In the Canadian election, Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party has unveiled the centrepiece of its platform:
A re-elected Liberal government with expand the Learn To Camp program.
Under the Learn To Camp program, every Canadian will be provided with a tub of boot polish, a novelty turban, a jewel to stick in your belly button, and genie slippers with curly toes, and trained how to swish across a Vancouver ballroom while asking other guests to tally your banana.
Oh, wait, sorry, that was last week's Justin story. In America a ten-minute phone call to some fellow in Kiev is all the pretext you need for two years of multi-million-dollar investigation. But in Canada the news that the Prime Minister has spent half his adult life as the world's wokest mammy singer is just a blip in the day's news cycle, soon to be supplanted by a genuinely eye-catching scandal such as whether or not the Tory leader had a valid license from the Insurance Councils of Saskatchewan or the Canadian Association of Insurance Brokers back in 1997, or 1978, or whenever. You can understand why the Canadian media would rather stampede after the Andrew Scheer scandal: what journalist with a nose for a great red-meat story wouldn't prefer chasing down the officially approved accreditation from the Department of Paperwork's archives than, say, the fruiterer who supplies the Prime Minstrel with his trouser bananas. Was Justin accredited by the Minstrelsy Council of Quebec or the Canadian Association of Burnt Cork Fetishists? Would that make the story more interesting for the CBC et al?
The Toronto Star, like all good government-subsidized Canadian media, has been doing its best to neutralize the mammy songs. The most potentially damaging of the three (so far) blackface incidents is the middle one - a grainy video from the 1990s showing Boy Justin capering about like an ape. So the Star set its crack investigators on the story and tracked down a much better version of the video, and conclusively proved that Tories were misleading the public when they claimed that the Prime Ministrel in blackface, blackarms, blacklegs and blackwhatever-other-appendage was wearing a T-shirt with a banana on it. After all, the banana would imply Justin is a racist who likens black people to monkeys. Whereas prancing around in full-body blackface waving your arms and sticking your tongue out implies no such monkey-like slur.
So the Star's new HD minstrel video is of sufficient quality to show that the banana on the T-shirt is, in fact, the beak of a toucan. Unfortunately, the new video is also of sufficient quality to show that the banana is instead stuffed down Justin's trousers. That risks suggesting the Prime Minstrel is exploiting old white neuroses about the black man's sexual prowess. But don't worry - The Toronto Star is only a day or two away from a full-page exclusive asserting that the Negro, impressive though his endowments be, pales in comparison to the average Quebec high-school drama teacher: When Rastus makes the mistake of appearing on stage next to Justin, he's the one who needs the banana. Not for nothing is Quebec's provincial dialect called joual, derived from cheval, as in horse.
Why are Canada's media prostrating themselves before Justin's Mandingo shtick? Well, because they're minstrels, too, going through the charade of journalism. It started in the first few hours of the scandal with the lockstep agreement on the neologism "brownface", a curious coinage to describe a black-and-white photograph with not a pixel of brown in it. By the evening, commentators were lining up to assure us that the Prime Minstrel was not "racist", merely a man of poor judgment when young (ie, thirty - or older than the woman Paul Wells damns as "hate-clown Faith Goldy"). 2001, we were told, was another era. Oh, come on, don't look so skeptical: Back then, blacks had to ride at the back of the Queen streetcar and sit down the far end at Tim Hortons; on Quebec's poutine plantations an oppressed people would comfort themselves by moaning Negro spirituals such as "Fracking's in De Cold Cold Ground" and "De Bytown Races" ("De Bytown ladies sing this song, oh, doo-dah day, eh?"; and popular vaudeville artistes such as Bryan Adams would routinely black up to sing "Have You Ever Really Loved a Mammy?"
