Is the Trudeau ‘elbowgate’ incident being blown out of proportion?

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has apologized for a third time after a scuffle with a member of the opposition on the floor of the House of Commons yesterday.

“I apologize to my colleagues, to the House as a whole, and to you Mr. Speaker for failing to live up to a higher standard of behaviour. Members, rightfully, expect better behaviour from anyone in this House. I expect better behaviour of myself.”

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But is all this being blown out of proportion?

The issue political scientist Max Cameron has with the dust-up is not just that it will likely be dragged out for a while by both the NDP and Tories, but that it make the House look like school-yard.

“Passion is a huge part of politics. We know that people enter politics because they care deeply about the things that are motivating them. However, passion has to be combined with detachment and the ability to exercise good judgement and to display good character. And this is not the kind of passion that we want. There is good passion and bad passion.”

He thinks Trudeau’s apologies were disingenuous and expected better judgement from the prime minister.

“Any kind of physicality or manhandling that happens in the House of Commons is obviously a source of concern. The House of Commons is supposed to be a place where people behave with decorum. It’s an honourable chamber and members are expected to behave as themselves. And I think what we’ve seen in Canada over the last couple of decades is a gradual deterioration in the behaviour of our members of parliament.”

Yesterday, Trudeau crossed the floor and pulled the Conservative party whip by the arm, and then collided with an NDP MP in the moments leading up to a key vote.