Canadian Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in a Montreal Metro station Wednesday and took part in a random act of kindness when a person with a disability was having difficulties because of a broken down escalator.
Like everything he has done so far, very classy. Note, this is not a semi-official “photo op”. The snap was taken by a passer by and posted on Twitter.
Americans are apparently so impressed with Trudeau’s leadership of his country that many are begging him to come South and run for President. Apart from that being a legal impossibility, we strongly suspect he’d have more sense.
And Liberals in the UK, still smarting from electoral near-destruction, view him as something akin to a Messiah. Especially as he took his party from third to winning a majority in one leap. A move is afoot to get him to address their autumn conference in Brighton later in the year.
Good looking, charismatic, humble, compassionate, well-educated. Little wonder women in particular find his allure almost irresistible. This is the man, remember, who almost single-handedly re-set the public debate about countries taking in Syrian refugees fleeing the conflict, and just last week spontaneously explained quantum computing to a smart-arse journalist.
His father was a remarkable man. It looks like the son is even more so.
Well, This Is What I Think 
So why won’t anyone ask why the escalator was broken? Something to do with a living wage, universal healthcare or paternity leave, no doubt.
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Sure you can ask. Go ask. Much more likely to be previous cuts in maintenance budgets to pay for tax cuts for the rich, I suspect.
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Good point.
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*bows graciously*
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He seems a very good man – I do hope that the inevitable horse-trading and incessant compromises that go on in politics don’t erode his principles too much.
Yolly, did you ever watch Billy Connolly’s World Tour of Australia, from some years ago? In it he went to Canberra, and amongst his comments on politicians were words to the effect that anyone who wanted to become a politician should be immediately disbarred from being one. Looking at the sad majority of politicians (who do not appear as though they would recognise a principle or ethic if they met one) one cannot but feel that he had something.
I’m very very glad that there are a couple of politicians in every country that do appear to know about a) principles and ethics, b) suffering c) what ordinary people endure. Justin Trudeau does appear to be one of the latter – long may he remain so.
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I did watch it and enjoyed it enormously. I must admit I have had a hankering for his trike motorbike ever since!
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Actually I’m pretty sure Marx said it a few years before Billy Connolly did. Karl that is, not Richard.
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Big fucking deal. Do you guys actually know how much actual disabled people HATE this kind of inspiration porn. A politician in a staged stunt gives 2 minutes of his time to help a disabled person. Result: the Politician is portrayed as a hero and the disabled person is relegated to being nothing more than being a nameless prop used to bolster the profile of the celebrity. Trudeau may be a bit more “caring” than other politicians but he has done nothing exceptional here. Trudeau was born into privelege and would most likely have never been in the position of being elected if his own father was also not a Prime Minister. The disabled person on the other hand was not so fortunate
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What a brutally insensitive and shallow comment. One: as the article says, it wasn’t a staged stunt. Two: the story is not about Trudeau being exceptional but just being a decent guy – most politicians would run a mile rather than simply act kindly to a needful stranger.
Calling this “inspiration porn” is mealy-mouthed nonsense. Take your hate elsewhere. I have published your comment to demonstrate how someone, somewhere can be relied upon to make an ugly remark at every piece of niceness in this world. Don’t bother pouring any more bile into this thread, it won’t be published.
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Not everyone can be good looking. Not everyone can be charismatic. Anyone who wants to badly enough can become humble, compassionate, and well educated. Also, anyone who wants to badly enough can develop to ability to distinguish what will work from what will not work in governing a country in such a way as to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number. Of course the stumbling block here is “who wants to badly enough.” At this time America has way more than her share of clownish, crazy-talking demagogues who don’t want to at all. But every country does have them. And what they are able to do is tap into the parts of their supporters brains where the deepest fears reside. And that seems to win elections for them. So they are not motivated to change. Losing more elections might give them a little motivation. But no one can administer that except large groups of voters.
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Reblogged this on The Life Of Von and commented:
Now there’ a classy Head of State – whish we could all have one!
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