I doubt even the Soviets or Pol Pot in Year Zero or the Taliban after detonating those Buddhist statues would have felt entirely comfortable about such a brazen reconstruction of the day before yesterday. Yet the Prime Minstrel, after his first day-o culpa nosedived into the orchestra pit, returned the following afternoon to adopt the Clintonian defense: Everybody does it. That's why his serial minstrelsy makes an excellent teachable moment, if not for him than for the rest of you racist losers: Who among us can honestly say he never blacked up in the 1980s ...and in the 1990s ...and in the 2000s? Yes, you, Gordie McKinnon of 27B Strathcona Gardens, I'm looking at you. We are all guilty.
As Justin would sing, come, Mister Tallyman, tally how bananas they are: By the second day's "At Issue" panel, the only thing at issue was apparently what the Liberals needed to do to move on from this scandal. Er, hang on, couldn't we first enjoy the scandal per se for a day or two before moving on? I mean, forget about the larger meaning: It's just deeply creepy on its (literal) face. Blackface is called blackface because you black your face: Generally speaking, all other skin is obscured by big floppy ties, white gloves, etc. Not until Justin came along did any minstrel opt to black his trouser-sheathed calves and thighs. That's to say, Justin is blacker than Jolson. That's not a twenty-minutes-before-the-party "Gee, you know what would made this costume even more fun?" whimsy and a scramble for the half-empty jar of Kiwi at the back of the cupboard; that's a trip to Canadian Tire for the biggest bulk purchase of shoe polish they've seen in years. Not a moment of madness, but an elaborate and well planned act.
What does that say about our anointed Blackface Dauphin? The identity-politics left obsesses about race and gender and orientation and non-binary genitalia all day long to a degree that cannot be entirely psychologically healthy. It is not surprising to learn that its most hardcore practitioners require after-hours outlets: The Attorney-General of New York, for example, a "superhero" on race and sex issues according to network rube Samantha Bee, liked to go home after the show and slap around his "brown slave" until she called him "Master". More benignly, the exploitation of tribalism, in Canada as anywhere else, leads all but inevitably to ethnic condescension: I once heard young Justin's wily old predecessor, Jean Chrétien, refer affectionately to his Sikh supporters as "my turbans". Possibly Chrétien's multiple turbans and Trudeau's singular turban are mere degrees of privileged paternal appropriation. Or perhaps my old comrade from The National Post, Raymond De Souza, is right when he posits a more straightforward narcissism: If you're Justin, you're the star and everybody else is a mere prop in your dressup show.
But golly, before the Canadian media "moves on" - indeed, gallops on - couldn't we have contemplated the sheer weirdness of Canada's head of government a while longer? On the election debate stage, he will be the only blackface devotee. Likewise at the G7 summit. And indeed at the G20. And Nato. If I'm not entirely confident about making the same claim of the Commonwealth Conference, it's only because Her Majesty's biennial beano has commanded the presence of some rum coves over the years, but nevertheless I am certain that Justin with his thrice-confessed blackface has worn it more than all the other prime ministers combined.
His splendid isolation, his solitary retro-kinkiness on the eve of the third decade of the twenty-first century, is surely worthy of examination. Instead, my old chum Evan Solomon was too busy interviewing Bernie Farber, frothing away because some supposed Pegida supporters had signed the petition to get Maxime Bernier into the leaders' debates. Hang on, man, you're shilling for The Black & White Minstrel Show's "Because It's 2019" special: micro-aggressions for me, but not even macro-aggressions for thee and thine?
Meanwhile, the CBC instantly came down with the world's most chronic case of post-minstrel syndrome: tedious spinmeisters gaming out how to put the minstrelsy behind. Isn't that a priority for the Liberal Party? And oughtn't the priority for the news media be the actual story? It took an American magazine to break it, and a London broadsheet to track down the shocked eyewitnesses; isn't there any aspect of the actual "news" Canada's government-accredited press corps would like to "report"?
