The author is a former conservative strategist. He was a political adviser in the Harper government as well as in the opposition.
Friday, Hillary Clinton is the distinguished guest of the national convention of the Liberal Party of Canada (PLC), which takes place in Ottawa for three days. She will sit alongside Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland for a “fireside” chat. It is far from an innocent choice.
Royal coronation obliges, the Prime Minister will soon fly to London. Justin Trudeau therefore had very little time on Thursday evening to celebrate his 10-year reign at the head of the PLC with his activists; former prime minister Jean Chrétien will take over. Former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney will be in attendance to take the pulse. Jovial Minister François-Philippe Champagne will certainly try to shake hands with as many delegates as possible, it is in his nature.
A congress is always a highlight in the political life of a party. It’s always good to get together with family. It helps to whip the troops, boost their morale and discuss resolutions together in order to sharpen the political program of a future electoral platform.
All is not rosy for this celebration, however.
Since February, the Trudeau government has been mired in revelations of political interference by the Chinese regime in Canada. Charged with laxity, he did not see fit to sound the alarm on his own on the pretext that a certain threshold had not been reached. But no one can define what this threshold is, even after several expert testimonies before parliamentary committees.
The crisis at the Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau Foundation made it possible to see the Prime Minister’s brother take the floor — at his request — to respond publicly to the former director of the organization. The PLC lost a member of its caucus in the person of Han Dong, who had to step down after allegations that he advised a Chinese diplomat to delay the release of the “two Michaels”.
The Beijing regime’s intimidation of Conservative MP Michael Chong was exposed this week. Justin Trudeau claims he was unaware. It is all the same strange that a prime minister learns such sensitive information by reading the newspaper like a private citizen. The Minister of Public Security, Marco Mendicino, must take the blows of the opposition.
On Thursday, Ottawa resigned itself to summoning the Chinese ambassador to Canada. The foreign minister has indicated that she may expel Chinese diplomats. Still, the Trudeau government has a mania for trying to save time. He is still consulting to find out if Canada should have a register of foreign agents despite the evidence.
All this to say that the PLC congress is therefore not taking place in the best conditions. It is also clear that several ministers have reached an honorable age. Far be it from me to reopen the debate on retirement at 65 or 67 or to fall into ageism, but note that the Trudeau cabinet currently has five ministers who are over 68 and who are likely not to stand in the next elections. There is a lack of new blood in the PLC and in the Prime Minister’s immediate entourage.
The United States as a backdrop
But let’s come back to Hillary Clinton’s presence at the Liberal Congress, which is far from trivial under the circumstances. It is not uncommon for parties to maintain relations with foreign political formations or to receive a helping hand from various personalities. The Conservative Party of Canada, for example, has in the past kept an eye on Australia or the United Kingdom, and vice versa. Tony Blair, before becoming Prime Minister, consulted with American Democrats and received a boost from President Bill Clinton.
That the Liberals are close to the Democrats is not news in itself. There is, however, a subliminal political message behind Hillary Clinton’s presence in Ottawa.
Since Pierre Poilievre took office as leader of the Conservative Party, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have made no secret of making all possible and imaginable associations with former Republican President Donald Trump. And who better than Hillary Clinton to bring the debates raging in the United States to Canada?
Take the invalidation of the judgment Roe v. wade on abortion, which is a subject of debate in the United States. The Liberals seized the opportunity to in turn raise this scarecrow in Canada. In Quebec, the CAQ Minister Martine Biron also jumped into the arena to make people forget the setbacks of the third link.
Not a week goes by without killings being reported in the United States. There, having a gun is a right enshrined in the Constitution; in Canada, it’s a privilege. The Trudeau government is blowing hot and cold with its bill on gun control in the country, just to keep this subject at the forefront, with the killings in the United States in the background.
One can easily imagine that, if you ask Hillary Clinton what concerns her the most in her country, the questioning of the right to abortion and the repeated killings will be at the top of the list. It will be easy for Chrystia Freeland to go one better on the subject to send tips to the curators.
US banks are showing signs of weakness. The debate over the debt ceiling in the United States and the partisanship surrounding this issue raise fears for the worst. In Canada, our banks are strong, but an arrow against Pierre Poilievre and his controversial comments on the Bank of Canada or cryptocurrencies would be very easy to unhook. The Deputy Prime Minister will no doubt also try to highlight her latest budget’s energy transition investments to get the stamp of approval from Hillary Clinton, who will do the same to lend credence to President Biden’s actions in the United States. United.
I may be wrong about the details of this discussion, but there is a reason the Liberals loosened their purse strings to invite Mr.me Clinton at their congress: nothing better than to welcome an American spokesperson to our country to import the debates that are raging south of the border. Bonus points if this person is also a former presidential candidate defeated by a certain Donald Trump.
This helps to cultivate doubt, to suggest that what happened to our neighbors to the south could happen again here if the Liberals are not returned to power. If I were a liberal strategist, at least that’s what I would do.