Prime Minister Justin Trudeau endured a day of bad weather and bad public relations on July 1, Canada Day, amidst security concerns that caused most Canadians to stay home for celebrations. Canada 150 was the much-awaited and ballyhooed 150th anniversary of Canadians Confederation in 1867 when the Dominion of Canada was formed amid fears that the expansionist United States would gobble-up British North America first.
Trudeau, along with an estimated 25,000 other Canadians, spent their national holiday in the clouds and rain amid high security and long lineups necessitated by the revelation last week of an ISIS terrrorist threat that Canadian security services have been aware of since the Manchester bombing attack last May.
Event organizers had estimated that about 500,000 people would descend upon the nation’s capitol of Ottawa but the dismal weather and concerns about a terrorist attack apparently convinced a lot of people to stay home and watch the events on television.
That was just the beginning of Trudeau’s ordeal. In his Canada Day speech, Trudeau listed every province and territory in the vast nation — except oil-rich and politically conservative Alberta — known as a resource-plenty “have” province that heavily subsidizes the “have not” provinces with transfer payments to the federal government.
Trudeau, either realizing the oversight himself or being altered to it by an aide when he took his seat following his address, jumped back on the stage and shouted “I love you, Alberta” into the mic while blowing a kiss to the crowd.
Despite allowing a native protest on Parliament Hill to continue unhampered by police and even meeting with the native organizers who were camping out on the front lawn in a teepee, the native contingent booded Trudeau throughout his nationally televised speech.
Trudeau may have found solace in a message from President Donald Trump, who congratulated Canada on its 150th anniversary and sent greetings to his “new friend” Justin Trudeau. Trump tweeted: “Happy Canada Day to all of the great people of Canada and to your Prime Minister and my new found friend @JustinTrudeau. #Canada150”