Apparently not. Even now, they'd walk a million miles for one of his smiles (or at least dinner with his consigliere), which is 999,999 miles and 1,759 yards more than they'd walk for one of Andrew Scheer's. It is a few years since I was last interviewed by the CBC's Rosie Barton, but I can't believe some of the halfwitted panels she's presided over in the last fortnight. Now that the Liberals are strongarming Andrew Lawton from all campaign events, what I wouldn't give to see Rosie interviewing the Prime Minstrel just half as forcefully as she interviewed me. Instead, I fear she's pining for Justin to get out the old burnt cork and give her a chorus of ...well, go to 1.16 below:
~We had a busy weekend at SteynOnline, including Mark's take on Quentin Tarantino's latest, a celebration of Johnny Mercer's first great train song, and The Wall Street Journal's view of the US Supreme Court and the Mann vs Steyn case - complete with a choice excerpt of Steyn on stage. If you were too busy ordering extra bananas for Justin's jeans this weekend, we hope you'll want to check out one or three of the foregoing as a new week commences.
Programming note: Tonight, Monday, Mark will be on the air with Tucker Carlson, coast to coast across America at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific. We hope you'll tune in.
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If Brett Kavanaugh had done blackface on three occasions, it would be a daily story of denunciations until the poor man resigned. Of course, Hillary wore blackface at a party, but CNN and the NYT would never bring it up.
for myself, personally, i am opting out of this "divide and conquer" race war......i hope there will be many more of us who will "opt out" as well.......being corralled into a race war is not a good thing......
these people pushing this crap are not our friends......they are EVIL
What that un-paid wise pundit says ^
The real issue is not the blackface but what the of the Prince charming hiding behind the blackface and between his ears and below his magnificent hair. You know that grey matter. It seems to me that more blood is feeding the hair than what is underneath of that. That is the reason that they strong arming journalists not only Andrew Lawton but anyone associated with the Rebel media that may ask the Prince embarrassing questions and record his answers. Only Accredited journalists can participate, those that have been showered with taxpayer funded incentives to report how charming and smart the Prince is. They also strong arming the Prince himself and don't allow him to show his wisdom to English speaking and understanding Canadians that are majority of Canadians. That was the reason by forcing him to withdraw from Macleans Leaders debate and the Munk Debate. They are muzzling anyone that is critical of the Liberals such as the did to Mark Steyn and Maxim Bernier.
They are so scared of Bernier that they organized in his riding another Maxim Bernier to be the candidate for the Rhinoceros party. Playing the same dirty trick that Joseph Kennedy did to smooth the way for upstart politician, his son John F. Kennedy for an open seat in U.S. House of Representatives . A popular candidate in the race was Boston City Councilor Joe Russo. To siphon support from Russo, the Kennedy campaign persuaded and bankrolled a person living in the district with no political experience or political aspirations to enter the race. His name was also Joe Russo. The City Councilor Joe Russo complained that someone had "seen fit to buy out a man who has the same name as mine." But the city councilor had no recourse. John F. Kennedy won the race.
That is not enough they organize Canadian antifa to threaten with violence the venue that was supposed to host Maxime Bernier meet with Dave Rubin in Hamilton thus increasing its insurance against damages 10 fold . As I write this the disturbance actually happened according CBC headline Violent clashes break out at Maxime Bernier event in Hamilton. It is described as a "Peaceful" protest that turned violent. Some protesters attempted to prevent people from entering the building and one video, which is being widely shared among Bernier supporters, shows several protesters, one masked, blocking the path of an elderly woman who was using a walker, yelling at her and her companion.
Not only Bernier is targeted even Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer skipped a campaign event in Cambridge, Ont. as dozens of student protesters awaited his arrival. Conservative leader Andrew Scheer bus that was supposed to stop at the venue continued fast food place to buy a sandwich. Global News headline ANALYSIS: Scheer's lack of experience in dealing with protesters. Man interrupts Scheer address, demands answers on Conservative climate policy.
Another headline of CHCH Students fill the streets to march for action on climate change
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Green Leader Elizabeth May both attended the Montreal event. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and People's Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier are not taking part in climate marches.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is campaigning on Vancouver Island promoting his party's plan to safeguard the environment along Canada's coastlines.
It is clear that Justin is a hero among the immature brainwashed youngsters, and they will be voting for him .
