02.28.2019 01:56 PM

Sunny ways



27 Comments

  1. Grant says:

    She sure seemed to be “handling the stress” alright yesterday. She was very impressive, genuine, and forthright…..handled those committee members that were obviously hostile with ease. Her case is backed up with facts. Trudeau has platitudes and political talking points. Where are his facts? Seems like now they want to denigrate her character because it’s the only defense they have. I expect we will hear all kinds of smack talk about her. Vile cowards.

  2. Vancouverois says:

    Amazingly enough, this seems to be a Liberal talking point. I’ve seen a number of Liberal-connected people suggest that JWR was *weak* because she refused to knuckly under to Trudeau. They imply that sticking to her guns and doing the moral and ethical thing somehow demonstrates that she didn’t have what it takes to play in the big leagues.

    It’s just amazing. True Alice Through the Looking Glass territory. I’m honestly at a complete loss to understand how even the most bloodyminded Liberal partisan could have the gall to try to say such things.

    But there it is.

    • Housevader says:

      The fact is that politics is NOT for the faint at heart on or off reserves. This whole story is a clash between two dynastic families:

      The Trudeaus and the Wilsons.

      And the tragedy that occurs when the children are ‘gifted’ power & influence. Both kids are guilty of handling that power idealistically to great calamity. We know Ottawa well but few people understand honestly the Indian act’s implications at the reserve level.

      JWR was raised into a Chief’s family; band council politics is structurally such that band councils operate as totalitarian one party rule systems. reserves are impervious to external criticism as they house and protect indigenous selfgovernment. It follows that Band council Elections are fights between clans over graft distribution from DIAND particularlynwhere there is no on reserve resource wealth or commercial revenue generation. Anyone who wants to distribute services fairly (i.e in a non-partisan “I don’t care if you voted for me” way) gets rolled over quickly;

      Neither JWR nor Trudeau ever endured the slippery pole climbing needed – as the children of a gifted politicians – and it shows. tragically both have had that luxury of the idealized versions of Canada (self-government, rule of law for JWR & multicultural utopia for Trudeau). In addition both kids got the Coles Notes from their parents; for JWR, perhaps Dad tells her that if you are getting rolled fight back hard with cunning determination, once the die is cast there is no turning back, otherwise you will not be welcome at sweat lodge. For Trudeau, dad told him Québéc considerations are part of the calculus for every decision on the federal level; it is a twin sun of Canada’s wobbly solar system and indigenous considerations are an asteroid belt of insufficient political mass, even it does shimmer in celestial light…..

      ….I sense I’ve gone too far?

  3. the real Sean says:

    I watched the committee hearing last night. The Liberal MPs looked like members of a suicide cult. The people in that caucus need to understand that the battle with JWR is already over. No one cares what JT has to say about any of these things. It is plainly obvious that he is incompetent and corrupt. The only possibility for the Liberals to hang on is for JT to resign and have a new leader installed late spring / early summer. I suspect these discussions are happening already.

  4. Christian says:

    Not “a team player” because she didn’t want to join in the fun of breaking the law?

  5. David Bronaugh says:

    More like shady ways, amirite?

  6. Gord Tulk says:

    If by “not a team player” he means not a member of the corrupt liberal laurentian syndicate or Co-opted by it, then, yes.

  7. Miles Lunn says:

    Also in another traditionally Tory riding that the Liberals barely won so he would be better to keep quiet on this and instead work on his resume just in case since unless things improve between now and e-day (which they still might) he will likely be unemployed come October 21st.

    • Housevader says:

      Trudeau is a driver, the Liberal party is a vehicle. From that standpoint, he should be judged. Polish his resume? He can go back to teaching/his true passion; he would have zero difficulty getting an awesome job afterwards and his gradnfather’s gas station franchise money will allow him to ride consequence free for the rest of his life. Alas, that’s One of the issues with who are the benefactors of wealth accumulation…

  8. Steve T says:

    So here’s a thought, not directly related to this particular post, but just throwing it out there:

    How is, and how will, all of this play in Quebec? Is there a long game here for the Libs?

