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By the next day, Trudeau had conceded that perhaps he should have answered in both languages, which was halfway to the right answer: he should answer questions from real people in whichever of the two official languages the real people ask them — as Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard said Thursday he would be happy to do. It is generally accepted that the prime minister of Canada must be seen and heard speaking both languages in his official capacities. But the ostensible purpose of this tour is to connect informally with real Canadians. And the vast majority of Canadians are not bilingual. Most people in that Sherbrooke audience would have understood a bilingual answer; very few, if any, would have demanded one.

What was Trudeau thinking? Search me. I have no idea what he or his advisers were thinking when they sent him off to the Aga Khan’s island without asking the Conflict of Interest Commissioner about it first, and then refused to come clean until they were dead to rights on every last detail. I have no idea why Trudeau, when asked if he had been to the island before, gave literally the worst conceivable answer: I’m not telling you.

Maybe we’re just seeing what happens when a politician who has never suffered for letting his freak fly tries to govern in like manner. (That doesn’t explain why he’s not getting better advice.) But to me it confirms a vibe I’ve always gotten from Trudeau and the people in his orbit: they almost religiously believe the various off-the-shelf Liberal Canadian pieties they evince, even if they don’t espouse them out loud.