As much as I am in favor of Maxime I will be holding my nose and vote for conservatives with hope that that may prevent another majority to our Prince Charming that inherited the good look and nice hair and intellect from his mother and rest of his despicable traits, name and money from his Father. His Father inherited his money and name form his father that had a luck to sell his chain of 30 gas stations about the same time that Joey Smallwood the first Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador was tricked signing an Agreement to give Hydro Quebec the right to exploit the power generated in Labrador from Upper Churchill river falls for 100 years. Thus, enabling Quebec resident to heat their homes with electricity while Newfoundland and rest of Canada have to use fossil fuel to heat their homes. So, carbon taxes making lot of sense for Quebec residents.
As to the money that Justin inherited, he blamed his blackface fiasco on his privileged upbringing. He is like Marie Antoinette that said if the protesters don't have bread, they should eat cakes. I don't want his head to be guillotined but give up his position to someone that did not have privileged upbringing and can relate to majority of Canadians. Some of them that started their carrier flipping hamburgers in MacDonalds.
Sent for posting 01-Oct-19 13:11
Brinco and Quebec were the only people interested in building a dam in remote Labrador. Newfoundland premiers had a reputation for fraudulent dealings. Churchill Falls was a big gamble and Quebec postponed building dams in Quebec because of it. When the James Bay project was finally undertaken inflation had taken over and there was a shortage of workers which also jacked up the cost. Each time Newfoundland has challenged the contract before the Supreme Court they have lost.
Maybe Trump should get more of those eco friendly lightbulbs and appear and identify as an orange person. Obama said that orange is the new black. We do have the Blue Man Group, why not an orange one?
Being a Ginge Mark this is unlikely to affect you but if "Black facing" is not acceptable, then what factor tanning lotion is recommended to temper the effect of sun on my skin? Its nice to have a healthy tan but not to be black.
I'll be damned if Boy Justin doesn't get all the luck! Just when the murky waters of the SNC-Lavalin scandal had finally risen to the level of his dimpled cheeks, he's rescued by enough footage of himself as Sly Stone that he alone could fill an entire episode of Soul Train. "Black Hand" tactics are nothing to blackface. While the rest of us shake our heads and mutter Sly's lyrics under our breath--"What were you thinking in your head?"--the Jolson of Moose Jaw is soft-shoeing his way through the shoals of shame.
Sooooo many nuggets of gold here! I only wish the chronic case of PMS appeared in the title.
So many, and it's hard to believe what the Liberals are doing to Andrew Lawton. Shocking, really! He's so on point with everything I've heard him discuss so far at True North. Justine can't handle the truth, that's it in a nutshell.
Shocking, but not surprising. The media situation in Canada is even worse than in the US.
We're like the frogs in the warm bath in the pot and we're beginning to take note of the bubbles starting to form around the perimeter.
Mark, Reading this reminds me that I'd walk a million miles for one of your similes (or metaphors or puns).
"Prime Minstrel" is an instant favourite for me.
I think the Blackface Dauphin has done us a great service, though sane people don't really need it. He has shown us quite clearly that the left-liberal obssession with race is totally phony and indeed an absolute joke. They don't think race is any more a real issue than the existence of the tooth fairy or the Easter bunny. It is merely a means of manipulating political discourse. This shouldn't be news to anyone except that all sorts of craven and dishonest political hacks still grant the premise of malicious racial motives on the part of the left's opponents. The left-liberal moral high ground is never anything more than a large methane bubble rising in a fetid swamp.
Very funny! Bet we'll find out soon that it's all a filter trick on that 'high quality', just some tedious set-up to ruin a good laugh, and Lord knows we all need one - regularly. Geez, like who can shoe polish their eyeballs and tongue and still retain the physical ability to dance with anything, much less bananas? Not worried, though, suspect that the banana theme is going to be the more inconvenient and 'sticky' one than the cross-culture 'camo' makeup a rocket-to-the-top neophyte politician needs to 'connect' sans absolutely no family political connections, well, except maybe one.
