Facts have no place in the blame game

Trevor Hutchinson headshot

By Trevor Hutchinson

A graduate of the University of Toronto, Trevor Hutchinson is a songwriter, writer and bookkeeper. He serves as Contributing Editor at The Lindsay Advocate. He lives with his fiancee and their five kids in Lindsay.

Blaming my prime minister for everything is the gift that keeps giving.

The other day I spent a couple of hours reading some recent federal Conservative party press releases and I am excited to say that I have since gained some valuable life coping skills.

For example, after stubbing my toe on a dog bone in my hallway, I instantly screamed out “bleeping Trudeau” because everything is our prime minister’s fault. It certainly wasn’t my dog’s fault or mine for that matter. It felt great to have someone to blame and it didn’t require me to help fix the problem or do anything for that matter. Later that week, when I saw a big snowfall, releasing a sarcastic “Thanks Trudeau!” felt, well, great. Lake effect, schmake effect! I know where that snow really came from.

And don’t get me started on the price of gas or inflation. That carbon tax clearly makes this all Justin Trudeau’s fault. Never mind that commodity prices are set at the world level and influenced by any number of geopolitical and economic factors. And the fact that the Ontario fuel tax is 14.7 cents a litre (not counting the province’s 8 per cent portion of the HST) is irrelevant when you use this technique.

You see, what makes this such a great coping mechanism is that you needn’t bother yourself with pesky facts at all. And complex issues with many factors are magically solved by simply assigning blame. Actually, nothing is really solved, because that’s not how the blame game works, but you get the idea.

But what if you are using this technique and someone challenges you with a fact, or even worse, science? Well, that’s when you have to double down and get all Pierre Poilievre on them. You have to call them biased and question their motivations and then bring the conversation back to the real culprit.

Actually, I am expecting to blame Trudeau for quite a few things over the Christmas season. See, I doubt I’ve ever had a holiday season go perfectly to plan. Whether it’s forgetting a gift or burning the gravy for the tofurkey, there’s always something that goes off the rails. I used to internalize this stuff and occasionally feel bad or even inept. But no more! Blaming my prime minister for everything is the gift that keeps giving.

Now, here’s hoping you are better at this Christmas/New Years thing than I am and you won’t need to blame our beloved leader at all. And I truly hope that these holidays, however you celebrate, is a time of joy and laughter for you and yours. But should you not get the exact gift you wanted or if you buy the wrong size or colour of a gift you are giving, don’t worry about it. You know who to blame.

And from my family to yours, Happy New Year.

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