I quite like Joe Biden. Sure, he often makes odd comments and does strange things, but he’s a decent guy.
That said, the Vice President is not a terribly good judge of leadership.
Consider what occurred last night in Ottawa, Canada. Speaking at a dinner with members of the Canadian government, Biden suggested that the liberal international order now depends on one man’s shoulders.
Enter Justin Trudeau.
Aged 44, Mr. Trudeau has been Canada’s Prime Minister since November 2015. He’s adored by liberals for his unapologetic confidence in big government. The left also loves him for his looks and his dynastic nomenclature. Justin’s father, Pierre, served two terms as Canada’s Prime Minister over a total of 15 years. But while the Trudeau clan are renowned for their charisma (my mother once met Pierre and insists that he was charming), charisma does not alone make a leader.
Biden, however, disagrees. He sees Trudeau as the next political messiah. The new Obama. And in Trudeau, Biden explained last night that humanity has high expectations: “The world is going to spend a lot of time looking to you Mr. Prime Minister as we see more and more challenges to the liberal international order than any time since the end of World War Two.”
The Vice President continued, “Vive la Canada because we need you very, very badly.”
It was an odd moment. Yes, Canada is a great country with great people. But whatever one thinks of Trudeau’s character (and I have heard he sometimes loses his wedding ring), the Canadian PM is no savior for the liberal order.
One need only look at Trudeau’s record on national defense. Entering office, Trudeau quickly ordered the Canadian Air Force to end combat missions against Daesh (aka ISIS). The Prime Minister tried to justify his order by increasing training missions for the Iraqi military. But let’s be clear, his abandonment of direct action against ISIS wasn’t just an act of moral cowardice; it was an unambiguous strategic failure. It sent a clear message of weakness to Canada’s enemies. And sadly, when it comes to Sunni-Islamic terrorists, Canada faces many such adversaries.
But that’s not all. Under Trudeau, Canada spends only 0.99% of its GDP on defense each year. If that doesn’t seem like much, it’s because it isn’t. The NATO expectation is that all member states spend at least 2% GDP on defense. Biden’s liberal hero is spending less than half than the basic minimum! In contrast, the United States spends 3.69% GDP. Even the economic basket case of Greece spends 2.38% GDP. But let’s give Trudeau the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps Biden believes low defense spending supports liberal order? After all, in his speech last night, Biden asserted that Angela Merkel is Trudeau’s key partner in defending liberal order. And Germany only spends 1.19% GDP on defense.
It gets even more ludicrous.
Just a couple of weeks ago, we had another example of Trudeau’s flimsy liberalism: his eulogy for Fidel Castro. While other world leaders qualified their statements on the Cuban dictator’s passing, Trudeau was evidently distraught. “It was with deep sorrow that learned today of the death of Cuba’s longest-serving President,” he said. Trudeau continued by saying he “was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century.” The “Comandante,” Trudeau informed us, had “tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people.” He promised to mourn the “remarkable leader.”
Those may be the words of the Canadian Prime Minister, but they are not the words of a leader who would defend the liberal order.
Or perhaps I’m wrong.
Perhaps, in the ashes of Aleppo, that’s exactly what liberal order has become in 2016? Put simply, a joke. But if so, it’s a tragedy. Just think how far it would mean we’ve come since the liberal leaders of the Second World War. Back then, a liberal President, Franklin Roosevelt, and a liberal Canadian Prime Minister, William King, banded together to crush tyranny. Absent them, and liberal order might now exist under the banner of the Gestapo.
Ultimately, Biden’s words prove something else: President Obama’s foreign policy failure. Earlier on Friday, Obama’s staff released a telling video. In it, Ben Rhodes (aka Mr. Blobby) asserts that the Obama foreign policy has been a great success. But watch the video below. All it proves is that Mr. Obama likes to visit totalitarian regimes.
My how far we have come. Setting America on its Cold War course to defeat totalitarian Communism, President Harry Truman kept a sign on his desk. It read “The buck stops here!” That sign reminded the world that he recognized his obligation to lead.
Still, at least Trudeau has beautiful, flowing hair.