    Over many years (decades), Canadian politics have repeatedly shown one truism: if politicians pander to Quebec, they win federally. If they don’t treat Quebec like a special child with special privileges, they tend to lose (unless they really sweep the ROC).
    I’m sure that is why the Libs took this stance with JWR over SNC.

    So… while Scheer and Singh are expressing what most of the ROC is feeling, I’ll bet they aren’t winning many friends in Quebec. In the end, I suspect voters there will look less at the ethics of the situation, and more at the underlying purpose. Protecting the special child will win votes again, I suspect.

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Steve,

      Nope. The tide is slowly but surely turning in Quebec. The longer the legs, the more Quebec opinion will come to resemble that of Gomery. That’s why Trudeau is desperate to shut this one down fast — but no matter what the government does, it stays front and center.

    • Vancouverois says:

      Not true.

      First of all, as I noted in an earlier comment on a different post, 2011 marked the first time that a party was able to form a majority government without significant success in Quebec. The province’s demographic weight is only decreasing, all the more so since the current CAQ government is so anti-immigration.

      Second of all, as I also noted in another comment on a different post, Quebeckers are actually no more or less moral than anybody else. A quick look at the Opinion pages of various Montreal newspapers shows that there’s a lot of criticism of Trudeau’s behaviour, and a general recognition that he crossed the line. La Presse seems to be the worst, and even there at least some of their columnists and commenters acknowledge that this isn’t kosher.

  9. Ian says:

    WTF? Pulling the strings? Is that because she is a woman, or because she is Indigenous? It is hard to keep up.

  10. Gord says:

    It’s interesting how the Liberal MPs who are so anxious to defend the PM and start a whisper campaign against Wilson-Raybould are the backbench nonentities like this guy and Randy Boissonault who only got elected on Trudeau’s personal coattails, and they know it. They seem to think that if anyone else is leading the party, they have no hope of being re-elected. Meanwhile other Liberal MPs who were either elected before Trudeau became leader or represent safe seats seem to be much more circumspect.

    I also find it interesting that the Cabinet has been very, very quiet. PMJT is wearing this one all on his own.

    • Housevader says:

      If Tilford was really smart, then she’d get the US media to cover this story! Forget the local ‘rule of law’ groupthought. The smart money is on influencing centrist US press and should be a Daisy Group department.

      The Daily Show could basically argue this is a nothing burger when you look at the scandal travelling at 100 Ttump Tweets per hour.

      Trudeau can recapture the narrative by getting US coverage that is opposite of the Indian custom affair; it would totally blow the Canadian press out of the water.

  11. Sean says:

    Eagles fly solo ; pigeons flock together.

  12. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    What I don’t like the most is making Nathalie Drouin carry water for this government. Not appropriate to put her in that position, particularly now that SCP and CC have been partially lifted. No public servant should ever be put in such a position by her political masters. Absolutely terrible.

  13. Montrealaise says:

    The more I hear the Liberals talk, the more disgusted I am.

  14. Arie Intveld says:

    … and Sidhu just had to weaponize and use the word “reservation” in his insincere, hollow apology. What Sidhu is really saying is that FN people can’t be trusted. He needs to shamed into resignation (just like his boss).

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Arie,

      All four wheels have now come off the PMO. They shut up and make it worse — they open their mouths and make it worse still…

      It’s no win for them right up until the election. They have a slim chance if they all testify at the JC. If they don’t, man is it ever over, unless Scheer blows it in the campaign. Don’t count on that one.

  15. Cam Kroeger says:

    Here we have an indigenous woman,accomplished prosecutor who didn’t play Quebec ball…

  16. Gilbert says:

    Please don’t vote for Jati Sidhu in the next election. The voters of Abbotsford need to send him a message.

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Gilbert,

      The way this is going, the Liberals will be lucky to hold on to one of their BC seats…

      Y’all remember BC? Justin’s second home.

  17. Kinsey says:

    Justin Trudeau, 2015: “Sunny days, my friends. Sunny days.”

    Justin Trudeau, 2019: “Scummy ways, my friends. Scummy ways.”

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