It was not realistic to expect David Johnston to resign as special rapporteur. It was always an option and I considered what it would imply once the conservatives made him their primary target to get at Justin Trudeau. I honestly expected the former governor general to be made of stronger stuff.
It probably set off a tantrum in the prime minister’s office before he headed to Kiyv. Otherwise, we would have heard more than that intergovernmental affairs minister Dominic LeBlanc has been tasked as the fixer. Trudeau only brings in his boyhood friend Dominic when it might be difficult for him to stay cool. Though I must admit, it would have been fun to be a fly on the wall in the PMO for the blow-up.
You have to admit though that Johnston must have reached the point that he said, “Let the young fool fight his own bloody battles.” When you are in your 80s, you learn to let the younger people do the fighting.
But I think this entire farce is losing traction with the public. Nobody seems to know the difference between the different types of inquiries and hearings. I really think Johnston has confused Canadians. He wanted public hearings to let them vent over the perceived political interference by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). He really did not want to get into any depth of public examination of Canada’s questionable intelligence efforts.
It has struck me that American president Biden, who is well briefed on the Canadian situation, might be warning off our Five Eyes allies about those limitations of our intelligence systems. He has already had meetings with UK prime minister Rishi Sunak in Washington and with the Australian PM in California.
What I think is more serious in this situation is that the leader of the opposition in parliament should be automatically cleared at a high level of security and read in on regular briefings from our intelligence agencies. Hit and miss memos do not do the job. If Pierre Poilievre wants to be taken seriously as an alternative prime minister, he has to take his responsibilities seriously. His job as leader of the opposition is not just to launch a constant stream of specious attacks on the government party and on the prime minister.
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