Canada will soon have 40 million people. So why does Justin Trudeau have such a hard time appointing people who have no connection to his family to independent positions? Or to avoid those that are not likely to attract controversy?
His clumsy nominations keep piling up.
To investigate Beijing’s attempts to interfere, Trudeau first appointed Morris Rosenberg, a former CEO of the Trudeau Foundation who received a Beijing-sponsored donation. Then to find out if a public inquiry would be necessary, he commissioned an opinion from a “special rapporteur”, David Johnston. A former trustee of the foundation and an old friend of the family.
Finally, as interim conflict of interest and ethics commissioner, he chose Martine Richard, sister-in-law of his close friend and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Dominic LeBlanc.
I do not doubt the competence of these three people. But I am convinced that across Canada it would have been possible to find individuals of equal quality who have no connection to the government or the Trudeau family.
The Prime Minister accuses the opposition of smearing these individuals. Rather, he himself put them in an awkward position.
It would be easier to understand if these choices had a purpose. But I don’t see what they are for. The liberals were so confident in themselves that they did not test this improbable hypothesis in their eyes: what if, this time, we were a little wrong?
For Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, it’s an unexpected gift. The pit bull did what he does best: bite.
His year 2023 was ordinary at best.
His relations with the provinces are cold, when they exist… François Legault has not even met him. Doug Ford seems more keen on cultivating his friendship with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland than showing off with Mr Poilievre. And in British Columbia, the NDP premier has no chemistry with Mr. Poilievre, who has described his handling of the opioid crisis as a “disaster” and “hell on earth”.
Yet it is in these three provinces that the Conservatives must make gains to take power. More votes in Alberta would not change anything.
Even though Mr. Poilievre leads in the polls, his lead remains fragile. In the election campaign, his weaknesses will be exposed. He’s good at yelping. But suggest? That, he knows less. He has never managed to convincingly detail his ideas, for example to improve access to housing, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and drive the energy transition.
Admittedly, he loves to talk about the economy. He defends fiscal conservatism and advocates a return to a balanced budget. The latest budget, which gives up on reaching zero deficit even within five years, gives it ammunition. But it is at the same time a trap. Because the more the Liberals increase the deficit, the more the effort required to eliminate it will be important, and the more Mr. Poilievre will have to specify where he will make cuts.
Fortunately for Mr. Poilievre, the Trudeau government doesn’t get much attention for what it does in Parliament. He goes from one fire to another, and he spreads them trying to put them out.
Every time we talk about the Trudeau Foundation, we reinforce the idea that the Prime Minister is an heir, a member of the elite.
It is this bone that Mr. Poilievre now gnaws with delight. And he manages to bite into it without hurting himself.
When Mr. Trudeau chose Amira Elghawaby as his special representative for the fight against Islamophobia, Mr. Poilievre was in an awkward position. Even if this woman was criticized by all parties in the National Assembly because of her remarks about Quebecers, elsewhere in the country, she had allies. But he was lucky – Mr Trudeau found a perfectly controversial candidate who had also attacked the Queen and the police, among others. So he was able to attack it without alienating the cultural communities that had enabled Stephen Harper to win his only majority mandate in 2011.
Trudeau is right when he warns of anti-Chinese racism, which has increased during the pandemic and is likely to worsen over allegations of Communist Party interference. But Mr. Poilievre uses careful language. He speaks of the “Beijing regime”, and not of the Chinese, in order to distinguish the Communist Party from the citizens and the diaspora who are its first victims.
To regain power, the Conservatives’ strategy is simple: bank on the wear and tear of the Liberals, portray them as a disconnected elite and stick to a limited number of priorities, essentially slogans about the economy.
But they didn’t believe that liberals would self-bananize themselves with ethical controversies and clumsy appointments.
Mr. Trudeau is not responsible for Beijing’s interference, he is a victim of it. But by his clumsy management of the case, he himself sat in the dock.