The prime minister is right, the prime minister is always right. How could he be wrong, he that is so virtuous, so compassionate and so sunny? And if you disagree, you are wrong, very wrong.

And so, we are faced with the tyranny of virtue.

If a federal election is not held until October, it is going to be a long, tiresome and painful ten months of Justin Trudeau raging at both Canadians and Americans like a demented harpy with her talons caught in a car door.

That the prime minister is a true believer goes without saying. He believes that the Liberals are the bright, shining light on top of the hill and that he is destined to bring Canadians right up there with them. Those who oppose this mission are not just misguided, but deliberately trying to sabotage his righteous calling.

This saviour complex was on full display when the prime minister sat down for a conversation this week with Patrick Sullivan, the president and CEO of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce.

Talking about a future election, Trudeau was imperious as he warned Canadians not to pick the wrong side.

“My only request for everyone is to be really thoughtful and go into the choices you make with eyes wide open,” he said. “I think there are a number of folks in different countries — and I won’t point out any particular one — where folks are going to be wondering about the choice they maybe made in elections.

“Let’s not be that kind of country in Canada. Let’s be deliberate about the choices we make.”

People were free to engage in democracy no matter how ill-informed their choice, allowed the prime minister.

“If we want to stop fighting climate change; if we want to re-legalize assault-style weapons; if we want to put back into question women’s rights; if we want to scrap $10 a day chidcare across this country; to stop delivering free dental care to vulnerable seniors, in a democracy that’s a choice people can make.

“Get rid of the CBC, too, that’s a choice people can make. But let’s take on the responsibility as electors, as thoughtful agents of change in our communities, to be smart about no matter how much we want change let’s not fall into an easy trap of voting change for the worse.”

See? Any other vote, according to the prime minister, is a change for the worst.

What about people unhappy with the carbon tax? They had misunderstood his good intentions, said Trudeau.

People discontented with the carbon tax “says a lot about the disconnect between what people perceive of as good policy versus what they perceive of as good politics.

“There’s lots of things out there that seem very, very popular to do politically, and people are falling over themselves to try and do them, and we only need to look south of the border to know that very popular policy is sometimes not very good policy.”

Our prime minister has declared himself firmly on the lonely, high road, let others take the more popular and easy way.

Trudeau was at his most virtuous when he dismissed the very real, ordinary, and everyday challenges of Canadians who choose to focus on food, rent and family over climate change.

“But every time we talk about fighting climate change,” said Trudeau, moving to the edge of his seat and adopting a messianic tone, “people say, ‘Uh, this is something that is going to make a difference in a decade or two decades from now and I can’t afford to pay for groceries, right now. I’m worried about paying my rent, right now. I’m worried about my kids’ future now and next week, not 20 years from now. It would be nice if we could do things for 20 years from now, but I need help right now’.”

Canada may become a land of the homeless and hungry but at least it will be ruled by a philosopher king who knows good policy when he sees it.

Meanwhile, the prime minister also called for a more thoughtful political discussion, where complex ideas were discussed and the tone wasn’t so divisive. And then he turned divisive.

People who voted Conservative were making the wrong choice about Canada, he said.

The Conservatives “are not showing any responsible leadership,” said Trudeau. “They are playing politics and they are very good at it, just look at the polls and see that it’s working. But will it hold? Will it hold until the moment when Canadians actually get to make a choice about the kind of country we are and the kind of solutions we are going to put forward in the coming years?”

In the prime minister’s eyes, voting Liberal is not only just and proper, it is the only morally right thing to do — the tyranny of virtue.

“Canadians deserve better and I know they are going to pick it,” he said.

But that’s a double-edged sword.

National Post