Michael Higgins: The day Justin Trudeau’s fashion died

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For a person who could be very explicit about what goes on his toes, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ought to be tried for prime crimes towards style. I imply, the boots. Pricey God, the boots!

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Has the prime minister misplaced all sense of favor? What would GQ journal say?

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It was, in any case, GQ’s Liza Corsillo who gushed concerning the “spectacular pair of striped socks” that he wore throughout an interview with Macleans in 2015.

Two years later, Corsillo was fawning once more, writing that, “Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is trendy in the way in which that few politicians on the worldwide stage are.” Why? As a result of “he’s received a secret weapon different world leaders don’t: an arsenal of enjoyable socks.”

Nonetheless, his socks couldn’t be seen Monday when he took half in a ground-breaking ceremony for a brand new mRNA vaccine manufacturing unit being constructed close to Montreal. The rationale they couldn’t be seen was as a result of he and others have been carrying very pristine, and really massive, work boots.

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Ought to Ottawa say it was for security causes, we will solely say: puh-leeze.

Politicians solely use these sorts of props in photo-ops to seem as if they’re only a “common man.”

Former British prime minister Boris Johnson did it on a regular basis — biking and ziplining his means round London. However he received away with it as a result of folks laughed it off as his common buffoonery.

But folks aren’t laughing at Trudeau, they’re ridiculing him. “Who tied his boot laces,” was one Twitter remark, whereas others have been posting pictures of their actual work boots.

Maybe Trudeau was making an attempt to distract folks. You understand, making an attempt to say, “Look, I’m an everyday man similar to you, positively not somebody who stays in a $6,000 an evening resort room in London.”

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And why can we nonetheless not know who stayed in that room? Have we requested the Chinese language? They appear to know every little thing that’s happening in Canadian political circles.

However again to the boots. Final yr, the Nationwide Submit revealed that the federal authorities spent $16.4 billion on consultants for “skilled and particular providers” (up from $10.4 billion when the Liberal authorities took workplace.) Did we not get no less than one style guide for all that cash?

If we’re going to spend ever higher numbers on consultants, then we actually have to begin eager about hiring somebody who can hold Trudeau within the trendy footwear to which he’s accustomed.

It may very well be argued — perhaps even justifiably — that there are extra necessary issues to fret about than Trudeau’s boots. Sure, now we have received runaway inflation consuming into everybody’s pockets, however Trudeau isn’t doing something about that. Sure, now we have the absurd state of affairs the place we paid $54 million for a ineffective ArriveCan app. However Trudeau isn’t answering questions on that, both.

So, again to the boots. Nancy Sinatra sang a track titled, “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.” The refrain went: “These boots are made for walkin’/And that’s simply what they’ll do/Certainly one of nowadays these boots are gonna stroll throughout you.”

You’ve gotten been warned.

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