Article content continued

Yet, on all of these files Trudeau is taking a backseat to his ministers, with Chrystia Freeland fronting efforts to get NAFTA over the line, Bill Morneau playing pipeline poker and Ahmed Hussen trying to stem the flow of Nigerians crossing the 49th parallel. Given that failure on any of these fronts would be injurious to Liberal re-election prospects, it’s a high-risk approach.

The charitable interpretation is that Trudeau trusts his team to get the job done. The PMO will also claim that each office is working in tandem with the Centre. But the longer Trudeau stays in the shadows as issues come to a boil, the more people might draw another conclusion: that the prime minister just doesn’t have anything of substance to offer.

There’s also the question of brand. Even if stopping the flow over the Canada-U.S. border could be done without a willing partner in the U.S. (a ha-yuuge ‘if’), doing so would run counter to Trud eau’s public promise to welcome all. Trudeau can’t be hard-ass on immigration for the same reason Stephen Harper couldn’t be a candy-ass on the same question: the base would revolt.

But last year saw upwards of 20,000 dodgy crossings, with experts predicting more this summer as the Trump administration continues to crack down on various communities who have overstayed their welcome. What Trudeau will eventually find out is what Harper knew to his core: that Canada’s vaunted support for immigration is heavily predicated on its being done properly and fairly, which all can agree isn’t an accurate description of what’s currently happening.

Trudeau is in a similar bind on pipelines, with his enviro-social licence-Indigenous-consultation image crashing hard into the economic necessity of our oil reaching tidewater.

This leaves NAFTA as the one bona-fide opportunity for Trudeau to demonstrate some mettle. So, enough of the cheerleading prime minister, it’s time to come out from behind your ministry and own a file.

—

Andrew MacDougall is a London-based communications consultant and ex-director of communications to former prime minister Stephen Harper.