, 02.15.2019 08:22 AM

What #LavScam means, in five points

It’s been going on for more than a week, now, and the outlines of it are already seen.  Five ways in which it is leaving, and will leave, an impact:

  1.  Indigenous people.  I am the proud father to an amazing indigenous young woman; I work with First Nations across Canada.  I am disgusted by what Justin Trudeau did, and is doing, to the amazing indigenous leader named Jody Wilson-Raybould.  Indigenous people do not trust Trudeau, now, and they’re saying so.
  2. Women.  The sexist and condescending way in which Jody has been treated – and still continues to be, as seen in this morning’s Star, and last week in the Canadian Press and Global News – is repellant.  It is noteworthy that the Liberals who are paying tribute to Jody are almost all women – include ones in Trudeau’s cabinet.
  3. The Liberal Party.  This web site attracts four million visitors a year.  On social media, like Twitter, I get about a half-million “impressions” daily.  That’s a fair number of people – and I can tell you that many of my readers are Liberals.  They are telling me they are disgusted by Trudeau and his PMO – and shocked by how badly they have handled this mess (eg. sending out the clueless Justice Committee chair to say Jody didn’t deserve to be in cabinet because she didn’t speak French – which will be a big hit in English Canada).
  4. The Conservatives.  Andrew Scheer knows this is his moment, and he has seized it.  The Tory leader hasn’t looked this determined, this focussed – and frankly this Prime Ministerial – since he became his party’s leader.  Gone is the smirk, and there’s an undeniable gravitas to the guy, now.  For his party, PMO’s attempts to destroy Jody Wilson-Raybould represents an opportunity, too – it allows them to address the allegation that they are indifferent to women and indigenous people.
  5. The New Democrats.  Jagmeet Singh is going to win that by-election in B.C. – because B.C. is sickened by what has been done to Jody.  Meanwhile, his colleague Nathan Cullen has been simply extraordinary in prosecuting the case against the Liberal government – and it will reveal itself in the polls, soon enough. And a rise in NDP fortunes means a drop in Liberal support, always.

Will Justin Trudeau lose the election? It’s too soon to tell.  But the poll I’ve heard about suggests strongly the answer is this:

Yes.

 

25 Comments

  1. Luke says:

    I am less than enthused about any of the extant options for government. Green looking more attractive than ever. JWR and Philpott either need to commandeer the liberal ship, or drag themselves and maybe Cullen over to Greens for preposterous political theatre that will entertain me and encourage voting for the fourth option, or whatever they are.

    • Warren says:

      Ditto. I’m going Green, I think.

      • Luke says:

        I want a large enough ground swell of dissatisfaction to cause interesting things to happen. A lot of stuff in the green platform (last I looked at it) seemed pretty sensible to me, and Liz May still appeals to me after so many years.

        Do you have designs of siding the green cause? I know shit about political organization and movement building and stuff, but I’d love to see something get going.

        • Luke says:

          *aiding the green cause , that is.

        • Gord says:

          I could have supported the Jim Harris Greens. Way too many wingnuts in the current iterations, and May has a track record of bizarre behaviour. Some of her greatest hits: “nobody in their right mind is for abortion”; Stephen Harper on climate change = worse than Chamberlain’s appeasement of Nazis; she’s bought into the WiFi tinfoil hat nonsense; she supports pseudo-science like homeopathy; presenting 9/11 Truther petitions in the House; defended Jian Ghomeshi; and of course the topper, getting loaded at the Press Gallery Dinner and praising Omar Khadr.

          No thanks. “Spoiled ballot” is looking pretty good right now.

        • Jim says:

          Yeah, she’s the absolute worst. Green policies on many issues are pretty close to my own viewpoints, but they will never get my vote as long as May is leader.

    • The real Sean says:

      I don’t like anything that Maxime Bernier stands for, but I suspect he will do much better than most people anticipate. In about week 3 of the campaign, I think people will be stunned at his popularity and he will eat into Scheer’s seat count big time.

      • Vancouverois says:

        I really don’t know. I expect his message will resonate with many voters who feel that the Conservative party takes them for granted and has left them behind. On the other hand, those voters may still be willing to give Scheer a chance because they’re so desperate to get rid of Trudeau.

        I also don’t know how Bernier’s vote breaks down. I expect he has the most traction in ridings where the Conservatives already win by very large margins. If so, under our FPTP system he could easily siphon off 20% of the vote in a given riding and still let the Conservative win with 40%.

        Interesting times… alas.

  2. doconnor says:

    Trudeau is accussed of trying to manipulate the prosecution in one case in the name of the economy, while Doug Ford is accussed of trying to get a friend appointed head of the OPP to manipulate all future investigations that might impact the government.

