Justin Trudeau refers to conservative candidate as a “two-fer,” what did he mean?

The Liberal government is currently out on a caucus retreat before parliament resumes later this week. It's been a turbulent week for the Liberal Party, after continued controversy around the decision to invoke the Emergencies Act in the 2022 Ottawa Occupation, due to a court deeming it to be unconstitutional, and, separate from that, having an MP suggest a leadership review to be necessary.

Ever since former Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole resigned, the Durham Riding has had a vacant seat, with a byelection coming later in the year to find a successor to O'Toole. The Conservative Party candidate for Durham in the upcoming byelection is Jamil Jivani, a Canadian radio host, non-practising lawyer, author, and political commentator.

During the caucus retreat, Justin Trudeau sparked controversy when he referred to Jivani, referring to him as a “twofer.” According to Merriam-Webster, the word “twofer” refers to something that satisfies two criteria or needs simultaneously.

Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre posted his opinion on the matter via X (formerly Twitter), in a post where he referred to Trudeau's comment as racist and referred to him as a leader who has 'an ugly racist past.'

“Justin Trudeau called Conservative candidate, Jamil Javani, a “two-fer”—another racist comment from a leader who has an ugly racist past.” Poilievre said

Did Trudeau mess up here?

Make no mistake, Justin Trudeau is certainly a leader who deserves criticism. Trudeau has been caught up in scandal after scandal, he is out of touch and doesn't understand what Canada needs. However, the Conservatives often criticize Trudeau for ridiculous made-up reasons. Like that time they shared a video of Trudeau singing songs in a hotel in Quebec back in 2019 and they claimed it to be a video of Trudeau “embarrassing” himself right after the Queen of England died. Notice how Jivani cut the video immediately after Trudeau said twofer?

The reason for that is simple. Trudeau immediately follows up with added context that justified referring to Jivani this way, and the Conservatives want an excuse to make Trudeau look more racist than Poilievre.

“Poilievre's new candidate in Durham, is a twofer. He is both an Idealogue and an insider. What he is not is someone who has lived and served in the community for years.” Trudeau said

Another controversy around Justin Trudeau again, is based on a lie. The Poilievre Conservatives have proven yet again how dishonest and misleading they are. Instead of thinking of a real reason to criticize the prime minister, they are yet again taking quotes out of context to distort their meaning. Pierre Poilievre wants Canadians to believe that the CPC is the party that seeks to provide a positive, unifying voice for our future.

Two seconds after getting off the social media soapbox? They'll shamelessly endorse baseless conspiracy theories and will resort to directly lying to people. This situation alone proves that.

Grasping at straws

Trudeau has said and done enough ridiculous things that you'd think Poilievre wouldn't need to take what he and his party say out of context to find something to criticize. The Poilievre Conservatives do need to however, because criticizing any of the real problems in this government would require them to either address and take accountability for the fact Harper set things up to be this bad by selling 800,000 affordable houses to private investors (under Poilievre's watch as housing minister too), among other things Harper did to the ethics framework alone. Moreover, it would require the party to stop the rage farming activities and start standing for something.

As evident by the fact that Andrew Scheer and Erin O'Toole were the previous candidates, the Conservative strategy ever since 2019 has been to run the candidate they think can be the most “anti-Trudeau” instead of running someone with ideas and a platform people want to vote for. Erin O'Toole represented some good ideas, and even when people disagreed with him, he was always kind and respectful. Erin O'Toole would behind the scenes put extremist members of his party in their place, and that's exactly the reason they ousted him.

Due to the brand of Progressive Conservatism O'Toole offered, ousting him was a mistake that the party will probably deeply regret. If they kept O'Toole and ran him in 2025, Conservative victory for at least a minority government would be certain. However, Canada has seen the damage that the far-right US populism has caused to America. Canadians are not interested in Christian Nationalism, pro-forced birth legislation, or the privatization of healthcare.

Jamil Jivani in doing this, has showcased that he has little adherence to principles and overall lacks integrity. This kind of conduct alone hints at a potentially self-serving candidate. A candidate is much more likely to make decisions based on his own bottom line and political career rather than service to those living in his riding, or the greater good for that matter. Jivani has made a bad call banking on this to be how he wants to introduce himself to some voters, and ultimately the people living in Durham will speak during the by-election with their votes.

This piece is an archival work of the author, originally published elsewhere, and is presented here for historical record. The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of the Provincial Times. Read our Content Policy here.