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The rather dismissive attitude shown by the Prime Minister and his staff towards Chinese interference in our democracy at their appearance before the ongoing public inquiry at least is consistent with his dismissive attitude over the years. Fourteen years ago the warnings by of the then new head of CSIS Richard Fadden were ignored.

Many Torontonians feel a sense of responsibility to our fellow citizens who suffer from homelessness. They make and serve them meals, give them clothing, and often just talk to them and make them feel less ignored and misunderstood. They also discover that those who don’t have a roof over their heads and carry all they own in a knapsack are not druggies, losers or mad people but a cross section of ordinary folks who have fallen on hard times. For them the housing crisis is a joke. They just want food and a bed in a room with a toilet and shower nearby.

This is the real question to examine for those many Liberals that wish he would have his own “walk in the snow” and resign like his father did almost 50 years to the day – February 28, 1984. Pierre Trudeau told a confidante the day of that fateful moment: “I don't have the energy anymore for the job." His close staff also felt he was convinced he had done what he set out to do. The list was long: He had repatriated the constitution with a charter of rights and freedoms, beaten Quebec separatism, and established his Peace Mission on the hot button nuclear issue. He felt there was no new agenda to inspire him to stay on.

The rise of social media as an unreliable news source and the precipitous decline of traditional news media serves as an answer to the question: How is it possible that so many people believe the outright lies of politicians and the frightening spread of disinformation?

CBC English TV mattered a lot to anyone alive in the sixties and seventies when comedy programs like Wayne and Shuster were must watches in households in Canada and on the Ed Sullivan program in the US. The 11:00 pm news anchored by hosts like Eral Cameron and Stanley Burke dominated the airwaves. The seventies brought the popular The Beachcombers which enjoyed a lifetime of heavily watched 350 episodes. No longer.

These days many Canadians are soul-searching, anxious about wars that don’t feel so far away, people dying daily, hate, political polarization and worry of those among us who are financially unstable, unable to pay bills or feed their families. At this time of year, many of us are in a kind of limbo, a confusing space between the heaven of seasonal family love, abundance and gifts and an earth that seems horribly dark and foreboding. For Christians, the celebrations of the humble birth of a prophet whose arrival was going to change the world, the angel’s announcement of the event “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” seem like a hopeless wish.

Recently I watched a bold Bonnie Crombie accept the leadership of the sad Ontario Liberal Party. I’d been catching up on the winning ways of new Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and listening to her interviews and speeches, and I could not imagine two more contrasting political styles.

Justin Trudeau, when he is speaking emotionally about acts of racism, misogyny or recently antisemitism, is given to using the following formulation: “We're seeing right now a rise in antisemitism that is terrifying. Molotov cocktails thrown at Synagogues. This is not who we are as Canadians. This is something that is not acceptable in Canada, period."

The Leader of His Majesty’s loyal opposition, Pierre Poilievre is well known for avoiding traditional print, radio and TV media represented by the Parliamentary Press gallery. In fact, the most durable part of this national platform which gets cheering support whenever he speaks is a promise to defund the best staffed media group of them all, the CBC – not Radio Canada but CBC English. At times he has even refused to take questions from CBC reporters. His preferred direct-to-Canadians avenue for his well-developed anti-Trudeau views is his finely produced YouTube mini documentaries and social media feeds.