EDITORIAL: Things are a mess -- Trudeau needs to get to work

Maybe the haircut was a distraction after all. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was teased on social media and in entertainment and gossip sites for sporting a new haircut that saw him compared to Jim Carrey in the movie Dumb & Dumber.

It was a funny 24 hour news cycle story and we hope Trudeau and his team got in on the laugh as well. But no more joking, it’s time to deal with the serious stuff.

And Canada is facing a lot of serious issues right now.

The summer is known in political parlance as being “BBQ season”. This means Members of Parliament say farewell to Ottawa and return to their home ridings where they attend community events, like BBQs, and also get a bit of vacation in.

We don’t begrudge them any of this change in schedule. But do we have a problem with major federal files festering and cabinet ministers underperforming in their jobs.

While legislation has been paused during Parliament’s summer break, this doesn’t mean that managing the services and operations that matter to this nation also get put on pause.

There are a number of problems happening with the federal government right now that make it seem like things are falling apart.

The shameful mess at our airports is top of mind. Likewise for the unjustifiably long line-ups at passport offices.

Then there’s the whole issue with inflation and cost-of-living. Both Trudeau and Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem have failed to provide Canadian families with a stable economy.

While there are economic challenges going on around the world right now, Canada ranks one of the worst for major nations in terms of how bad inflation has gotten here.

Is the PM hunkered down at his desk, making sure the senior bureaucrats are all hands on deck to manage these issues? It doesn’t look that way.

Instead, we say him cavorting across the country, burning through GHG emissions like it’s going out of style, to score campaign style photo ops.

This isn’t what’s required or necessary at the moment. We need leadership that is focused on the very real challenges that are causing headaches for millions of Canadians right now.