WORLD Archives | Nigeria News

7 Years After Taking Over Power, N/Korea President Made His First Foreign Trip

Editor — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 17:27:48 +0000

North Korea President Kim has traveled to China where he met with China’s President Xi Jinping.

This is his first known foreign trip since taking office in 2011.

Mr Kim and his wife were greeted with a banquet and a guard of honour, with the North Korean leader reportedly saying he was committed to denuclearisation.

China is North Korea’s main economic ally.

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A teacher accidentally fired his weapon in a classroom during a lesson on gun safety, injuring 3 students

Editor — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 19:09:34 +0000

A California teacher who also serves as a reserve police officer reportedly injured three students on Tuesday after he accidentally fired his weapon during a lesson on gun safety.

Dennis Alexander was about to show the class how to disarm someone when he pointed his gun at the ceiling to make sure it wasn’t loaded, local NBC affiliate KSBW 8 reported.

It was, in fact, loaded, and Alexander accidentally fired a shot into the ceiling. When the bullet fragments ricocheted, some of them flew into the neck of one 17-year-old student, his father told the TV station.

“He’s shaken up, but he’s going to be okay,” Fermin Gonzalez said.

“It’s the craziest thing … It could have been very bad.”

Gonzalez said he only learned about the accident when his son came home with blood on his clothing and the bullet fragments still embedded in his neck.

Alexander apologized for the incident, and both the Seaside High School and the Sand City Police Department quickly placed him on administrative leave. Police are investigating the matter.

“I have concerns about why he was displaying a loaded firearm in a classroom. We will be looking into that,” Sand City police chief Brian Ferrante told KSBW.

The incident underscores one of the main concerns expressed by critics of President Donald Trump’s recent proposal to arm certain teachers and eliminate “gun-free zones.”

Opponents argue that even people with the most extensive firearms training could make a mistake that turns fatal.

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Trump Unveils ‘Keep America Great’ as his 2020 US Presidential Campaign Slogan

Editor — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 07:58:12 +0000

Less than 2 years after Donald Trump promised to make America great, he seemed to declare mission accomplished on Saturday, revealing that his reelection slogan will be “Keep America Great!”

Trump first broached the slogan idea before he was even sworn in last year. But as he hailed his administration’s accomplishments on foreign and domestic policy at a rally here, he suggested he had already succeeded in delivering on his original slogan.

“We can’t say ‘Make America Great Again,’ because I already did that,” Trump said before thousands of supporters in an airplane hanger.

Trump came to this Pittsburgh suburb to rescue Rick Saccone, the Republican congressional candidate struggling in Tuesday’s special election here.

“The world is watching,” Trump said. “Get out on Tuesday and vote like crazy.”

But over the course of more than 75 minutes, Trump seemed more interested in talking about almost anything — and everything — else under the sun, delivering the kind of unfiltered stemwinder rarely given by a sitting United States president.

“What’s more fun than a Trump rally?” the president asked.

Trump announced his 2020 campaign last month, naming former digital adviser Brad Parscale as his campaign manager. The new slogan will replace “Make America Great Again,” Trump’s four-word 2016 slogan that has appeared on red baseball caps, on signs and in speeches for the past two years.

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Germany issues ‘travel advisory’ to Germans in Canada: See Canadian Govt Reaction

Editor — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 17:04:42 +0000

Mason Raymond of Canada, skates off as Germany players celebrate after the semifinal round of the men’s hockey game against Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Feb. 23, 2018.

Germany is warning its citizens in Canada to exercise “a high degree of empathy,” after the men’s hockey team beat Canada to advance to the gold-medal final at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Team Canada lost to Germany in a hard-fought semifinal match going down 4-3.

Shortly after Canada’s loss, the German Foreign Office, based in Berlin, tweeted a “travel warning” for Germans in Canada, urging them to “hug” a Canadian.

“Travel advisory: Germans in Canada should exercise a high degree of empathy. Be nice, don’t gloat, give hugs, buy rounds of hot chocolate. Just imagine how you would feel if Canada beat us in soccer,” reads the tweet.

Canada returned a diplomatic tweet, to point out the fact that the Germans are playing for their first-ever Olympic hockey gold.

“Thanks @GermanyDiplo. Congrats on your first shot at gold! We remember our first gold medal match in #IceHockey like it was yesterday… 1920 to be exact,” reads the tweet from Foreign Policy CAN.

The bronze-medal match is Saturday. Canada will face the Czech Republic.

