Stick to issues in federal election run

By Mike Williscraft
NewsNow

Justin Trudeau is no more a racist than I am a cow murderer.
What the heck am I on about? Let me explain.
I love a great prime rib or barbecued steak. That doesn’t mean I killed a herd of cattle to get it.
Yes, one could say the PM showed a decided lack of judgment going with a head-to-toe black (or brown) face look at a Halloween party years ago of which many have undoubtedly seen the images repeatedly over the last week after they were “unearthed” – and just in the middle of an election run…what are the chances?
Yes, I’m an old white guy, but I don’t get the hubbub one iota, never have.
It is not because I am of the privileged set, it is plainly because I just don’t think that way. It is not in my wiring.
The only thing I think of when I see black face is Al Jolson’s ridiculous singing voice.
In today’s political climate when the slightest turn of phrase can led be blown into career suicide, the hiding-behind-a-keyboard set take flight and this stuff churns and churns and churns.
The issue for the PM is one of making a poor choice. If you, as a Canadian and voter decide that makes you question supporting everything he says and does, that is your prerogative. But let’s get off this racism bent because that has nothing to do with it.
And here’s another comparator of which I have written in the past.
Sports teams at my high school in Clinton had the moniker Redmen. This was a name of which we were fiercely proud. Our logo was not unlike the Chicago Black Hawks.
We looked at that name as meaning honour, fair competition, no-quit, play hard…and we did all those things.
When I started in Grade 9 in the Fall of 1978 I was nervous. Not because I was changing schools, but because of a long-standing tradition Central Huron Secondary School had – Slave Day.
Yes, that’s right, I said it…Slave Day.
That was the day when the whole school piled into the gym and the grubby Grade 9ers were marched across the stage with the student body president presiding over the auctioning of all the fresh new faces.
The students had to carry the books to class, run errands, carry lunch and other menial tasks for their purchaser for one day.
My dread was not due to the event as a whole, but because my older brother was a senior – kids in Grade 11 or higher were eligible to make an acquisition on slave day. He had me primed for a LONG day, let me tell you. However, he knew all the while there was a rule that siblings could not buy their younger counterparts, so I dodged that bullet and ended up having a fun day.
It was all in good fun and all money raised went to the year-end student dance…and that was in an era when bands like Triumph, April Wine and Loverboy were honing their skills playing the high school circuits.
Can you imagine, just for a second, if Blessed Trinity rolled out a flyer to parents to let them know they were doing a fundraiser called, “Slave Day”?
Honestly, I can’t. In this day and age people would be fired without quarrel. It simply wouldn’t happen.
My point is not that is should happen, but we’re not talking that long ago when Slave Day was a good-natured fundraiser.
Times change, and that is not a bad thing, but one thing I hate about media is how they fan flames when there really is nothing there.
There was a poor choice by Trudeau in a era when it was not a poor choice, so what is it really.
If I dress up like Hitler this Halloween (no, I would not do that) does that make me a Nazi? Of course it doesn’t.
Let’s stick to the issues, economic plans, managing the deficit, moving the country forward in this federal election run.
There are too many important things to shine light on and for Canadians to be informed about before there is any time wasted on a silly choice from long ago. I get that political tactic from the opposition, but I won’t fall for that smokescreen.
I am not say who to vote for one way or the other. Decide on the issues people. Andrew Scheer is his own bag of toys, but as with any election, get informed and vote how you think best.