Here’s what I think of Justin Trudeau.

I think he’s a kid who got himself into a situation beyond his capabilities. He never expected to end up as the dictator of Canada due to a widespread crisis. And maybe he likes it just a little, and it’s brought out new and surprising things in him. But it’s nothing he ever planned or intended.

Rome introduced the idea of a dictator as a single person in whom power could be vested to allow for quicker action during a crisis. During the Punic wars Rome was in immanent danger, so they elected a dictator. But they also realized that it was a dangerous move, and the hardest thing in the world is to know when to stop and how to return things back to normalcy.

It was probably the reasonable move to get a little dictatorial when the covid crisis first hit. But at some point you have to return things to normalcy and roll back the measures and have the dictator give up some of their power, maybe even even stand up and defend their past actions. That’s part of the necessary process.

Justin would hardly be the first dictator who tried to call an election when they saw things beginning to head that way to try to shore up and maintain their wartime mandate. It’s very hard to know when to step back and say, OK, I’ve done my bit, time to let things go back to normal. Time to endure the criticism for the choices I made under pressure during a time of crisis. Unfortunately, I don’t think Justin is mature enough to know how to do that. He wants to keep riding the wave that has passed. He won’t easily let even the government return to normal operations.

So instead he’s trying to keep the party going. And he’s accusing other people of exactly the mistakes he’s been making (another classic move). He’s been shutting down the economy, he’s been restricting movement and freedom, he’s been making unreasonable demands, he’s been operating like a bully and punishing any dissent or complaints or scrutiny. And he defends his honor by accusing others at home and abroad of these same sins.

He’s very polite about it, he’s got a soft and sympathetic face. He’s very Canadian. Do the right thing, be the good people. He is the avatar of the good people. He is reasonableness, and all reasonable people agree, therefore anyone who doesn’t agree is bad and unreasonable.

I don’t think Justin is a bad guy by nature, I think he got himself into an unforeseen situation beyond his level of maturity, and he’s reacted like many people in history have to a similar situation. Rome knew that it was a risk investing someone with a dictatorship, even when you could pick that person. Justin’s only real fault is being a typical politician and leader and a not-exceptional person with very average levels of wisdom and character, that were simply not quite up to managing the very difficult and politically and morally hazardous task before him. There but for the grace of God go I.

But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve some serious pushback, and that Canada doesn’t need to reassert its political normalcy and roll back the emergency measures. Justin is taking the typical step of invoking new emergency measures at a time when most reasonable people would be pulling back, trying to hang on when the war is basically over. He basically admits that Canada is doing very well by many measures, is highly vaccinated, that the whole landscape of the crisis has changed, and that people are sick of the wartime mentality. But instead of returning things to normality, like many countries have already done and more are doing every day, he finds reasons to enact even greater powers to quell dissent and demands to that effect.

He’s making all the wrong moves at this stage, but he’s following a well-worn path. I can only imagine that he fears being subjected to the ordinary scrutiny that normal government action has to endure when you don’t have a dictatorial fiat. And maybe he doesn’t want to take his hands off the wheel. He doesn’t like the reality that everyone who makes crisis decisions is eventually subjected to enormous criticism with the benefit of hindsight. He’s afraid to become a part of the past that can be criticized with the advantage of perspective. He’s made a career out of doing that to other people. He certainly doesn’t want to become them.

So he has to stay in control of the narrative. The moment you let go of your grip on the present, you become part of the critical subjects of the past. It’s easy to decry all the mistakes that Canada’s past leaders made, it’s hard to suddenly find that you’ve become one of them.