The Germans will face the team of Olympic athletes from Russia for the gold medal on Sunday. – GlobalNews

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Buhari Presidency describes Transparency International global rating as very misleading with unfair conclusions

Editor — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 06:05:37 +0000

CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX 2017

President Muhammadu Buhari: government queries TI’s corruption rating

The Buhari Presidency has questioned the criteria or facts used by Transparency International, the anti-corruption watchdog to rank the country 148th least corrupt in the world.

In a statement by spokesman, Garba Shehu, the government questioned the method used by TI to arrive at what it called TI’s ” very misleading and unfair conclusions in its assessment of the Federal government’s efforts in this anti-corruption crusade”.

Government said while it welcomes constructive criticisms from the anti-corruption watchdog, the organisation has a responsibility to reflect the larger picture of the concrete and verifiable achievements of the Buhari administration since it came into office in May 2015.

“Political will is the first major component of fighting corruption in any country and President Buhari has made a huge difference by demonstrating not only the political will but also the extraordinary courage to go after high profile looters, including former military service chiefs and Judges.

“It was once unthinkable to touch or prosecute the ‘‘big men’’ for corruption in Nigeria but President Buhari has ended impunity for corruption.

“Today, the Buhari administration has made accountability the bedrock of governance and corruption is no longer fashionable because it attracts consequences.

“Blocking leakages for corruption through the rigid enforcement of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) had made life tougher for corrupt officials. He regretted that these efforts were not acknowledged by the Corruption Watchdog.

“Figures published by the EFCC, the anti-corruption agency, reveal that N738.9 billion was recovered in just two years of the Buhari administration and this impressive and unprecedented record is worthy of mention and acknowledgement by anybody genuinely looking at the larger picture of the country’s progress in the war against corruption.

“During the 7th session of the Conference of State Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption in Vienna, Austria, the Chairman of the Agency Ibrahim Magu noted that the figure represents $2.9 billion dollars.

“Besides these impressive recoveries of looted funds, the EFCC has recorded more than 140 successful prosecutions.

“The Federal government has also signed international agreements to recover the proceeds of corruption and to block the laundering of stolen assets abroad by public officials.

“Anybody who knows where Nigeria was coming from would not believe that corruption is worse under the Buhari administration.

“We wonder where they got their facts from. At a time, they are alleging increase in the incidence of corruption under this government, the whole of Africa is applauding by choosing President Buhari as the continental Champion to lead the fight against it.

“Nothing can be more eloquent than this.

“In the end, this whole episode may turn out to be just a political distraction, given the strong views some of TI’s patrons have expressed against the Buhari Administration.

“This notwithstanding, facts are facts, and those facts won’t cease to be facts even if you don’t care to pay attention to them,” the statement concluded.

NAN

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Buhari Presidency describes Transparency International global rating as very misleading with unfair conclusions

Editor — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 06:01:27 +0000

CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX 2017

President Muhammadu Buhari: government queries TI’s corruption rating

The Buhari Presidency has questioned the criteria or facts used by Transparency International, the anti-corruption watchdog to rank the country 148th least corrupt in the world.

“It was once unthinkable to touch or prosecute the ‘‘big men’’ for corruption in Nigeria but President Buhari has ended impunity for corruption.

“Today, the Buhari administration has made accountability the bedrock of governance and corruption is no longer fashionable because it attracts consequences.

“Besides these impressive recoveries of looted funds, the EFCC has recorded more than 140 successful prosecutions.

“The Federal government has also signed international agreements to recover the proceeds of corruption and to block the laundering of stolen assets abroad by public officials.

“Anybody who knows where Nigeria was coming from would not believe that corruption is worse under the Buhari administration.

“Nothing can be more eloquent than this.

“In the end, this whole episode may turn out to be just a political distraction, given the strong views some of TI’s patrons have expressed against the Buhari Administration.

“This notwithstanding, facts are facts, and those facts won’t cease to be facts even if you don’t care to pay attention to them,” the statement concluded.

NAN

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Trump wants to prevent mass school shootings in the US with 1 classteacher 1 gun policy

Editor — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 07:04:57 +0000

Donald J. Trump’s plan to prevent mass school shootings is to put guns in classrooms. “It’s called concealed carry, where a teacher would have a concealed gun on them.”

American president wants to prevent mass school shootings in the US with 1 classteacher 1 gun policy

President Trump supported the idea of giving teachers bonuses if they agree to carry guns in the classroom to deter school shootings.

He is doubling down on giving guns to teachers, even suggesting teachers who carry should get a bonus.

