, 03.06.2020 08:23 AM

Failure-ology

Why did Justin Trudeau lose a million votes in the 2019 election? Why did he lose his majority? Why did he lose his standing in the world, and with Canadians?

Because of LavScam.  Because of the Aga Khan, and unbalanced budgets, and no electoral reform, and serial scandals.  Because of things he did personally, too: Aga Khan, LavScam, and Gropegate, and elbowing a female MP, and blackface, and the unrelenting solipsism and conceits.

All that.  But it has been the arrogance of Trudeau and his cabal, too.  Konrad Yakabuski writes up an indictment about that, here.  Highlights below.

One of the great ironies of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is that it has proved so ineffective in the one area where it so emphatically promised to outdo its predecessors.

It was always presumptuous on the part of Mr. Trudeau and his former principal secretary, Gerald Butts, to suggest they would run a more effective government than any of those that came before them. But by dropping the ball so spectacularly on so many key files, Mr. Trudeau’s Prime Minister’s Office set itself up for the failure that has now befallen it.

…The Trudeau PMO has never seemed clear on its own priorities. So how could it expect the senior bureaucracy to be clear on them? At both the micro-policy level (electoral reform, balancing the budget by 2019) and macro-policy level (reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, supporting economic growth while fighting climate change), the Trudeau government has continually sent mixed signals to the bureaucracy about how seriously it takes its own promises.

When it has sprung into action, the Trudeau PMO has typically made a mess of it. The SNC-Lavalin affair, which started out with a straightforward move to bring Canadian law on deferred prosecution agreements in line with that of other developed countries, nearly destroyed Mr. Trudeau’s government all because the PMO failed to abide by its own deliverology credo.

It is perhaps no coincidence that the Trudeau government’s most notable successes – the implementation of the Canada Child Benefit and medical aid in dying, and the negotiation of new health-care funding agreements with the provinces – were overseen by low-key ministers who kept their eyes on the ball rather than their Twitter feeds. Social Development Minister Jean- Yves Duclos and Jane Philpott, Mr. Trudeau’s first health minister, were focused on results, not retweets.

Overall, however, execution has proved to be the Achilles heel of this government. It has proved inept at buying fighter planes or fixing the Phoenix pay system. It promised a bigger role for Canada in global affairs but has earned a reputation abroad for being fickle and stingy. The Canada Infrastructure Bank extends its record for overpromising and underdelivering.

Indeed, the scariest words in Canadian English may have become: “I’m from the Trudeau government, and I’m here to help.”

 

46 Comments

  1. Douglas W says:

    FN rail blockades: no Jody Wilson-Raybould to diffuse the situation.
    COVID-19 virus: no Dr. Jane Philpott to manage the situation.
    Why?
    Because JT can’t work with individuals, smarter and stronger than him.
    We deserve better.

  2. Douglas W says:

    Absolutely.
    Iona Campagnolo and Judy LaMarsh had the same problem with JT’s Dad.

    • Peter says:

      Except there was no doubt that his father would stand and battle for “Canada” against all comers seeking to divide or malign it. Same with Chretien, Clark, Mulroney and even, in an understated way, Harper. Despite my con leanings, I didn’t agree with those calling for summary police or military action against the blockades, but even though JT may be partially vindicated (we’ll see–did he just buy them off?), he still comes across as weak, even bewildered. He always manages to leave the impression that he thinks Canada is a stage for him to show off his wokeness and that he wakes up each morning wondering who he can apologize to before dinner.

  3. Innocent III says:

    I suspect that Yakabuski’s thoughts are from the Globe but don’t you think at a minimum that you ought to credit the source? Newspapers, and print media in general, require all the support that they can garner.

  4. Steve T says:

    Failure to execute is a feature of all governments, to one degree or another. The difference with JT is that he makes his proposals with such arrogance and virtue-signalling. It’s like that condescending look you get from someone who thinks they know it all, but in reality they are no smarter than anyone else.

    Some people dislike conservatives, but it’s mainly due to things they promise AND enact. Those same people like what JT is saying, but he doesn’t deliver (although a lot of oxygen, time, and money is spent on the non-delivery).

    “Vote Justin – he’ll tell you what you want to hear, and spend lots of time and money not delivering it!”

