It used to be that Canadian politics was weirder than American politics.
With a staggeringly ignorant, rant-prone, Twitter-using president in the White House, this is obviously no longer true.
Even crack smoking Rob Ford, he of the drunken blackouts and racist outbursts, has been out-weirded by Trump.
I think it is having an effect on our politics.
Personally, I find that Trump occupies a significant portion of the time my brain allots to 鈥渃aring about politics.鈥� When he鈥檚 threatening nuclear-armed dictatorships or messing with NAFTA, that鈥檚 warranted. We should all be worried.
But we鈥檙e also drawn in by the nonsense. At least I am. Maybe you鈥檙e the kind of person who can reliably pass up headlines about porn stars launching lawsuits, about Michael Cohen鈥檚 mounting legal troubles, about petty corruption and bizarre utterances by Trump鈥檚 supporters.
Shouldn鈥檛 I spend more time worrying about Canadian politics?
Consider all the weird/controversial/important stuff taking place in Canada right now:
鈥� The federal Liberals are nationalizing a major oil pipeline so they can triple its size 鈥� through 91原创, by the way.
鈥� The NDP is running both B.C. and Alberta 鈥� and their premiers are one more argument away from simply dueling with pistols at dawn.
鈥� Ontario鈥檚 election is seeing a showdown between a resurgent NDP and a Progressive Conservative party led by the late Rob Ford鈥檚 brother Doug.
I think Trump could have a short term effect on Canadian politics. Call it the attention gap.
How much more can our politicians get away with if we鈥檙e even five or 10 per cent less attentive to what鈥檚 going on here, because we鈥檙e bent over our phones, shocked at the nonsense south of the border?
Personally, I鈥檓 trying to cut back on Trump. I鈥檓 on a nutty news diet. From now on, it鈥檚 Parliament, not congress, premiers, not oily presidential offspring.
Wait, he did what? Okay, got to check that out鈥�
