John Robson: On Trudeau’s Point That Principle Trumps Popularity, I Agree

Commentary Given his poll position, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau led with his chin in saying “My job is not to be popular.” Sneering variants on “Mission accomplished” flew thick and fast. But for once he had an important point. Far too many politicians do what they think will be popular and hope it’s right, and our politics would be dramatically improved if instead they did what they thought was right and hoped it would be popular. Of course there is another important, indeed constitutionally fundamental sense in which the prime minister’s job is to be popular. Given the frailties of human nature, long and painful experience has taught us the only tolerable kind of polity is one where we the people have a veto on how we are governed, and by whom. Without orderly mechanisms for peacefully retiring leaders who are sufficiently unpopular for sufficiently long, you get Xerxes, Nero, Genghis Khan, Hitler, Stalin, etc....