Analysis: Justin Trudeau's Calculated Risk With India Allegation

What do leaders across the world do when facing the threat of a salient issue that has the potential to be politically fatal? They look for deflection. R. Kent Weaver says in the Politics of Blame Avoidance that "in bad times the economy becomes a salient issue' and politicians find ways to blunt its impact on their prospect to remain in power. 

The whole of last week the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, seems to have used a universally tried and tested political strategy of blame avoidance quite deftly and steered clear of matters that matter.

Weeks before he travelled to New Delhi for the G20 Summit on September 9 and 10, Trudeau was under intense political pressure at home. The Conservatives had been going hammer and tongs after the Prime Minister over the affordability crisis or simply put, food inflation in Canada. The Trudeau government was being criticised by the opposition for making food on the plate expensive when grocery chains were making killer profits.