There is a line in the Ethics Commissioner's
report on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's multiple violations of the Conflict of Interest Act that would gobsmack any first-year student of Canadian parliamentary democracy.
"Mr. Trudeau views his involvement with the Aga Khan and his Canadian institutions as ceremonial in nature, similar to the interactions he would have with any global leader or any distinguished global citizen," Mary Dawson writes in her 66-page decision on the Prime Minister's vacations on the Aga Khan's private island, weightily titled The Trudeau Report.
While not exactly the Pentagon Papers, Ms. Dawson's report exposes a major gap between the public image of a modern prime minister leading Canada through a turbulent global era of renewed nationalism and protectionism, and the reality of one detached from the nitty-gritty, who apparently sweats neither the big nor small stuff and views his role as "ceremonial."