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Incumbent Missouri State Governor indicted on felony invasion of nudity privacy charge without consent

Editor — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 04:47:59 +0000

Eric Greitens, the second youngest state governor in the USA is in deep, deep trouble

Incumbent Missouri State Governor Eric Greitens was indicted Thursday on one felony count of invasion of privacy.

The charge says Greitens knowingly took a photograph of a woman in a “state of full or partial nudity without the knowledge and consent” of that woman. The charge goes on to say the photograph was taken “in a place where a person would have a reasonable expectation of privacy, and the defendant subsequently transmitted the image contained in the photograph in a manner that allowed access to that image via a computer.”

Invasion of Privacy in the 1st Degree is a Class D Felony in Missouri.

“Under Missouri law, the Grand Jury has found probable cause to believe that Governor Greitens violated Missouri State Statute 565.252, which was in place at the time of the violation,” Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner said in a statement.

“This statute has a provision for both a felony and misdemeanor. The law makes it a felony if a person transmits the image contained in the photograph or film in a manner that allows access to that image via a computer.”

A judge said Greitens could be released on his own personal recognizance and is allowed to travel, according to Susan Ryan, a spokeswoman for the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office.

Greitens on Thursday night released the following statement:

As I have said before, I made a personal mistake before I was Governor. I did not commit a crime.

With today’s disappointing and misguided political decision, my confidence in our prosecutorial system is shaken, but not broken. I know this will be righted soon.

The people of Missouri deserve better than a reckless liberal prosecutor who uses her office to score political points.

I look forward to the legal remedies to reverse this action.

This will not for a moment deter me from doing the important work of the great people of Missouri.
In an emailed comment, an attorney for Greitens, Edward Dowd, Jr. said, “in forty years of public and private practice, I have never seen anything like this. The charges against my client are baseless and unfounded. My client is absolutely innocent. We will be filing a motion to dismiss.”

He later released a statement:

“We welcome reviewing this issue with the independent, bipartisan committee of the Missouri House of Representatives.

For 40 years as an attorney for the public and for private litigants, I have never seen anything like this. The charges are unfounded and baseless. The Governor is absolutely innocent. Not only is he presumed innocent – he is innocent. This whole investigation is completely unusual.

This statute has never been used like this in Missouri history. In unprecedented fashion, the Circuit Attorney circumvented the local police force and hired her own investigators – we attempted to meet with the Circuit Attorney and make the Governor available to discuss the issues. They refused. She proceeded to file an indictment that has no facts.

We will work with the committee. We will be deposing witnesses and will be happy to share information with you with the Court’s permission.”
“Lady justice can sometimes operate in cumbersome ways,” attorney Al Wakins told CNN. Watkins represents the woman’s ex-husband. “But right now we have an individual charged with a felony and in our great land, one must presume innocence until guilt has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. It’s best to let the system take its course.”

In January, following a News 4 report, the Circuit Attorney announced she would be launching a criminal investigation into allegations against the governor.

Read: Blackmail alleged as Governor Greitens admits to extramarital

Greitens admitted in January to having an affair with a hairdresser. In a recording obtained by News 4, the woman said she had a sexual encounter with Greitens and that he tried to blackmail her with an image to keep the encounter quiet. Greitens has repeatedly denied the blackmail allegations. He has also repeatedly declined to answer direct questions about whether or not he took a photo of the woman.

Investigators working with the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office reached out to a number of lawmakers in Jefferson City in the on-going investigation into allegations against Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, News 4 reported last week. State Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal confirmed to News 4 her office was contacted by two investigators, Jack Foley and William Tisaby. State Representative Nate Walker also told News 4 that he had been contacted by the two men.

News 4 has learned Greitens will not be attending the upcoming meeting of the National Governor’s Association.

Eric Robert Greitens is an American politician, serving as the 56th Governor of Missouri since January 2017. A Democrat until 2015, he switched to the Republican Party. He is the second youngest Governor in the United States, after New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu.

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Hardly a ‘magic bullet’: Why adopting the Canadian merit-based immigration won’t solve all of America’s problems?

Editor — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 00:52:34 +0000

U.S. President Donald Trump points to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he welcomes him to the White House in Washington, D.C. in October 2017. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

President Donald Trump has made comprehensive immigration reform in the United States one of his key legislative goals.

He’s proposed bringing the U.S. immigration system “into the 21st century” by providing a path to citizenship for some undocumented migrants and by fully securing the country’s southern border.

Central to his plans is a merit-based, Canada-style immigration system that would replace the current American system that focuses on family reunification and a diversity lottery.

