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There is something peculiar about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that makes it very hard to give him credit where credit is due.

Maybe it’s his incessant optimism and self-flattery that makes it feel gross to compliment him. Or maybe it’s the increasingly partisan nature of the country, which makes recognizing political success akin to buying a membership card in said party. But over the past few weeks, Trudeau has actually done a few things that are worthy of recognition.

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On the Indigenous blockades that cropped up across the country, in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs protesting a proposed gas pipeline through northern British Columbia, Trudeau faced enormous pressure to let slip the dogs of war and use the RCMP to break up the blockades. Conservative leadership contender Peter MacKay called the protesters “thugs,” while Alberta Premier Jason Kenney passed laws specifically targeting the protesters.

Over the past few weeks, Trudeau has actually done a few things that are worthy of recognition

Trudeau, on the other hand, urged patience, and looked positively meek doing so. He dispatched Crown-Indigenous Relations Carolyn Bennett to set up a meeting with the hereditary chiefs, over howls of opposition. And as much of a gamble as that process was, it made good on his promise to actually deal with Indigenous peoples on a nation-to-nation basis. And it worked.