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Believe it or not, the day of an emotional vigil in Edmonton – home to many of the victims’ friends and family – was not the day to retweet a month-old article on China and use it to clip Trudeau’s ears. And following it up with the party’s 1,300,301st attack on the carbon tax was no better. Is nobody at party HQ sense-checking the scheduled tweets anymore?

Trudeau has, for the most part, succeeded in keeping the politics out of it, which – partisans might be shocked to find out – aren’t what people are interested in the moment after atrocity strikes.

Nor was the party’s response on Iran itself much better.

Let’s take it as read that lots of Canadians are angry about what’s happened, but I’d wager not a single one of them blames Trudeau for it, so trying to make Trudeau the problem is a fool’s errand. Moreover, no Canadian expects any Canadian prime minister to be able to bend the mullahs to his will. Sorry lads, we don’t have that kind of pull. Just how listing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization (an oft-repeated Conservative ask of Trudeau this week) is meant to get to the bottom of what’s happened is a mystery. Does anybody honestly think an Iranian regime in crisis mode is suddenly going to cave because Canada thinks poorly of the goon squad that keeps the regime in power?

Look, I get it. Being on the right side of history counts. And the IRGC are scum. But if the Conservatives really want to freak the Iranian regime out, they should make common cause with Trudeau and back him as the government seeks answers via a transparent and thorough international investigation. They should support the brave Iranians on the streets who are risking their lives to stick two fingers the Ayatollah’s way in the wake of the regime’s admission of fault on Flight 752.