"For 'tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard"

Accusing Justin Trudeau of being racist is ridiculous. This is a prime minister who formed the most ethnically diverse cabinet in history, welcomed 40,000 Syrian refugees, condemned a proposed niqab ban, supported a parliamentary study of Islamophobia, launched a federal anti-racism strategy, funded a new "Centre for Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Statistics," and who has apologized for every historical slight against an ethnic group he can dredge up. The man doesn't have a racist bone in his body.

So what about the face painting? Well, he has a bit of his old man in him, the flamboyance. He's the life of the party, the guy who would go all out for an Arabian Nights theme—the costume, the makeup, the works. We saw this side of him during his infamous visit to India.

Nonetheless, this will go hard on Trudeau because he is so damn self-righteous. He tolerates no such faux pas from his MPs. His demotion of my MP, Kent Hehr, comes to mind. When he gets on the subject of human rights he turns pedantic; he lectures; the school teacher emerges. Remember him instructing the woman at one of his town hall meetings that she should say "personkind," not "mankind." If you are going to be self-righteous you had best be righteous. But if you get caught out, you must suffer the accusations of hypocrisy, and Trudeau's opponents will make sure he suffers.

Mind you, watching Andrew Scheer accuse Trudeau of racism is a bit much given the neanderthals he has lurking in his party. Yet Trudeau deserves it. The Liberals kicked off their campaign by denouncing Scheer for remarks he made about gay marriage years ago, so now Andrew gets his turn. Tit for tat. Sauce for the goose and all that.

Perhaps the former school teacher will take this as a teachable moment. He may learn a little humility. And he may learn to be a little less self-righteous with his candidates and MPs who sin along these lines. Now that his misdeeds have been exposed, perhaps he can be a little more forgiving of theirs.

And, oh, one more thing. A personal message, Justin. You have apologized profusely and sincerely for your antics. Good for you. Now when am I getting my apology for your betrayal on voting reform?