Remember when Li'l Trudeau first took office and the elite media and tastemakers in the U.S. were swooning "Why can't THIS guy be our President? (Vis-Vis You Know Who.) It was the sort of tongue-bath usually reserved for our last President or an emergent Kennedy. As parsimonious as the Canadian press has been in its coverage concerning the Ace of Face,their American counterparts have been two or three clicks below absolutely silent. Nobody seems to want him to be President anymore. Is this the end of Blackface Hysteria? Well - No!
Thorough to the point, and hilarious as always!
The first blackface outrage I remember was an advert on the television in Canada that had Al Jolson in animated form in the spotlight with the blackface on. After some objection to this, the ad was edited so that he was there singing, but without the makeup. This definitely predates that actions of the drama teacher (the ad was in the early eighties, I think), so no one can claim it he was doing this before it was considered offensive. I can't even remember what the ad was trying to sell!
Nobody writes like Steyn and I mean that as an ultimate compliment to his incomparable mix of brilliant but serious humor, cogent facts, clever insights and various strokes of genius. This article is no exception and Mark provides a great analysis of the state of the pending Canadian election and its present "Prime Minstrel."
I wish Mark would also (if willing of course) be recruited to take a more active part in defending Trump on air from the recent Impeachment and other attacks concocted by the Dems' Coup cabal or Resistance or other more suitable label. His clever hard-hitting opinions are sorely needed in the USA at this time. Mark's appearances on Tucker twice a week are great but they're too short.
But that is only my opinion and I'm not trying to prod Mark into anything. It's what is at stake in the USA at this crucial time in history that convinces me all of the best people available should be recruited (willingly) to participate in this important fight whether you love Trump or not.
Your opinion is correct, Dennis!
"the sheer weirdness of Canada's head of government". Yes! Even if you extract out any racialist overtones, and discount any sexism lurking in the black-hand-on-her-chest [hello, Joe Biden!?], the actions are really, really weird. Like a guy beering up and acting out at a tailgate party, or something. Except, as Mark reminds us, it had to be well thought out. Speaking of which, serious question, what does one use for blackface? Wouldn't shoe polish be hard to remove??
So Trudeau censors Andrew Lawton, while Andrew Scheer calls the cops on David Menzies and the camicie nere try to silence Maxime Bernier (whether for granting an interview to David Rubin, or for simply being Bernier is not entirely clear). No antifa thugs were charged, I understand. Even though a few were detained briefly, it rather sounds as though David Menzies was detained for longer.
Had a friend look at the photo and exclaim, "Wow, he has a banana in his pants!" Which of course was a premature ejaculation. We don't know it is a banana. It could be a pickle, a zucchini, a carrot... maybe a swelling from getting whacked in the groin by a paddle while whitewater rafting.
Or it could even be his genuine original equipment. He could settle the question at the upcoming leadership debate "Blazing Saddle" style: "Excuse me while I... whip this out."
As ex-pat Ontarians, my wife and I, attended the informal Crow's Nest get-together for Canucks on the cruise. I was stunned at the lack of coordination between Westerners and like minded people in Ontario. For better or for worse, Ontario, aka the Stupid Province, will likely return the Dauphin to the Prime Minstrelship (love that label) unless the West can point out to the people in 905-land that it is in their own interest to ally with Alberta and Saskatchewan. I'm afraid the Ontario view of Albertans as red-neck Amurrricans is alive and well and the colorless Mr Scheer (who I guess didn't really graduate from Geico U) will not generate enough enthusiasm to block the Natural Governing Party. I hope I'm wrong, but things seem to be lining up to give Canada a Lib Minority government. Maybe the blackface will bolster the sinking NDP fortunes in order to ironically help out the PCs. That would be a laugh.
