If we are to convey the government’s many failures, we also need to acknowledge its successes

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.

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With little fanfare, the blockades came down after a meeting between the chiefs, the B.C. government and Ottawa. While the problems are far from resolved, there’s now a dialogue — one that would not have existed had the government sent in the riot police. Yet there was little recognition in the press that this approach worked.

Any sense of relief from the end of the blockades, however, was quickly washed away by fears of the novel coronavirus, which has swept the globe.

Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post

Calls quickly began for Ottawa to start banning flights — first from China and, as the virus spread, Iran and ostensibly any other country struggling to contain the outbreak. Even this week, MacKay’s competitor for the leadership, Erin O’Toole, published a screed to Facebook, proclaiming that “the Trudeau government has given up the fight against COVID-19.” O’Toole pointedly called for a total ban on flights from any country with a high rate of infection, and to institute mandatory quarantines of anyone returning from those countries.

His bombastic remarks cover up the fact that Canada has done exceptionally well in handling COVID-19 thus far. While there’s no telling how bad it could get, and our front-line health-care workers deserve the vast majority of the credit, Ottawa’s approach has so far proven surprisingly prudent.

Public health officials have long warned that travel bans do not work. They create panic and stoke xenophobia, while doing very little to actually stem the flow of infected travellers. Managing them hoovers up attention and resources, they carry huge economic and social costs, and they are incredibly easy to skirt.

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Photo by Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters

By the time the United States shut down flights from China and Europe, for example, the virus had already spread well beyond its borders. Washington’s belief that it could avert the pandemic through heavy-handed measures proved short-sighted, and it is now struggling to cope with outbreaks throughout the country.

Canada, by contrast, took a softer approach; one that was dictated by public health officials. Ottawa quickly prioritized sending out timely, accurate information and ensuring the infrastructure was in place to test those who may be infected. While cases continue to mount, community transmissions — that is, infections that occurred here at home — have remained very low, a tell-tale sign that containment is working.

Even Trudeau himself went into self-isolation, after his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, came down with flu-like symptoms. The same cannot be said for U.S. President Donald Trump, who has also come into contact with multiple people who have contracted the virus, but continues to go about his business.

While cases continue to mount, community transmissions have remained very low

There’s plenty to criticize about this government — on building housing, buying new fighter jets, being more transparent, reducing the deficit, the list goes on and on — but it has had some successes. Sometimes it’s easy, in the midst of crisis, to ballyhoo every decision as an irredeemable mess. But when those decisions work out for the best, it really is necessary that we go back and give credit where it’s due.

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Indeed, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer lost the past federal election in part because he tried to convince the public that the four preceding years had been a dark, difficult time dominated by social strife and economic ruin. That simply didn’t match with reality for many Canadians.

If we are to convey the government’s many failures, we also need to acknowledge its successes.