I have a friend who I admire very much as a teacher and a dramatist. He decided he wanted to try politics. He worked hard and was very successful. So successful that he became the leader of his political party!

He was also very photogenic and charismatic and so were his wife and family. They liked to dress up. Everyone wanted to have their picture taken with him and he loved having his picture taken with everyone. People began to wonder if he liked having his picture taken and playing dress-up more than leading his country.

The trouble really began with the K’s. The 3 K’s to be specific. No, no – not the KKK – that group is the polar opposite of his world view! I am referring to Khan, Kinder, and Khalistan.

The first misstep was a family holiday with his friend the Aga Khan. Now, if he had been a private citizen, no problem. But when a country’s elected leader takes a private holiday courtesy of a major contributor to his political party, that has to be approved by the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner prior to departure. Oops.

The second misstep was the approval of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline using an approval process set up by the previous government. That process was unscientific, approved by an energy board made of partisan appointees, and lacking in full community involvement. Justin promised to change all that. He didn’t. That was complicated by his smack down of young woman challenging his position. He  shouted at her angrily and had her ejected from the public meeting. For all the country to see on the CBC. Really.

The third misstep was a costume trip to India in which Khalistan terrorism overshadowed the photo ops. Especially when one of his Sikh MP’s on the trip invited a convicted terrorist criminal to the party, involving two events. The  Khalistan separation issues got linked to several other Sikh members of his Party, resurrecting 329 ghosts from the 1985 Air India bombing. To complicate matters, Justin and his team tried to spin the story by having a senior civil servant place the blame on an Indian government conspiracy instead of squarely on the back of his own MP. Bad enough to try to squirm out of taking full responsibility for an international screw-up without also insulting the Indian government in the process.

Time to get the good ship Justin back on course.

Just like there is no “I” in “team” here is no “K” in “sunny days.”

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Skid Crease