03.12.2019 07:34 AM

Five things Trudeau can do to stop the #LavScam scandal

A few journos have asked me what I’d do instead in #LavScam.  I dislike “what they should’ve done” stories because they assume comms can fix anything.

Comms can’t. #LavScam is beyond comms help. Trudeau now needs to do things, not say things.

Here’s the five things he needs to do.

  1. Call in the cops on his own government.  Chretien did that in sponsorship.  It’s not the action of someone who is guilty.
  2. Call for an external body, like the OECD Anti-Bribery Working Group, to investigate, too.  That’ll address the conspiracy theorists who’ll say the RCMP are beholden to Trudeau.
  3. Flush the Clerk of the Privy Council.  Wernick’s statements – there’ll be “assassinations,” “vomitorium,” etc. – have been crazy and inflammatory.  He’s made a bad situation way worse.  Fire him.
  4. Fire Katie Telford, Mathieu Bouchard, Elder Marques, Ben Chin and any other senior staffer who was pushing Jody Wilson-Raybould to give a sweetheart deal to a sleazy Quebec company – and any staffer who has facilitated a cover-up.  Try and bring back Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott to cabinet (they’ll refuse, however).
  5. Call an election now.  Say that Parliament is too divided (true) and has lost confidence in the government (really true).  Say the Liberals need a new mandate to get past this unholy mess.

He won’t do any of those things, of course.  Nor will he do the one thing that will really end this scandal.

Which is resign.

10 Comments

  1. Gord Tulk says:

    He will done none of those things.

    What he will do is find a way to keep SNC-LAVALIN out of court.

  2. Matt says:

    None of those things will happen because he truly thinks he did nothing wrong.

  3. StratAnalytica says:

    That has the feel of a “nuclear” option. Is it your view that the best way out of this mess is by going nuclear? There’s no longer a middle ground available?

  4. Arie Intveld says:

    It doesn’t matter who’s running the show in the House of Chuckles. Regardless, SNC-Lavalin will get their remediation agreement plus, as part of the bonus round, a revised “integrity regime”. SNC-Lavalin are an integral part of the Laurentian mafia running this business enterprise called Canada.

    • Arie,

      Put succinctly, if the new Attorney General brings in a DPA, they can look forward to becoming comfortably acquainted again with third party status. It’s that simple.

      • Arie Intveld says:

        Ronald,

        Indeed, if Lametti countermands the current DPP decision regarding #LavScam, the socialists who call themselves Liberals will be the worse for it. My point is that neither Andrew Scheer nor Jagmeet Singh would rescind Lametti’s granting of the DPA.

  5. Miles Lunn says:

    Agree with all although somewhat neutral on #5. He could call one now but won’t as he hopes during the summer recess people forget about it and poll numbers rebound. Also Alberta has an election this spring so if he does call one he needs to coordinate it with Notley to ensure they don’t overlap. Yes Liberals will be lucky if they hold onto any of the seats they have in Alberta and true for Tory MPs in Alberta they would rather have them out stumping for the UCP than in BC or Ontario helping Tory candidates in vulnerable Liberal held ridings (since most Alberta ridings are solid Tory, I suspect you will see a lot of them campaigning elsewhere in the country), but still as a courtesy you don’t have elections overlap with provincial or municipal. That being said doesn’t matter as Trudeau won’t be calling one early.

    • Des says:

      They don’t need to be out stumping for the UCP. They’re going to win, and big. Also, mark your calendar for April 29 or May 6 for a PEI election. I assume JT and Wade MacLaughlan talked about it when they talked last week here in Charlottetown. Yet another provincial Liberal government that may go down in flames. If an election is early, mark it for mid-June. Before the Norman trial.

      • Miles Lunn says:

        PEI might go Green who are leading in the polls which would be a first. Newfoundland will also have one this year but I believe that is pushed back to November. As for early election call, June would be a horrible time as Trudeau winning relies heavily on a strong millennial turnout and when away in the summer turnout amongst that group will definitely be lower whereas older voters will always vote no matter what.

  6. An early election would be nothing short of a suicide mission.

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