Trudeau can live his postpolitical life however he wants, but it will invariably reflect on his time in office

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George W. Bush took up painting when he left the Oval Office in 2009. In 2014, he unveiled his first public exhibit, entitled “The Art of Leadership: A President’s Personal Diplomacy,” which featured portraits of world leaders he met during his time in office.

The whole thing was sort of … odd.

It wasn’t just that Mr. Bush’s portraits were, at best, of the skill level of a talented high-school student, but also that they seemed so frivolous in the long shadow of Mr. Bush’s actions in office. As president, he used the pretense of weapons of mass destruction to condemn the U.S. to eight years of fighting in Iraq, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 4,500 service members and laid the foundation for new extremist movements in the region. But in 2014, when his country was still reeling from the aftereffects of that war (and from his decision to bail out the big banks in 2008, and his authorizing the fighting that continued in Afghanistan) he was busily painting pretty portraits and nibbling cheese at his presidential library. One might’ve expected a little more humility from the architect of years of chaos, polarization, and destruction in the U.S. and beyond.

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There are no rules for what political leaders are “supposed” to do when they leave office, but there is a blueprint: Most disappear for a while, then join a few corporate boards, maybe give some speeches, and eventually write their memoirs. This is less an expectation than it is a continuation of their own natural professional trajectories; indeed, someone who is serious enough to become president or prime minister (notwithstanding the current occupant of the Oval Office) will most likely want to continue pursuing serious endeavours after he or she has left politics. Most are also mindful that their postpolitical activities will continue to tell the story of the type of person they were back when they were in office.

There is a general consensus that whatever they choose to do, it is somewhat uncouth for the public to comment on the private lives of politicians when they’ve exited the public arena. The prevailing view is that these men and women have served the electorate dutifully, and thus, have earned the right to do what they want out of the public eye. That view, of course, is eminently reasonable.

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But when these ex-leaders decide to deliberately put their actions in the public eye – perhaps by hosting a public art exhibit, or by permitting a pop-star girlfriend to blast videos and images to her 200 million followers – the claim to privacy is not really valid. This information is worth paying attention to, not only for what it says about the individual, but for what it tells the country about how it came to be in its current state.

At present, Canada is not just walking back some policies implemented under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but totally reversing course: We are slashing immigration, abandoning climate-change measures, shrinking the public service, rewriting bail and sentencing policy, scrapping planned changes to capital-gains taxation, spending big on national defence and so on. Canada is very much in the early stages of dealing with the last decade of mismanagement, during which, according to a just-published RBC report, $1-trillion in investment exited Canada, which constitutes “the largest capital exodus in Canadian history.” Under this long shadow, Mr. Trudeau is on a ski lift alongside Prince Harry, and dancing with Katy Perry at Coachella, which is the type of trip that, just one year ago, he encouraged Canadians to avoid in protest of the tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. One might’ve expected just a touch more humility.

Mr. Trudeau can live his postprime-ministerial life however he wants, of course, and no one should fault him for deciding to have some fun. But the choice to share these escapades at a time when Canada is grappling with the effects of a half-dozen of his most disastrous policy decisions reveals something of his personal nature, and sheds some light on how Canada came to be in its current state. That is, it explains some things that the guy in a backwards cap slurping noodles at Coachella – with his girlfriend sharing photos of it all – was, barely over a year ago, the leader of a G7 nation. Just as it explains something of Mr. Bush’s tenure that no one around him, even in retirement, was brave enough to suggest he spend a few more years working on his technique before exhibiting his portraits.

We can’t expect anything of politicians when they leave public office, but we can notice their behaviours and reflect on them. This information tells us who we might want to lead our country in future, and who might be better left to the concert circuit.