To paraphrase a famously tedious philosophical question (I leave it to you, dear reader, to determine whether any of that is redundant): if a federal cabinet minister puts their foot in their mouth, figuratively speaking, in the middle of August, does it still matter, even if there’s no one around to notice?

Here’s a real example from Canadian Press last week:

OTTAWA - Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada has been considering a “game plan” for how it would respond if the United States takes a far-right, authoritarian shift after next year's presidential elections. “We are certainly working on scenarios,” Joly said in French during an interview with a Montreal radio station Wednesday.

I can think of six issues at first pass:

Since the United States of America made the downpayment on the defence of modern democracy in the middle of the last century (which, for the record, still checks my “what have you done for us, lately?” box), we ought to at least grant them the benefit of the doubt until they concretely demonstrate otherwise.
Canada’s official diplomatic position on American politics should remain Churchillian at all times—that is, we may not like the route or the means but they do always get there in the end.
Not that it’s any of our business, mind. Canada has made absolutely no effort to establish the sort of diplomatic relationship with America that could support this kind of glib public comment. Don’t believe me? Ask yourself how we’d react if the Secretary of State alluded to some sort of “game plan” should the NDP happen to form government and make dental care too affordable.
Here’s the big one: Any fundamental change in American constitutional practice, order, and values would, like an earthquake, shake the world and would, like an earthquake, reduce even the most sophisticated “game plan” to a single option: bracing for impact.
Canada gets a free ride on continental defence and won’t even commit to meeting the minimum NATO defence spending requirement—so, we could easily imagine a brave member of the press gallery putting this down by asking Minister Joly here, with all due respect, you and what army?
This is almost parody—specifically, for example, of an early episode of the West Wing where the deputy chief of staff, filling in for the press secretary, blunders into suggesting there’s a “secret plan to fight inflation” by being a little too glib and loose at the mic.

One’s relationship to their government often mimics the mutual fear parents and children reserve for one another: sometimes they embarrass you. Fortunately, it’s the middle of August and no one noticed.