(OTTAWA) Justin Trudeau’s Liberals were visibly downcast in the House of Commons this week as Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino attempted to extricate himself from a new controversy sparked by failing communications.
This is not the first time that Mr. Mendicino has found himself in the hot seat for the wrong reasons. This former federal prosecutor from the Toronto region seemed destined for a promising future when he joined the cabinet in 2019 as Minister of Immigration.
The Conservative Party and the Bloc Québécois have made a compilation of the blunders he has committed over the past 12 months. The track record is not glorious.
The gun control bill, the presence of Chinese police stations in Canada, the illegal occupation of Ottawa by the “freedom convoy” and the transfer of serial killer Paul Bernardo from a penitentiary maximum-security prison in Ontario to a medium-security prison in Quebec are all cases where the minister made comments that were contradicted or that angered many.
In the Liberal ranks, it is estimated that the confusion maintained by the minister in the file of the transfer of Paul Bernardo this week is the straw that broke the camel’s back.
According to them, a ministerial reshuffle is necessary during the summer. And the sooner the better.
“Anything that drags on ends up getting dirty,” argued a liberal source who requested anonymity in order to be able to speak more freely. In other words, the longer Justin Trudeau delays cleaning up his cabinet, the more he risks suffering the political consequences.
Already hounded for months by the opposition parties on the issue of foreign interference and the rising cost of living, the Trudeau government gives the impression of ending the session on its knees. Parliamentary business is due to end next week. Liberal strategists have been counting the days for several weeks.
Especially since Marco Mendicino is not the only minister to have embarrassed the Trudeau government for similar reasons. Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair cited faulty communications last month to explain why he never received a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) warning note in 2021 confirming that the Conservative MP was being bullied by China for sponsoring a motion denouncing the communist regime’s treatment of the Uyghur minority.
However, the director of CSIS, David Vigneault, assured a parliamentary committee this week that this note had been sent specifically to the Department of Public Security, headed by Bill Blair at the time, and that it had also been sent to the minister.
International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan also pleaded ignorance in the spring when it was reported that Senator Marilou McPhedran was issuing unauthorized travel documents to hundreds of Afghan refugees after the Taliban took over Kabul in August 2021.
At the time, Mr. Sajjan headed the Ministry of Defence. Before a parliamentary committee, the senator claimed that she had informed the minister of her approach by sending an email to him and to other ministers. But Mr. Sajjan maintained that he did not know because he did not check his emails, being too busy managing the evacuation operations.
These missteps have highlighted what the opposition parties call “failures” or blindness in communications in the offices of Liberal ministers.
” It’s a pattern. Ministers constantly tell us that they are not aware of briefing notes. […] You can take their word for it that their staff didn’t see fit to inform them once, maybe twice, but there comes a point where it’s the political equivalent of saying my dog ate my homework. These ministers lose a lot of homework. We are starting to worry about the health of their dog, ”dropped Bloc Québécois MP Kristina Michaud.
The government has handed us one fiasco after another. The degree of disorganization and neglect by Liberal ministers is often appalling.
NDP MP Peter Julian
In all likelihood, Justin Trudeau will wait a few more weeks before deciding whether to make changes to his cabinet. But several ministers are convinced that a game of musical chairs is inevitable. No major reshuffles have taken place since the last election, in the fall of 2021, more than 18 months ago. Time flies. The Liberals secured a second minority mandate in the last ballot. They reached a deal last year with the NDP that ensures their survival in the Commons until June 2025. They are reviewing the election calendar. They are already arriving at mid-term, the privileged moment for prime ministers to reinvigorate the ministerial team and update the government’s game plan for the second half of the mandate.
While some ministers have fumbled over the past few months, others have shone and fully deserve a promotion. This is particularly the case of the Minister of Sports and the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, Pascale St-Onge, and the Leader of the Government in the House, Mark Holland. Other Ministers, including François-Philippe Champagne in Industry, Mélanie Joly in Foreign Affairs, Jonathan Wilkinson in Natural Resources, Dominic LeBlanc in Intergovernmental Affairs, Anita Anand in National Defense and Steven Guilbeault in Environment, continue to be pillars of government.
By-elections are scheduled for Monday in four ridings across the country. The Liberals expect candidate Anna Gainey to win in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount and Ben Carr to do the same in Winnipeg–South Centre. But Justin Trudeau is unlikely to hand them ministerial responsibilities soon. Liberal MPs in office since 2015 and who have proven themselves are already stamping impatiently to receive his call.