Justin Time

You had to see that title coming, didn’t you?

60 Minutes did a piece on our hottie Prime Minster, coinciding with his visit to the US this week. It’s been twenty years since a Canadian PM has been invited to a state dinner at the White House, and to be honest, it’s really too bad that Barack Obama is on his way out as President, because I believe that he and Justin would have been a force for good on the world stage. I can’t predict how it will go with Hillary—and gods forbid we end up with Prez Trump in the role of obnoxious next door neighbour.

Anyway, the 60 Minutes piece gave a little insight to confirm my gut feeling about our nation’s leader. He’s young, he’s green, and he’s connected to what’s important in life. How the combination will serve him in the ugly world of global politics remains to be seen, but I was deeply impressed with everything he said.

I especially liked his refusal to buy into the fear and paranoia the journalist tried to spark with questions about crossing borders and welcoming thousands of Middle Eastern refugees into the country. Rather than suspect wolves among the sheep, he replied that respect, trust and kindness are the greater means of achieving the peace we all allegedly crave. Raising walls and locking our doors will only breed more dissention. But best of all was his reply when she asked about his boxing hobby.

“Boxing,” he said, “is not about how hard you can hit your opponent. It’s about how many hits you can take and keep going.”

Now that someone has explained it to me, it makes a little more sense. It’s also a statement about his outlook on life. How cool is this guy?

Whether or not a genuinely good person can succeed as a world leader, I’m still unsure. Doubt makes me nervous that he’ll be taken out if he starts to exert too much positive influence, but I also believe in the philosophical fact that a single positive thought can neutralize a hundred negative ones; and if this is so, then this sincere and compassionate young man is in a position to restore Canada’s reputation as a progressive and proactive nation.

We’re good people. We deserve to have a good man representing us to the rest of the world. I’m hardly a proud sponsor of politicians in general, but I truly do believe we picked a winner last October.