Thread by @Norlaine

I expect every party to be making hay over Trudeau's makeup for the next several days. Because when something is tossed in your lap, you go for it, right? Except, maybe that isn't the high road... To begin with, I acknowledge my privilege. #cdnpoli #VOTE #NeverScheer 1/24

I am white. I grew up in a lower middle class family and got a good education. Education was highly valued in my home, and I know it isn't that way in many families. Many kids grow up without someone at home who encourages and supports educational success. 2/24

Having said that, and acknowledging that I cannot appreciate the pain that racial discrimination may bring, I still say that 20 years ago we were less enlightened than we are now. We had less opportunity to be enlightened. 3/24

We all make mistakes. I don't think the PM put on the makeup motivated by racism. I think it seemed like a cool costume and he didn't really think it through. Nor were there as many sources of information on cultural appropriation as there are now. 4/24

In 1991 we still had white Hollywood actors playing Native Americans and Asians in mainstream films 5/24 huffingtonpost.ca/entry/26-times…

I remember going to a Halloween party about 1985 dressed as an alien and I painted myself blue. My partner went as Doctor Who. 6/24

He is not British, although he styled himself as Tom Baker for the evening. And I am the most boring ethnicity on the planet, so I thought it would be fun to dress as an extraterrestrial. So, head to toe blue paint and a ridiculously short dress. The Doctor's companion. 7/24

We can only live in the time we are living in. Who knows what behaviours no one thinks about now will be considered heinous 20 years from now? I don't. Do you? Perhaps the clothes we now wear will be considered offensive. 8/24

Perhaps driving a gas-powered vehicle will be taboo. The point is, you cannot apply a 2019 sensibility to 2001 and not roundly condemn many people living in that time for one thing or another. In other words, people cannot know what they do not know. 9/24

As I said in another thread, there is a big difference between making a mistake as a private citizen in 2001 and apologising for it, and saying some anti-LGBTQ2+ things in 2005 in the House of Commons and voting against LGBTQ2+ rights in every vote since. 10/24

And continuing to tell anti-choice and social conservatives right now, in 2019, that you will make their wishes come true if elected. One is a past mistake and a course of evolution into an enlightened individual...11/24

The other is refusing to accept evolution. Or science. Demonstrating nothing more than lip-service to get elected. Seriously, no one really thinks Trudeau is a closet racist, do they? And yet, can you really say Scheer is not driven by religious right ideals like... 12/24

... anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ2+, not to mention flirtations with white supremacists and some deeply misogynist/racist ideology? Right here, right now? What did he say about Indigenous People? Oh, yes. They couldn't be guaranteed rights... 13/24

... that could allow them to block natural resource development and transportation. So, before you go all, "OMIGOD! Trudeau is a racist!" Can we please take a breath and consider what is really going on here? 14/ 24

The CPC are desperate to win this election. Otherwise, why would they be lying daily, sometimes multiple times a day, to trick people into voting for them? And there are those "foreign actors", as conservative parties like to call entities outside Canada,... 15/24

...busy digging for dirt. Does it trouble you not at all that the photo was found and released by an American publication? An American publication owned by Marc Benioff, a generous Republican donor. Just saying... 16/24

It should be obvious by now that the CPC and the GOP and the other IDU governing parties around the world are pretty tight. Pretty focused on the same goal, installing right-wing governments around the world. 17/24

Canada needs to have an election that is untainted by foreign influence. We Canadians deserve to choose our government, not have it imposed by foreign ideologues. Yes, Trudeau f*cked up, by our current standards, almost 20 years later. 18/24

He has owned it and apologised. Hard to say what would appease the right now. A blood sacrifice, perhaps? Resignation and withdrawal of the LPC from the race? Scheer said an apology was sufficient for his candidates, for much more recent offenses. 19/24

But, of course, there are different rules for the CPC. Not the same metric as other parties. They feel entitled to do with Canada what they want. Hint: You won't like it. It will be like what Ford is doing to Ontario, what Kenney is beginning to do to Alberta. 20/ 24

The CPC has been lying daily about the Liberals. It is no surprise that they have invested in an American research team to dig for dirt on Trudeau. But, are their lies today somehow more acceptable than a mistake 19 years ago? 21/24

How do you reconcile that? Doesn't that make you feel a teensy bit hypocritical? Lying to trick people into voting CPC or staying home in this election, versus a poorly thought-out themed party costume almost 2 decades ago. 22/24

Do I need to bring up the racist Rebel or the Yellow Vests or duck-hunting with Faith Goldy? An unthinking act in the distant past (and apologised for) versus actual ties to white supremacists? Canadians are not stupid. 23/24

Nor are we inclined to turn over our power and autonomy to an internationally-backed, socially-conservative, authoritarian-inclined world consortium seeking to destabilize life as we know it. So, get stuffed, Andy. Not buying what you're selling. 24/24