But is merit-based immigration the simple solution for the complex set of immigration-related issues facing the United States?

Canada’s “merit-based” system provides some lessons for the United States. Despite the relative success of the Canadian merit-based system, Canada’s experience shows there’s no magic bullet.
What does “merit-based” mean?

“Merit-based” immigration systems are based on the principle of selecting newcomers according to their skills, education, adaptability, language proficiency and overall human capital.

These metrics, proponents argue, allow immigrants to fill specific labour market needs. But they also act as predictors of how a newcomer might adapt to a new social, economic and cultural environment.

Yet the notion of merit is complex, contextual and highly politicized.

All immigration selection programs are rooted in implicit and explicit definitions of merit, whether they’re based on economic criteria, ideas of cultural compatibility or family relationships. From that standpoint, all immigration programs are “merit-based” systems.

Current U.S. political debates tend to pit the programs of some countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand against the U.S. system as it exists today.

As several analysts and researchers have shown, however, family ties and social links can also be considered a form of merit, and may have positive impacts on immigrants’ future contributions to their new home.

Consequently, when it comes to immigration, there is no objective definition of what “merit” really means.

A child looks on at a citizenship ceremony hosted by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada at Government House in Halifax in November 2017. (The Canadian Press/Andrew Vaughan)

Merit-based systems have also been criticized for reinforcing global human capital inequalities and for indirectly sorting candidates based on ethnic and cultural origins.

But proponents see merit-based systems as yielding better integration outcomes. They also argue that they allow for better management of immigration levels, build public trust and are more responsive to labour market dynamics.

Trump says the system will help ensure economic growth, economic mobility for both native-born Americans and immigrants and will close the door to unwanted immigrants.

Canada’s “merit-based” system

Canada implemented a points system in 1967 in order to move away from origin-based selection of immigrants. Fifty years later, in 2017, Canada admitted 296,346 permanent legal immigrants. About 52 per cent of them entered through different categories of the “economic” class of the immigration program, Canada’s own version of a “merit-based” immigration system.

Under this system, economic immigration candidates are evaluated and ranked using a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). It’s a 100-point selection grid that considers factors such as age, education, work specialization, work experience in Canada and abroad as well as arranged employment in Canada.

Would-be immigrants to Canada are also evaluated for adaptability, measured by elements such as past experiences in Canada, but also by the presence of relatives in the country and their spouses’ language proficiency.

So even when measuring for “merit,” the Canadian immigration system does include a recognition of the importance of family ties and social networks.

What’s more, not all of the 159,125 individuals who entered Canada through the economic class in 2017 were selected using the economic criteria.

Between 2006 and 2015, only 41 to 49 per cent of these individuals were selected directly based on their potential for contributing to the Canadian economy. The rest of the economic class is comprised of close family members of the main applicant, like spouses and children.

Nonetheless, Canada’s experience overall with its immigration program has been positive. Among other benefits, it’s been credited with building the Canadian public’s support for relatively high immigration levels.

But merit-based immigration programs demand investment into the system, and they may have unintended consequences. Canada’s merit-based program provides three important lessons for U.S. policymakers and citizens:

Lesson 1: “Merit-based” is only the beginning

A central argument by proponents of merit-based immigration is that it will lead to better immigrant integration outcomes.

While that’s largely true, a constellation of social and state actions also affect how immigrants fare in their newly adopted homes.

Two are especially important: Immigrant integration services and efforts to find jobs for immigrants.
Canada funds immigrant integration programs that range from language training to information on jobs, bridging programs to jobs and job training. While Canada offers specific social programs for refugees, several services are also available to all classes of permanent immigrants.

Indeed, Canada plans to spend just over $1 billion on immigrant integration services in 2018.
Experience and research have shown these programs are critical to helping merit-based immigrants succeed economically and socially. They also increase immigrants’ overall sense of belonging to their new society and encourage social participation.

But integration services are not enough: Canada’s experience shows that while immigrants selected based on their economic criteria fare better in the labour market than others, many of them still endure economic difficulties.

Underemployment, trouble entering the labour market and the need to go back to school, despite having university degrees, are all too common experiences for Canadian immigrants even if they meet the “merit-based” criteria.

Skills-based immigration programs can easily run amok if the labour market can’t accommodate foreign education and skills credentials. As a consequence, both Canada’s federal and provincial governments have had to invest in educating employers — and are still working to create and enforce standards for foreign skills recognition.

