Justin Trudeau may appear to be a nice guy, but he is also extremely calculated and annoying

His 20-second long 'dramatic pause' before answering a question about Donald Trump’s obviously unforgivable recent behaviour was just so contrived, so obvious and so protracted that it robbed it of any sincerity

Fond as I am of all things Canadian, I have to say I’d have a bit more time for the fashionable liberal statesperson for our times, dishy Justin Trudeau, if he wasn’t quite so screamingly calculated and annoying.

You see his 20-second long “dramatic pause” he allowed himself before answering a question about Donald Trump’s obviously unforgivable recent behaviour was just so contrived, so obvious and so protracted that it robbed it of any sincerity. Politicians do not need a 20-second gap to answer (or avoid answering) any question, let alone one about the leading global news item of the last week.

The prime minister of Canada might also carry a bit more credibility had he not blacked-up for some rich brat’s party when was young. Or rather younger, as it was long after he’d left college. It may have been three times or more, he cannot recall.

Once he dressed up as Aladdin and, incongruously, gave his chums a rendition of the Banana Boat Song. He did it quite a lot, the Minstrel of Montreal. Trudeau was perfectly well-educated and hadn’t been brought up by some Klan family in the Deep South.

Far from it. His father, Pierre, was a notably charismatic prime minister of his country, also of the Liberal Party. I can’t blame Trudeau for his privileged background, though he may have gained some advantages in life as a result; but with an impeccable progressive heritage such as that, his behaviour is even more baffling, to put it mildly. It’s just as well he’s put the greasepaint away these days because his habit of crying in public would make it run.

He’s not all bad, the lad. He became premier, in 2015, at the age of 43, remarkable by any standards, and he added a little glamour to the international summit scene, raising Canada’s profile in the process. He was maybe a little jejune at first, but if his woke attitudes are sometimes a bit laboured, he still puts Trump, Erdogan, Putin, Modi and the other authoritarian horrors on the world stage to shame.

He’s on the right side on the big issues, such as climate change, and, given everything, he’s been quite brave about standing up to that petulant bully south of the border.

Canada is a force for good in the world, the country that the United States “could” be. The substance is probably fine, but, as big a showman as his dad ever was, the style isn’t as groovy as he thinks it is.