The misdeeds of this prime minister grow wearisome and worrisome.
Wearisome because they seem to occur with annual regularity. Worrisome for the same reason, along with the gnawing sense that they emanate from Justin Trudeau’s misplaced but unwavering confidence in his own rectitude.
The current controversy stems from the Trudeau government’s decision to give the WE Charity a contract to administer a near-billiondollar federal program that would pay Canadian students for volunteer work. The sole-sourced contract drew sufficient critical attention that “by mutual consent” the feds and WE cancelled the arrangement last week. When, and if, the program eventually gets off the ground, it will likely be administered by the federal bureaucracy.
The prime minister says that the recommendation to award the contract to WE came from federal bureaucrats, but it carried a hint of insider dealing from the outset because Trudeau has a lot of history with the charity.
That hint became an odious taint when word trickled out that about half of the Trudeau family worked for WE. The prime minister’s mother, brother and wife have all collected fees for participation in WE events, totalling about $280,000, with Justin’s mom Margaret getting the lion’s share.
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion is on the case, just as he was a year ago when his investigations concluded that Trudeau had crossed the ethical line by applying inappropriate pressure on then-justice Minister Jody Wilson-raybould to spare Snc-lavalin criminal prosecution on corruption charges.
You may recall that the prime minister and his acolytes dabbled unduly in the administration of justice in the interest, they said, of saving Canadian jobs at Lavalin. Ergo, there was virtue in their goal, even if there was impropriety in their method. Or, put another way, the ends justify the means.
This time around, the virtue is found in the government’s determination to get money in the hands of students for doing good works. WE was the effective delivery system.
While Trudeau has yet to learn how to avoid ethical problems and conflict-ofinterest charges, he obviously took one lesson from the Snc-lavalin scandal. That is to quickly acknowledge your mistake, accept responsibility and apologize for any damage that may have ensued.
He did all that Monday, although he was less than clear as to whether he knew his mother, brother and wife had received payment from the charity when he approved the deal with WE.
He now says he should have recused himself from cabinet deliberations and the decision to award the contract. No kidding.
When Dion eventually rules that the prime minister was in a conflict of interest and agrees that he should have recused himself, it will mark the third time Trudeau has had his hand slapped for ethical violations.
In addition to the SNC-Lavalin affair, Trudeau was chastised by Dion’s predecessor Mary Dawson in 2017 for taking a family vacation
Trudeau remains a political asset, but a risky one. Another lapse could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, turning Trudeau from asset to liability.
on the Aga Khan’s island and dime. Although the Aga Khan is a Trudeau family friend, he also had dealings with the government.
Canadians are forgiving folk, and the prime minister has apologized, but the dripdrip-drip of ethical violations has a way of extracting a political toll. The Wilson-raybould-lavalin scandal likely cost the Liberals a majority government last fall.
And it’s not Canadians-in-general who are weary and worried by the prime minister’s penchant for straying into ethical difficulty. It’s Liberals. The Liberal Achilles heel is scandal, usually involving and benefitting friends of the party. The WE controversy comes perilously close to that pattern.
Trudeau remains a political asset, but a risky one. Another lapse could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, turning Trudeau from asset to liability.
Right now, the Liberals enjoy widespread popular support thanks to the government’s response to the coronavirus. Liberals want to parlay that support into a majority government sometime in the next year or so.
The Conservatives will go into that election, whenever it is, with a new leader to put up against the Liberals’ slightly damaged model.
That matchup, plus the nagging fear that Trudeau will stumble into another mess, has more than a few Liberals thinking maybe they should be looking into a leadership change, too. And they don’t have far too look. Sitting right next to the prime minister in Parliament is his minister of almost everything, Chrystia Freeland. All she’s done in politics is fix just about every problem she’s been handed.
