Ottawa

Justin Trudeau’s comedy career is off to a rough start

Have you heard the one about Russia’s hockey defeat?

So during his appearance on Tout le Monde en Parle, Justin Trudeau commented on the situation in Ukraine. And in the midst of those comments, he attempted a joke about hockey.

A longer clip is here. The full interview, including further comments from Mr. Trudeau, is here.

Certain members of the Conservative and Liberal sides have been seized with the matter on Twitter and the government sent out Chris Alexander before Question Period to comment in the House foyer (“It shows a deep lack of judgment.”) and the CBC is now reporting that the Ukrainian ambassador would like Mr. Trudeau to apologize.

After QP, Liberal Marc Garneau maintained that “If you look at everything that was said … it is very clear that Mr. Trudeau takes the situation extremely seriously with respect to Ukraine.”

This would seem to have something in common with Mr. Trudeau’s China comment—a weird and rather unnecessary remark—but with the added complication of being about a current situation that involves violence and death (though Mr. Alexander’s claim that this demonstrates a pattern of praising communist dictatorships was a bit odd and unnecessary as well). Possibly this is part of being a different kind of politician, but probably this was not the best idea for a quip regardless.

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