Canada’s experience proves that a merit-based system demands much more than simply choosing “the right” immigrants. Governments must invest in supporting them once they’ve been admitted.

Lesson 2: Immigrants & labour market needs

Matching the demands of the labour market to new immigrants is a challenge. That’s due in part to the difference between the speed at which labour markets evolve and how quickly an immigration system can operate to bring job-ready candidates to any given country and employer.

The challenge is compounded by popular and political ideas about who is an “ideal” economic immigrant — for example, a doctor or an engineer — and the actual labour needs of the country.

In the last 30 years, those types of disconnects have been a constant test in Canada but also in other countries.

In the early 1990s, the Canadian government’s preferred solution was to select immigrants based on predictions about their capacity to adapt to a changing labour market. To do so, they used human capital as the main merit criterion. That had several unintended effects, including the underemployment of many immigrants and labour shortages in several technical sectors.

Since then, the Canadian government has made a move towards a more demand-based model, and provides provinces and territories as well as employers with a bigger say in the selection system.

More recently, the system was again amended to reintroduce human capital factors because the immigrants selected by the demand-driven model were not considered skilled enough.

Canada’s experience is one of a tug of war between planning for long-term labour needs and short-term labour supply.

Despite these adjustments, current Canadian programs still struggle to address the needs of labour markets that are increasingly divided between the need for high-skilled versus low-skilled workers, like those in short supply in the service sector.

Consequently, Canada relies increasingly on temporary immigration to meet market demands. In the last 10 years, the number of so-called temporary foreign workers has grown tremendously, as have concerns about worker abuses and overall precarity.

And despite reforms aimed at providing temporary workers a path to permanent residency, the need for those low-skilled labourers runs counter to the long-term social and economic objective of Canada’s merit-based system.

What is “best” for the economy, and what types of immigrants are most needed, often eschews simple answers.

Lesson 3: The need for bureaucrats

Trust in the bureaucracy is critical to a successful merit-based system. Any immigrant-selection system relies on a comprehensive, technical method of assessing would-be newcomers, the gathering of information on the labour market and on global migration trends, as well as the monitoring and evaluation of programs.

On the ground, considerable work is required to assess individual applications based on merit criteria. While technology makes these tasks easier than before, well-trained public servants and well-funded public infrastructure are needed.

In Canada and elsewhere, government workers use research, field expertise and discretion to assess applicants. The need for accurate data along with the complexity of these programs often make elected officials dependent on the expertise and advice of public servants.

Bureaucrats are uniquely positioned to see the negative consequences of selection programs, and to propose innovative solutions based on their hands-on experience.

What’s more, experiments that have involved employers in immigrant selection programs remain inconclusive. While they remain important partners, bureaucrats still have the advantage over employers in assessing immigrants.

The move to merit-based systems often politicize not only overall immigration levels, but also the very definition of “merit.”

The cacophony of partisan advice and political opinion on these often highly technical assessments of immigrants means it’s crucial to have reliable data on immigration and unbiased analysis. The trust of Canadian elected officials in the country’s immigration bureaucracy is one of the secret ingredients of its success.

Hardly a ‘magic bullet’

A merit-based immigration system might address some of America’s immigration challenges.

But it could also have negative consequences, especially as long as state-funded integration services remain comparatively limited and not accessible to all immigrants in the U.S..

The U.S. government will also need work to ensure that the immigrants it selects will respond to the actual labour market needs of its diverse economy. The distrust the Trump administration clearly harbours towards the American federal bureaucracy might also create considerable challenges to the design and implementation of a merit-based system.

Canada’s experience shows that selecting immigrants based on economic merit is not a silver bullet. Finding the “right” immigrants is the only one step in a large group of government actions that support immigrants and the country overall.

Mireille Paquet, Professor of Political Science, Concordia University

macleans.ca

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Why did Canadian PM Trudeau even bother to go to India?

Editor — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 00:42:24 +0000

AMRITSAR, INDIA – FEBRUARY 21: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau with their son Xavier and daughter Ella-Grace paying obeisance, on February 21, 2018 at Golden Temple in Amritsar, India. After offering prayers inside the temple, the Trudeau’s attended the traditional langar or community meal and performed kar seva at the Golden Temple’s community kitchen. (Photo by Sameer Sehgal/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

Paul Wells’s Opinion: The prime minister’s so-called ‘state visit’ trip to India was so tone-deaf, hopeless and unserious he might as well never have gone

When travelling abroad, it is handy to bear in mind that the people you will meet are real people with real lives.

