By Armchair Mayor

What if our own leaders were as candid as Rodrigo Duterte?

Nov 15, 2017 | 5:46 AM

KAMLOOPS — Have you ever been to a meeting and later heard someone else who was there describe what happened, and wonder whether you were at two different meetings?

Yesterday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte got together during a summit in Manila, with Trudeau raising the issue of human rights in connection with Duterte’s violent war on drugs, in which thousands have been killed.

Trudeau seemed pleased with the meeting. The president of the Philippines was, he said, “receptive” to the discussion, which was “very cordial.”

Duterte apparently was at a different meeting or, at least, on a totally different wave length. He called the conversation “a personal and official insult” and the meeting “bullshit.”

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Bringing up human rights is pretty much a requirement when the leaders of Western democracies have private meetings with the leaders of countries that don’t have the same respect for the rule of law as we do.

It’s almost a given that the Trudeaus of the world have to be able to say they at least mentioned human rights in passing.

Certainly, Duterte hasn’t exactly put human rights at the forefront of his agenda.

So, Trudeau did his duty and brought it up. And got told off.

Granted, Trudeau is Canadian. We’re a polite people. We like to leave a good impression. Our prime minister obviously didn’t want to let on that he was told to mind his own business, so he tried to honey-coat it.

But there’s something attractive in Duterte’s candor about his impressions of the meeting. Clearly, he was not receptive, he didn’t think the meeting was at all cordial, and he wasn’t going to pretend it was.

Human rights abuses need to be addressed but, gosh, wouldn’t it be refreshing if our own leaders were as plain-spoken as Mr. Duterte about these high-level gab fests, instead of serving up such a steady diet of mealy-mouthed, high-sounding platitudes about how everything is “cordial”?

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.