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Is this how an adult, a possible PM, talks? With its mixture of puerile condescension, its smug assurance that any vulgar reference to the Conservatives will “go over” with everyone, it’s an obiter dictum for the ages. And it is telling, in so many ways.

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In an interview with the Ottawa Citizen, Mr. Trudeau acknowledged that his own jokes have sometimes given political fodder to critics.

He said he’s convinced Canadians will want to hear the thorough arguments he presents on a variety of issues. But he also said he needs to find the “right balance” when expressing his message. When asked how he’ll do that in next year’s election, he responded: “Discipline.”

The self-restraint will come after “hard-learned experience of the fact that when I am trying to say something clever that tickles my own wry sense of humour, all too often it gives material for my opponents to drag us off track in the direction that is unhelpful,” Mr. Trudeau said.

The Liberal leader has been criticized for speaking too lightly about serious issues. Recently, he found himself in hot water when, after delivering a lengthy speech spelling out the risks of Canada going to war in Iraq, he cracked a joke during a question and answer session. Mr. Trudeau said Canada should be talking more about humanitarian aid, “rather than, you know, trying to whip out our CF-18s and show them how big they are.”

Conservatives pounced on the joke as evidence that he’s not ready to be prime minister. They recalled how, earlier in the year, Mr. Trudeau had joked on a Quebec TV show that Russia might intervene in Ukraine because it was angry over its own poor performance at the Winter Olympics.