HANNAFORD: Trudeau's Ottawa, too small to be its own province, too big to be a lunatic asylum

When it comes to “gender-transformative mine action” in Ukraine, comment is superfluous, isn't it? What the deuce has sexuality got to do with the skills necessary to find land mines without blowing yourself up?Not that it stopped Fox News' Greg Gutfeld from commenting last night at length, breadth and depth about the Trudeau Liberals latest stunt to make the whole country look bad.Gutfeld: “How do you know when you’ve reached peak idiocy? When we now need diversity guidelines for clearing land mines. It seems Canada has donated $4,000,000 in an effort to clear landmines in Ukraine, but in a 'gender inclusive' matter because if there's one thing we can agree on concerning the war in Ukraine, there simply isn't enough gender inclusive mine action.”.It's not the first time Fox has taken a run at the Government of Canada's preoccupation with below-the-waist politics and this prime minister's hypocrisy in particular. And while one's patriotic sentiments reflexively jump to defend our country's honour against cheap shots from American comedians, the Trudeau Liberals are for them, alas, the gift that keeps on giving.On the ground, nothing changes, of course. You can be completely assured that Ukraine will pocket the money — $4 million, out of a $3.02 billion package — say 'thank you very much,' and then pay no heed whatsoever to this particular fine print when they select people to go looking for land mines. (Unless, that is, they secretly foster prejudicial attitudes towards trans people...)But meanwhile, when the Office of the Prime Minister talks about "Gender-inclusive demining for sustainable futures in Ukraine,” and "...establishing a gender and diversity working group to promote gender-transformative mine action in Ukraine," it makes the whole country look to the rest of the world like a chocolate bar, doesn't it? Full of fruits, flakes and nuts.So why does this prime minister keep doing this to us? Bringing us into disrepute and making us an object of derision around the world?Three possibilities.One is that he actually believes his own rhetoric, that 'gender-transformative mine action' represents progress for trans people. Mr. Trudeau says that if a man says he is a woman, then he is.If he really does believe that, maybe that's it, right there. Here at the Western Standard, we would be interested to hear from any trans person who thinks this looking for land mines is the next logical step for gender inclusivity.Or it could be that Mr. Trudeau doesn't really believe it, but he thinks enough people like the sound of it that it will swing votes in key ridings.These however, would not be the ridings where immigration from non-traditional sources is intended to fortify the Liberal vote. If that's the plan, there's a reckoning coming: Muslim immigrants don't buy this and have less patience with it than those old-stock Canadians for whose ideas the prime minister loves to show disdain.Then there's this clue, right on our screen grab from Gutfeld's show: It's the UN driving this bus. Yes, there really is such a thing as 'United Nations Gender Guidelines for Mine Action Programmes.'Now in its third edition, the original gender guidelines for mine action dates back to 2010.However, I can honestly say that in the six years between 2009 and 2015 when I had the honour to serve in the Prime Minister's Office while Stephen Harper was PM, we never heard anything about it.It took the election of a man with Mr. Trudeau's elevated post-national sensitivities, opinions and values to appreciate what we Harper-ites had missed and conform the actions and intentions of the Government of Canada to UN priorities... on this and many other things besides.There it is, I think.Gutfeld is going to miss Trudeau when he's gone.Us, not so much.

HANNAFORD: Trudeau's Ottawa, too small to be its own province, too big to be a lunatic asylum

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