russians. “Who do you want negotiating with Doug Ford when it comes to your health care?”

You can forgive Trudeau if he’s feeling a little edgy these days. You think it’s easy campaigning when you have to constantly worry what horrid reminder of your past may pop up on the internet?

Still, selling a program that depends on provincial co-operation by spewing venom at the premier of the province seems odd, to say the least. Six of the 10 provinces are headed by conservative premiers, remember. As a negotiating strategy, it seems dubious to expect that questioning their worth as Canadians is the best way to soften their hearts.

It’s not like Trudeau is dealing from a position of strength. The latest Nanos poll indicates 70 per cent of Canadians would prefer someone else as prime minister. After four years in the job, Trudeau is still tied with the demon-associate Andrew Scheer in his re-election bid. He doesn’t want to talk about yearbook photos, he doesn’t want to talk about SNC-Lavalin, and organizers of a debate on foreign affairs say they had to cancel the show because the prime minister doesn’t have time to talk about that, either, there obviously being nothing important going on in the world in which Canadians might have an interest. Iran? China? Double shrug.