Trudeau's Visit To Canadian Tire Makes Me Sad
Ardent Canadian political junkies have probably seen now former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's selfie at Canadian Tire in what is the first public documentation of his post-political life and while it's racking up the likes and comments, it's evoking deeper thoughts from me.
First, I'm going to be honest that it makes me sad. That's right, after carefully dissecting the contents of the photo, I realized that this is the cart of a Canadian bachelor stocking his first post-married life dwelling with the most basic of kitchen utensils at Canadian Tire in a Canadian tuxedo. Yes, it's a whole lot of everything Canadian which meets the moment in the midst of a trade war with our former BFF aka America and is smart on Trudeau's part because it would have really bad optics if he had rolled up to American owned Walmart.
Up until Friday morning, Justin Trudeau was the most powerful person in Canada. He had a staff at work. A staff at his taxpayer funded home. A driver. A security detail. A lot of staff. And now? Unless he's forking out his own money for someone to help him, he has zero staff, zero taxpayer funded home, zero security detail. It's just Justin Trudeau with no one to put through the now zero calls coming through from world leaders, do his laundry, wash his dishes, manage his iCalendar invites or restock the toilet paper. While some will react with glee at the idea of Trudeau now having to do everything himself, all of this makes me feel all the feelings for him because in the same way that no one tells you that you're going to miss your new lifelong best buddies and the noise of summer camp, Trudeau is now silently wandering the ladle aisle of Canadian Tire and taking his own selfies with zero filters.
The quietness of coming off a life filled with noise, urgency, high-stakes everything, living your life constantly surrounded by people who are there to take care of your every need, documents just magically appear in your hands, the suite life, where everyone takes your call like right away, to comparing which colander will fit enough pasta for himself and maybe one or more of his kids if they are staying with him. Can you imagine the cashier looking up and realizing that they were ringing through JUSTIN TRUDEAU'S whisk? Or even worse, Justin Trudeau walking up to the cashier anticipating recognition from the cashier and them not recognizing him? Brutal. One day you're having to be protected from a group of angry protestors holding sweary signs calling for your political downfall and the next not even the cashier at Canadian Tire recognizes you.
And while Justin Trudeau is certainly not the first to leave or ahem, be kind of forced out of politics and find themselves facing a quiet post-political life, it warrants a discussion or at least the consideration of how to support politicians in their newfound freedom. And while some will of course say that they can just find their own way after making a very, very health salary of $406,200.00 compared to the average Canadian, the lack of mental health supports for people transitioning to private life is pretty non-existent. Sure, Trudeau has friends and his kids to lean on but having worked in politics myself and yet having not been the prime minister, the feeling of being so very not important and so ordinary outside of politics, warrants at least a few sessions with a therapist to talk about the huge change in life situation. Trudeau came into political life as a 43 year old married father of three young children to being 53 and single with three almost adult kids. And he's no longer the prime minister of Canada. That's a lot of life changes for anyone no matter who they are.
So while we all heart Trudeau's Canadian Tire selfie, I hope I'm not alone in hoping that his transition to private life and probably only having one phone and no one to answer it is gentle and that he is able to navigate this time gently and kindly to himself. He is after all just a guy in Canadian Tire in a Canadian tuxedo.