With the Trudeau government, even a recently-resigned principal secretary to the prime minister sticks to the talking points. Gerald Butts appeared before the Commons justice committee yesterday and tried valiantly to salvage what he could of the reputation of the liberal government. He danced a fine line between trashing the reputation of the former attorney general and justice minister and accepting the blame for running an incompetent prime minister’s office (PMO).
The talking points of the day were about those 9000 jobs at SNC-Lavalin of which his dear friend Jody Wilson-Raybould was so dismissive. It seems that in eight days between her returning from a trip to Australia last September and the steady stream of colleagues suggesting to her that she look kindly on SNC-Lavalin, Wilson-Raybould had decided to trash the Quebec engineering giant. The only problem was that this compulsive note taker forgot to tell anyone (other that the prime minister, it turns out) that she had made up her mind. In fact, she did not even mention it until she had been demoted to a lesser portfolio in cabinet.
And that, coincidently, was the same time as she started to feel the pressure that people had put on her through the end of 2018. And if you think that was bad news, Wilson-Raybould’s fellow liberal cabinet member Jane Philpott quit cabinet in sympathy with her friend Jody.
Thanks to the hard work of enquiring reporters, we soon learned that this was not the beginning of a major revolt against the prime minister. It is the opposition in parliament who appear to think that this is a second Christmas with the poll takers saying that only opposition parties are getting the fall-out.
Mind you, watching those carrying-ons in Ottawa is never going to replace Hockey Night in Canada for many Canadians. And why do we get the feeling that there is no adult supervision at that kindergarten on the Rideau? The time is long past for Justin Trudeau to show some contrition. He had better start explaining himself. And forget the wussy statements about being a feminist or an environmentalist. Those ships have sailed.
-30-
Copyright 2019 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]