Well on the cruise I did try to encourage people from the West to donate to swing ridings in the East and B,C. Most of the people I talked to out West seem to do nothing but vote but I guess out West it all seems like a waste of time. (Plug: Glengarry-Prescott-Russell is a swing riding in Eastern Ontario. Check our candidate out at PierreLemieux.ca)
Maybe Justin Trudeau could team up with Virginia Governor Ralph Northam for a duet of "Darktown Strutters Ball." My guess is it's not available on YouTube - although I haven't checked - but Betty Grable and June Haver do a wonderful job with it in "The Dolly Sisters," especially their vigorous tap dance at the end, dressed as pickaninnies in patchwork pajamas, with blackface and corkscrew curl wigs. Justin and Ralph would be green - or perhaps just dark brown - with envy.
The Albertan from Quebec seems likely to win the sanest personage on offer prize.
It's not so much the horrific judgment but the sheer creepy weirdness of the Canadian PM that strikes me...
I am aware of the hypocrisy, but I also think donning Blackface (or Brownface) is much more mild than poorly conducted official business. Boy Trudeau is becoming more of an embarrassment for mainstream Canadians for various events, but they are a long way from a return to liberty & sanity, and it won't happen over the scourge of Blackface-dress-up. There is still some strong streak of Woke / Political Correctness / Holier Than the US lurking in Canada that hasn't found a cure, or even an awareness of the malady. I also note how poorly Justin did that Face -- he blackened the lips, too. Major error.
"Boy Trudeau is becoming more of an embarrassment for mainstream Canadians..."
A comedian (can't recall his name) observed that Canadians travelling in Europe would have to start telling people they're American. But it appears they actually want JT to continue as PM; there's no cure in sight, as you've noted.
When the Leftist Propaganda Stenographic Pool pushes it's full memory hole mendacity, one thing is sure: A ticked off Mark Steyn comes up with an epic tsunami of sarcasm for us to enjoy. There are two lessons here. The first is the self-proclaimed elites' apparent ability to swill unlimited double-think—and claim enjoy it. The people are either complete fools or evil. The second is the measureless contempt the elite hold for Normal Canadians—who are presumed readily to swallow this bilge water.
Well, as long as he wasn't a Conservative.
Well it took them a while but the Canadian media are now after the Vancouver businessman who 'leaked' the blackface photo from a private school yearbook that was readily available to anyone with some enterprise in the school library. He must be an alt right Trump supporter.
Meanwhile Andrew Scheer has thrown out a Rebel Media reporter from covering his press coverage just like Trudeau prevents Andrew Lawton of cruise panel fame and True North blog from covering him. Oh Canada!
But will anyone call out Elisabeth May head of the Green Party for banning any energy industry as the number one employer for indigenous people in British Columbia where her riding is happens to be the private coal industry? What a racist she is too, n'est-ce pas?
I am so pleased you've returned to this story, Mark, as I believe not enough has been said. What more is there to say? I'm not sure, but more. Oscar Wilde was always good for a line: to have worn blackface once may be regarded as a misfortune; to have worn blackface three times, and counting, looks like carelessness. Justin's not a racist, his defenders explain, he's just an imbecile. As if the two are mutually exclusive. As if racism and imbecility aren't strongly aligned. But who are we Americans to jest? Canada's metrosexual-in-chief is unlikely to grab any woman by her privates. Unless he's in character as Bill Cosby.
Yet again, we are reminded never to dress in the dark.
It's a messed world we live in where the proud father of an Orthodox Jewish woman is more Hitler than Hitler while the PM of Canada is considered the wokiest bloke in Etobicoke....I think that last one ends "key" not "oke" but that's the best I can do using my U.S. public school informed knowledge of Canadian geography
Mark replies:
Indeed, Carl. The k is silent - like the Canadian media.
Etobicoke resident here (although as long as I have my 416 area code, I will stubbornly refer to myself as a Torontonian...) and we say "It-O-buh-koe" -- which I believe is Algonquin for "Land of Many Car Dealerships."
I was wondering when Mr. Steyn would make his comments about Prime Minister Justin Blackface and now I wonder no more. And it was glorious ! Thank you for getting my day off to a great start Mr. Steyn.