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I have a question for the Liberal Party: You support C-51, investor rights agreements, the expansion of the oil industry and ignoring the crimes of our allies. Does the word “liberal” really describe you anymore? You seem more like the Conservatish Party of Canada. Or if you’re okay with having a meaningless name, you may as well be “The Best Party of Canada” or “The Natural Rulers of Canada” or just “The Beatles.”

Nothing has clarified the Liberals’ low-cal, principle-lite approach as well as the current debate around the “anti-terror” bill. And an aside to journalists: please use scare quotes whenever you write the words “anti-terror” bill. Bonus points for adding a wanking hand emoji.

Recently a group of students pressed Justin Trudeau on his support for C-51 and he responded with a cynical lecture on political strategy, saying that opposing the bill would allow the conservatives to criticize him on security.

So he’s unwilling to demonstrate his principles, because then he’d have to defend them. But THAT’S HIS JOB as a political representative. Would you appoint a judge who didn’t want to judge anyone because he’d be criticized for being too judgmental?

It’s interesting that students grilled Trudeau on this issue. Maybe the earlier you are in your political education, the more concerned you are with morality and principles rather than winning. But as soon as we get cynical and think of politics as a game, our standards get lower. And our leaders will meet those lower standards, no matter how deep a gutter full of lies and idiotic statements we lower them into.

Ultimately politicians represent us, so really we lead them. And if we vote by our principles, they’ll be forced to take those principles seriously. Or at least pretend to…

Scott Vrooman

Scott has written and performed comedy for TV (Conan, Picnicface, This Hour Has 22 Minutes), radio (This is That), and the web (Vice, Funny or Die, College Humor, The Toronto Star, The Huffington Post,...