Imagine the scene. You are one of Montreal’s top business people. You paid a hundred dollars to attend a luncheon with the Minister of Finance of Canada on her recent budget.
You are a hundred who are gathered at the Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth in Montreal.
You’re waiting. Fifteen minutes. One hour. An hour and a half. And Minister Freeland finally arrives.
They explain to me that it is due to the ice, but for the people on the spot it was a lack of respect worthy of a government well above its business, told me someone present.
A lot of unnecessary frustration, with natural allies.
Traditionally, the budget allows members of Parliament and especially ministers to go out into the field, to hear praise from the groups that have received what they asked for.
It is these little anecdotes that contribute to a negative political image for the Trudeau government.
Either he does not care, he is so convinced that he will stay in power or he does not know where he is going.
The mysterious room
Another example: the $6,000 a night hotel room for the Queen’s funeral in London. We had to wait nearly five months before the government admitted the obvious: the Prime Minister slept in the suite.
We’re not far from former Conservative minister Bev Oda’s $16 orange juice…
The problem with these little anecdotes is that they are concrete for people. We all know the price of a liter of orange juice and the price of a hotel room…
It feeds an image of a government that has nothing to do with being accountable in addition to its ethical problems.
Leaving his post, former Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion said the Trudeau government must start taking ethics seriously.
The prime minister, ministers Ng, Leblanc, Morneau and parliamentary secretary Greg Fergus were all blamed by the commissioner.
A sign that the government takes the subject “very seriously”, it has appointed the minister’s sister-in-law Dominique Leblanc as interim commissioner.
When the Prime Minister chooses David Johnston as special rapporteur on the China file, one can only raise eyebrows. A friend of the family and moreover, a former member of the Trudeau foundation who received a controversial donation from a Chinese billionaire.
Justin Trudeau made sure to tie his hands. If he does not propose a public or independent inquiry, critics will say the dice were loaded.
Not lost yet
Justin Trudeau has too often been underestimated, so don’t consider him beaten anytime soon.
Especially since he has at least one major argument left, the one that allowed him to win the 2015 election: he is not Stephen Harper, nor Pierre Poilievre.
With his outings against the CBC, the caribou, the environment, Pierre Poilievre still helps the Prime Minister by recalling the less brilliant aspects of the Conservative era.