  5. joe says:

    “The Trudeau PMO has never seemed clear on its own priorities.”

    Perhaps. But look at it from Trudeau and Butts’ point of view. Their overarching objective is to stymie the oil and gas industry in Canada. And they’ve been very successful.

    Does Trudeau care about the rail blockades? Before you answer, ask the question, “Do the rail blockades help Trudeau get to his overarching objective mentioned above” Yes they do. Just recently the major investor in the Saguenay LNG project pulled out. Victory for Trudeau.

    Trudeau’s inaction on rail blockades gives a green light to TMX protests this summer. After a prolonged period of no rail service, he’ll cancel TMX saying its uneconomic and too disruptive. The Greens, NDP, and Bloc will support him.

    For those who suggest that energy projects bring revenue to government coffers, Trudeau could reply, “my carbon tax will bring in a lot more revenue.” Look at the VAT rates and hydrocarbon prices in Europe to see how far Trudeau could take them.

    We can criticize Trudeau for not doing enough on other files, but Trudeau has set HIS priority. He is single mindedly focussed on the ONE thing that matters most to him.

    • If his overarching objective is to stymie the oil and gas industry in Canada, he is doing a pretty terrible job of that too.

      He nationalized a pipeline to sace it and his efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions fails to meet the Conservative’s inadequate target. Also remember the federal carbon tax is revinue neutral.

      • joe says:

        Darwin, Trudeau hasn’t saved the pipeline.

        The strategy was delay, delay, delay and hope that the courts would kill it. That hasn’t happened.

        Now Trudeau is on Plan B. Wait for the protests coming this spring and summer.

        The Greens, NDP, and Bloc all want TMX killed.

        • Peter says:

          The IEA (International Energy Agency) projects a significant increase in global hydrocarbon consumption between now and 2050, and that’s with a complementary significant increase in consumption from renewables. Woke green Canadians (and Swedes) are living in a fantasy world.

          • Ronald O'Dowd says:

            Peter,

            I’ll take that bet. In short, we’ll never, ever, see West Texas Intermediate at a hundred bucks again.

          • Quo Vadis says:

            R. O.’Dowd the price of WTI could turn in a matter of weeks. With your statement you also guarantee that there will never be a mid east flare up.

    • RKJ says:

      Joe, I fear you are more correct than we readers wish to recognize. Indeed, regarding the native blockades, (readers please correct me if I’m too off-line here) it may well suit Trudeau + Butts to keep natives poor and protesting than bringing them into the Canadian economy. Trudeau can then give his caring act, and appeal to naive downtown Toronto type voters. So many of these cancelled water oil + gas projects have strong First Nations support. I consider what is going on to be a willful Canadian tragedy.

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Joe,

      It’s not like US shale and OPEC production are going like gangbusters, is it? Look at Saudi Arabia fighting with Russia over proposed production cuts. In short, far too much production worldwide and flagging demand. Now, who in politics gets the blame for that? Not Trump. He’s still stuck in the repeating loop of Drill Baby Drill, even when it causes a glut and floors prices…

      • joe says:

        Eco-Norway has an aggressive exploration drilling campaign.

        Saudi Arabia is making massive new oil and gas investments. As is Russia.

        US oil production has ramped up dramatically as has US natural gas production.

        I don’t think the fossil fuel industry is dead.

        Notice that Trudeau likes to fly away on vacation? To warmer places. Even though we tax payers provide him with a vacation home, and eight new boats.

  6. the real Sean says:

    Access to information changes – quit
    Parliamentary expenses reports – didn’t happen
    Electoral Reform- quit
    ending Omnibus bills – gave up
    balanced budget – fuck that
    Energy Strategy – over
    Terror law review – forget it
    F 35s – no one has the foggiest idea WTF is going on
    Ships – ibid
    Reconciliation – worse than when it started
    Cell phone bill reductions – not happening

    Resign. Resign. Resign. Resign. Resign.

    • PJH says:

      Maybe he’ll be pushed?……

      • lyn says:

        PJH: We can only wish!!

      • Ronald O'Dowd says:

        PJH,

        I think the PM won’t stick it out too much longer. We’ll see soon enough.

      • Douglas W says:

        Pushed?
        Only when someone else (in the party) can come along and do retail politics as good as Justin.

