If you want to know what's wrong with this country, well, there are books and books you could read.  Or, to save time, just peruse Justin Trudeau's statement on the end of the Energy East pipeline project.

It began with a tweet, a suitably vacuous format for a vacuous leader in a vacuous age.  But this one was empty and self-satisfied even by the standard of tweets.  "On energy, we succeed when we work together as Canadians", it said.

Now the obvious objection is that this statement has nothing to do with what just happened.  We didn't succeed on Energy East nor did we work together "as Canadians" whatever that might mean given Trudeau's infamous December 2015 claim that "There is no core identity" in Canada.

The deeper problem is that it makes a traumatic and divisive policy failure sound like an achievement.  Or rather, it tries to.  As Andrew Coyne noted acerbically in retweeting it, "The replies to this may suggest the message didn't entirely connect with people."  Indeed it was an exceptionally tone-deaf response from a man who, on a good day, makes up in empathy for what he lacks in depth of understanding.

If it were just a standalone Tweet the damage might have been contained at this point.  But it went on "Read more: bit.ly/2yP0j6y", that hip "Bitly" shortened hyperlink connecting the curious to a Facebook post by the PM that read like satire of vain self-absorption.

The post began by dismissing the whole issue with a corny, frivolous joke: "It's no surprise there's been heated debate in the wake of TransCanada's decision to step away from its Energy East pipeline proposal.  It there weren't heated debate it wouldn't be Thanksgiving in Canada."  Ha ha ha.  That wacky Western alienation.  Now if it were Bombardier…

The post had the gall to continue "debate is one thing.  Stoking national divisions… is another."  So if we Liberals once again hurt the West then brush it off, you're the divisive ones if you persist in mentioning it.  Whereas if anyone insults Quebec…

Trudeau proceeded to defend the Liberal record on energy and climate, exactly as though the cancellation of Energy East were indeed an accomplishment, in the process doubling down on callous indifference to western concerns.  The collapse of the oil price has led to real hardship especially in Alberta, with high unemployment, broken dreams and serious problems in public finance, accompanied by a feeling that the Eastern you-know-whos just don't care.  Apparently this one doesn't.

Then the PM combined a boast with two lies.  "As liberals, we hold that a clear, transparent regulatory process is key to the success of major resource projects."  If that were true they would have made some effort to create one.  Instead, in a fog of uncertainty, major resource projects in Canada are failing one after another.

So Trudeau lies and boasts again, with a topping of trite partisanship.  "But to attribute the cancellation of Energy East to federal regulation good, bad or indifferent ignores the obvious.  First, our government has approved two major oil export pipelines that are under construction as we speak.  A third is expected to move forward soon.  That is precisely three major pipeline projects more than the previous government managed to initiate in a decade."

In fact the "approved" pipelines are far from a done deal given regulatory uncertainty, legal proceedings, protests and provincial hostility.  So rather than take the high ground, express concern and even contrition, Trudeau insults his critics and attacks his predecessors.  Very classy.

His insistence that market conditions were to blame certainly may be news to Montreal mayor Denis Coderre, a former Liberal MP and cabinet minister and vehement opponent of pipelines though not of importing oil by tanker or rail, who boasted of Quebecers' role in getting the project canceled.  Of course the company didn't blame governments; they don't dare to with so much at stake.  But it insults our intelligence to assume we don't grasp the importance of an endless regulatory process, all maze and no cheese, in killing the project.

Then Trudeau insulted his critics again: "Of course, politics will be politics.  Folks are entitled to their opinions.  But Canadians deserve better than a discussion in which leaders leap to capitalize on perceived regional slights, regardless of context or facts."  Given his own blindness to context it is stunning arrogance not softened by the Obama "folks" touch.  But wait.  It gets worse.

He went on to say "We don't get far we never have gotten far by pitting one region against another, or one group against another.  We succeed when we work together, as Canadians.  And that absolutely requires a give and take."

There might be a time and a place for such sentiments.  Though banal, they are not invalid.  But given an incident that painfully reminds westerners of the National Energy Program, enormous economic folly that pitted one region against another in a give-and-take where the west gave and the east took, under a PM from Quebec named Trudeau, you have to acknowledge what westerners, and many other Canadians, are feeling and show some sensitivity even if you disagree.

Hoo hah!  Instead he unleashed more condescending insulting lies at the West: "Aside from its being intellectually dishonest, the reflexive stoking of regional tensions is a political dead end.  The Conservative party, formerly the Reform Party, trod that road in its infancy.  It was a road better left abandoned."  Looooosers!  Hayseeds!  In fact it was the Liberals who stoked regional tensions and the Reform Party that arose in consequence.

Then instead of showing any understanding of this context, Trudeau blathered on how our wonderful energy sector contributes to exports and "well-paying middle-class jobs for Canadians", as if the Energy East pipeline had just been approved not abandoned and the oil patch was booming not hurting.

Obviously Trudeau's statement was crafted with an eye to the negative political fallout, including its concluding warning that "we know the consequences of regional tensions, if left to fester.  For decades, through the seventies and eighties and into the 90s, the political process in this country was bound up in hugely difficult, paralyzing unity debates.  Let's not go backwards, simply because speaking from anger is an easy response to disappointing news."

The problem is, it was crafted so ineptly his enemies could not have made it more damaging to his image as a compassionate uniter.  It fostered regional tension by mocking off western concerns, piling insult on misrepresentation, evading responsibility and treating anger at Liberal energy policies rather than the policies as the problem.

In 140 characters or less, it was: An amazingly vacuous performance even by a man noted for his vacuity.  That he should be popular despite such attitudes, or possibly because of them, speaks volumes about our political culture.