What is he afraid of?

I see, in an article in La Presse that (my translations) “Absent a major turnaround, Justin Trudeau intends to participate in only two debates during the upcoming election campaign. Those that will be the ones organized by the Leaders’ Debates Committee … [and] … a Liberal strategist said that they (the LPC) do not see any advantage in taking part in the three other contests that have been proposed because the campaign will be much shorter than the one in 2015, which lasted for 78 days and which gave rise to five debates between the leaders of the main political parties.“

The other debates are:

• At the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre, already world-famous for its policy debates ~ a debate on foreign policy;
• By Maclean’s magazine and City-TV ~ a general debate moderated by Paul Wels; and
• By TVA ~ a second Frech language debate.

My question is: is Justin Trudeau really so inept that he cannot be prepared for three or four or five debates ~ one every week? is that too much to ask of the would-be leaders of a G7 country? Is foreign policy too hard for Prime Minister Trudeau? Is he afraid that Paul Wells might ask a hard question? Andrew Scheer, Jagmeet Singh and even Elizabeth May seem up for the task. What is Justin Trudeau afraid of?  Himself?

Erin O’Toole, who knows a good bit about foreign policy, explains in three short posts where Justin Trudeau has failed:

Of course, Justin Trudeau was quite proud of his performance in the Munk Debate in 2015 …

… but then, of course, he did not have to defend a record of abysmal failure … maybe that’s what he’s afraid of in 2019. Maybe he knows that Canadians will see right through him and understand that there is, in reality, nothing there; nothing but an image created for him by his campaign team.