Yes, I’m back.

I’m not sure if I can explain my absence. Lost interest, perhaps. In terms of politics, there was certainly a lot of fodder to work with, but …

Here’s the thing. Justin Trudeau is essentially a okay prime minister. He’s not up to Stephen Harper’s class in terms of consequential politics; and he’s certainly not up to his father or Jean Chrétien, on those same terms. He is, however, better than Paul Martin, meaning he’s not a mediocrity. We’re seeing some mistakes, but fortunately it would seem the Liberals have finally learned to resist the temptation to look arrogant outside Central Canada.

South of the border, however …

Okay, if you had told me, two years ago, that Donald Trump would be president of the United States, I would have laughed in your face. In fact my initial reaction in November, upon waking up to the news, was to laugh in derision.

Since then, Mr. Trump has proven to be an okay to slightly below average president, in terms of consequential politics. Actions re the Syrian situation, decisions on climate change and free trade, all pretty much par for the course for a protectionist, somewhat isolationist president.

The problem that most people have with him is that he’s not a professional politician. Period. So of course he’s going to come off pretty bad if you try to force him into that mold of a professional.

The real problem, of course, is the reaction of all those so-called “progressives” who merrily assumed that Hillary Clinton would simply sweep into power. The more die-hard of them are still plenty sore about it, because they cannot bring themselves to accept that the nation rejected their candidate — and, by extension, them. How they continue to work this out among themselves would be a source of great schaedenfreude for the coming year.

However, my intention for this blog is to ignore that, once again focusing on Canadian federal politics with the occasional foray into Ontario politics as the situation demands. We’ll see how it goes.