    If there is going to be a caucus revolt, the Ontario Conservatives should be the first in line for this reason (plus many of thier moves since being elected has turned into disasters).

    • whyshouldIsellyourwheat says:

      Justin Trudeau declared Admiral Norman was going to be charged by the RCMP before the RCMP charged him. This is not theoretical influencing of criminal charges, but actual influencing.

    • Matt says:

      Um, you do realize that with the charges SNC is facing (s. 3 or 4 of the Corruption of Foreign Officials Act) if the prosecution were looking at a deferred prosecution agreement they CANNOT consider “economic interests” as a justification for allowing a DPA?

    • Matt says:

      Also, you’re better than this weak ass whataboutism attempt.

      • doconnor says:

        I stand by my whataboutism and will double-down by saying a Conservative Minister of Justice would not have been pressured to end prosecution. He or she would have done it without being asked based on pro-corporate principles.

        As an NDP partisan I can do whataboutism with hypocrisy,

    • Jim says:

      No. Doug Ford is accused of trying to get a friend appointed head of the OPP. Period. Full stop. The rest is your speculation.

      Taverner may or may not be qualified for the job – he certainly didn’t meet the initial criteria – but he is a decorated senior officer with a stellar record. You don’t get to smear a man’s integrity like that without a shred of evidence.

      #Lavscam is about things being done in the shadows, including slipping the DPA law into a massive budget omnibus.

      I detest Ford, but the attempted Taverner appointment isn’t remotely worse than #Lavscam.

      Ford’s attempt to appoint Taverner was stupid and clumsy, but it was done in open. Public, media, and opposition pressure thankfully put the brakes on it.

  3. Dayton Funk says:

    This time around I’m voting for who looks the most boring to reporters. Done with the theatre style as the show never ends well.

  4. Stephen Bent says:

    As a Conservative who loves your articles and website because of your insight, I am amazed how the Liberal Party and brand has imploded. This is a self inflicted wound that could have been prevented. Disgusting how the former AG is being treated.
    I assumed Trudeau would get back in with a majority in October 2019( like most Conservatives) but now I see a ray of hope that the true Natural Governing Party of Canada (Conservatives), could in fact form the next government.

    • Walter says:

      Self inflicted because of Trudeau. The dye was cast when they went with looks (Trudeau) over brains (Garneau). At the time, we didn’t think Canadians would be stupid enough to vote for someone based only on looks, but it happened what followed was inevitable, and we have only ourselves (well those 40% who voted Liberal) to blame.

  5. Sean says:

    Trudeau’s lack of intelligence, lack of preparedness, lack of ethics, is in full display for all to see. Does he actually think his ” Simple Simon” explanations fool anyone?

  6. Mike says:

    Warren,

    My sense is JWR is getting legal advice to talk about points 1&2 since privilege has yet to be applied here. If what I am hearing is correct she has way more damaging things to say on that front. Thoughts?

  7. Larry says:

    Not gonna wade into the deep end of the pool at this time except to say, as we do back east here in Cape Breton, that the arse end of ‘er is out of ‘er for the Liberals. Silver spoon can only take you so far. Oh, and Mr. Kinsella is the best outside of the mainstream media. Real journalist who calls a spade a spade with a sprinkling of political savvy and balls. Nice mix there. We’d do well here in Nova Scotia to have someone like WK down here. Too much sycophantism on the go.

  8. Campbell says:

    Very well put. Trudeau’s version of events this far actually sounds equivalently plausible to me as the allegations themselves do.

  9. Leo Fleming says:

    See Andrew Coyne in the National Post. Parses the law. The attorney general would have had to violate the law to appease Trudeau and direct prosecution to give them a stern talking to instead. She’s the top lawyer in the country and he demands that she ignore and violate the law to appease the Montreal moneybags. This is absolutely disgraceful. How is this not a criminal act by one or more people in the PMO?

  10. Derek Pearce says:

    An overarching thought is that Trudeau and Butts and Telford etc. didn’t quite realize that their 2015 victory was due a lot more to exhaustion with Harper than it was to people really buying into their Sunny Ways. I think they may be getting a crash course in reality this week.

  11. Housevader says:

    “JWR has my now attention, what does she want? An ambassadorship? Afterall helping indigenous people at DIAND is below her according to daddy warbucks. Only a constitutional rewrite with self-government would do. Meeche lake Accord. Google it. Meanwhile, Papa Wilson literally said the demotion was a slap in the face to all indigenous people, how dare he speak for “all indigenous people”! You don’t speak for a diverse peoples, sir. Sorry, no ambassadorship for Jody! The symbolism got to her head and now she IS the fall girl.” – overheard this AM in West Block.

Leave a Reply to Dayton Funk Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.