Justin Trudeau likes to preface his answer to any question about any secession movement anywhere with, “Well, as a Quebecer…”

He needs to stop saying that. When he says that, he seems to believe that simply residing on Ave. des Pins in Montreal confers expertise on the intricacies of the customary international law of secession.

In most of the world, secession is not a once-in-a-generation five-week downer that causes awkward moments around the dinner table. In India, the 1947 partition that led to the creation of Pakistan created a river of blood, hundreds of thousands of deaths, tens of thousands of rapes, millions internally displaced, betrayal, upheaval and grief. In much of India it’s hard to walk into any room without meeting people whose family stories prominently feature harrowing tales of this massive human tragedy.

Visitors aren’t expected to sit for an essay exam on the ramifications of all this for the modern-day Sikh independence movement. Maybe a highly-hypothetical secession of the Sikh homeland would go more smoothly! But this is the emotional landscape within which such questions are considered, in a real place with real people.

So maybe if you visit India, don’t spend the week parading across the landscape dressed like the Griswolds, to be met at a couple of stops by an easily-identifiable convicted violent extremist who has a well-documented recent history of popping up in British Columbia at Liberal events and on Liberal organizational charts. Especially if the fellow in question specialized in violence related to the very sectarian disputes Trudeau is suspected of taking too lightly.

As an enterprise in emotional reconciliation with an Indian government that has long suspected Canadian politicians of preferring photo ops and election-campaign ground game to serious reflection on the complexities and challenges of Indian multiculturalism, this trip is already shot. There is no reason to fear a prolonged chill in Canada-India relations; not everyone carries a grudge forever, and it’s not as though Canada and India haven’t hit speed bumps before. But this prime minister, Justin Trudeau, might as well never have gone to India, for all the good he has accomplished.

But, we’ll hear, there was $1 billion in trade agreements! Sure. And in 2003, Jean Chrétien left India boasting of $3.4 billion in deals, in 2003 dollars. As a trade mission, this one has been curiously perfunctory. Trudeau spent a half-day meeting CEOs in plush chairs tilted at 45 degrees to accommodate news photographers, something he enjoys doing because he hopes it’ll keep them thinking about Canada as an investment destination. But he visited none of those CEOs’ factories or office suites, scoped out no new site where Canadian developers or investors might make a difference in a country where hundreds of millions still live in poverty. If you’re all business, act like it.

As a cultural trip, it’s been tone-deaf. India is a place that exists today, in the 21st century, as more than a memory play of something half-familiar from yoga class. Its artists and writers are grappling with complexity. Its human-development challenges are immense. Its economic promise is vast. Its regional strategic landscape is really not a joke. The costumes were fun on the first day but at some point one starts to worry Trudeau will show up at The Hague wearing wooden shoes, or in Buenos Aires dressed as a gaucho.

As lots of people pointed out before me, it’s actually not true that a groundswell of affection would greet Angela Merkel if she appeared in Toronto wearing Alberta Boot Company boots and a ceinture fléchée. And if she was still doing it on the sixth day of a visit, some of us might start to wonder whether she was taking the piss.

Perhaps the next time the PM goes over fun wardrobe ideas for a foreign trip, somebody on his staff could ask whether he also plans to bring any project serious enough to counterbalance the elevated likelihood of coming off like a giggling schoolboy. A simpler wardrobe rule might be: “You do you.”

This trip began with an omen when the official PMO news release announcing it called it a “state visit.” Canadian heads of government don’t make state visits; governors-general do. Prime Ministers make official visits. In Ottawa, people familiar with the distinction are so common they are practically falling from the trees.

Apparently none fell on anyone in Trudeau’s staff. And so this kind of is a state visit after all, insofar as it’s premised on the assumption that its protagonist is a ceremonial figure who is not authorized to make executive decisions. It follows a China trip in which the PM arrived in chinos and left with no trade deal, and an APEC summit in Danang that went so badly the Liberals had to send a sometime Liberal party factotum to Tokyo weeks later to mend fences. It’s not a great thing when the question that arises, consistently, when a prime minister travels is what the hell he thinks he’s doing.

Trudeau was elected in 2015 amid constant accusations that he was not serious or prepared. He subverted those claims by having superior campaign organization, a different and defensible argument about the macro-economic moment, and many months of personal rehearsal. “Hope and Hard Work” was a mantra the Liberals took more seriously than you’d have thought the slogan could bear. It damages this prime minister personally, and Canada strategically, when he keeps shortening it to “Hope” every time he packs his bags.

Paul Wells, macleans.ca

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