Justin and Sophie’s excellent adventure – Mr. Dressup goes to India

February 2018

Some Trudeau apologists are trying to downplay some of the criticism he is facing after his disastrous trip to India; such as Prime Minister Dressup’s week-long costume party. These apologists are trying to draw a comparison to the times former Prime Minister Stephen Harper similarly dressed up in traditional clothing when attending cultural events.

Yeah, the thing is Harper didn’t take dressing up to obnoxious and offensive levels like Prime Minister Dressup did. Both former B.C. Premier Ujjal Dosanjh and Indian politician Omar Abdullah made comments to the effect that not even Indians dress like this ALL the time, even in Bollywood.

The fact that progressives are strangely silent on the issue of “cultural appropriation” is stunning, given they rarely avoid shouting that from the rooftops when it’s a Conservative.

An equivalent would be if Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to Canada and just wore a Mountie uniform or lumberjack attire during the whole trip, saying “How’s it going, eh?” every time he met someone.

There’s a BIG difference between dressing in local attire, or observing local customs, at the request of your host and/or as a sign of respect (such as at a place of worship) and making an ass of yourself. Guess which one Prime Minister Dressup picked?

When attending cultural events or another event such as visiting the troops on deployment, the guest is usually given articles of clothing to wear by their hosts for the event.  It appears that Prime Minister Dressup came with his own tickle-trunk of traditional Indian clothing not just for himself, but for his whole family, who also played along with his “excellent adventure” costume drama.

For those who think that Conservatives are the only ones piling on Prime Minister Dressup, the Toronto Star published several articles that were very critical of Justin’s wardrobe choices and the trip in general. The Star has frequently been accused as basically being the propaganda arm of the provincial and federal Liberal parties, so if The Star is criticizing him, maybe JT’s dress-up party wasn’t the greatest idea.

However, the dress-up party wasn’t the only problem that plagued this trip.  Jaspal Atwal, a man who was convicted of attempting to kill an Indian cabinet minister on Vancouver Island in 1986 and was also charged, but not convicted, in connection with a 1985 attack on Ujjal Dosanjh, a former Liberal health minister and former premier of British Columbia, was invited to attend a function at Canada House by the High Commissioner, an invitation that was revoked but not before he was photographed at another function with Sophie Trudeau.

He had previously been photographed with Trudeau on at least one occasion.

There was also the issue of Trudeau’s appeasement and apparent support of the Sikh separatist movement in India and in Canada, something that didn’t go over well with his Indian hosts.

All in all, the trip was such a complete disaster that even some Liberals are admitting it, even if it’s reluctantly.