        • Joseph says:

          I believe there was a puff piece in the NP yesterday written about Catherine McKenna.
          But just disregard that and stop with this talk about a presumptive leadership race.
          Repeat, do not talk about a liberal minister organizing against a sitting PM. You remember what happened to Paul Martin right?

          • Douglas W says:

            Martin got to be Prime Minister.
            Then dithered.

          • Fred from BC says:

            “Repeat, do not talk about a liberal minister organizing against a sitting PM. You remember what happened to Paul Martin right?”

            Yup…started a decade-long civil war in the Liberal Party and allowed the Conservatives to take power. Good times.

            I just remember thinking at the time, “why?” Why did the Liberals feel the need to do this when they had just won a third term with their existing leader? So, Paul Martin was telegenic and a seemingly pleasant guy…so what? Turns out that he had virtually *no* leadership skills to speak of. “Mr. Dithers”, indeed.

            I suppose it was a learning experience, if nothing else. The lesson would have been “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”…

          • Ronald O'Dowd says:

            Joseph,

            And besides McKenna’s shall we say less than stellar record in cabinet kind of precludes that possibility.

  7. Nick M. says:

    “… kept their eyes on the ball rather than their Twitter feeds.”

    What I’ve learned the hard way is that businesses will make decisions based on knee jerk Twitter tantrums originating from highest level of staff in the executive branch of a government.

    I’ll provide an example of Trump as he tweeted against Ford from building a Car Plant in Mexico. Ford pulled the plug on the Mexico plant. Although the official cause was market demand, I beg to differ.

    The PMO staffs Twitter tantrums were inappropriate.

  8. Jim R says:

    Over-promise and under-deliver – that seems to be the Trudeau government’s creed.

    Not at all unexpected, given Trudeau’s less than stellar pre-politics CV.

  9. Gilbert says:

    It’s obvious that Justin Trudeau isn’t qualified. Maybe one day he’ll realize it if he hasn’t already.

  10. PAMELA LEVY says:

    When Trudeau labeled his brand as “sunny-ways” it made my skin crawl. I don’t think he is going anywhere and his party has a cult like following. What disturbs me the most is their lack of ability to make hard decisions and dealing with the Corona virus is an example. Meanwhile we wait.

  11. PAMELA LEVY says:

    When Trudeau labeled his brand as “sunny-ways” it made my skin crawl. I don’t think he is going anywhere and his party has a cult like following. What disturbs me the most is their lack of ability to make hard decisions and dealing with the Corona virus is an example. Meanwhile we wait.

    • Lawrence Barry says:

      Where is JT et al in this shit storm? Gonna have to get that milk carton going again for that family

  12. Erin says:

    Has Trudeau and his wife split/separate? Have not seen or heard anything about the two of them together since before Christmas.

  13. Grames Barnaby says:

    Corvid-19 from my perspective is going to be the real test for all politicians at all ranks right now. In places like northern Itlay it’s leading to some harsh Northern Quarantines: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51787238 / https://twitter.com/MartinGale31415/status/1236445669495275520?s=20 , School Cancellations in Cali : https://twitter.com/MarleiMartinez/status/1236408062769913856?s=20, Panic shopping of goods in Texas : https://twitter.com/Rational_Ways/status/1236484186443259904?s=20 , the inability to find hand sanitizer in the nations capital : https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments/fdeck4/where_to_get_hand_sanitizer_right_now/ , or how Iran’s mishandling is going to most likely lead to the regimes collapse post 2020 – https://twitter.com/Joyce_Karam/status/1234869785386717184?s=20 / https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iranian-official-involved-in-US-embassy-hostage-crisis-dies-of-coronavirus-620032. And there’s even the possibility that the repercussions for the medical manufacturing of PPE equipment might come roaring back to being relocated to NA due to the shortage of masks and gloves etc: https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/03-03-2020-shortage-of-personal-protective-equipment-endangering-health-workers-worldwide . Not even CPAC with your favorite fiends the republicans were safe : https://twitter.com/AIPAC/status/1236056463740735488?s=20 .

    There’s nothing more disastrous for any politician than to have won an election by the skin of your teeth and then be given an semi “Act of God” emergency. And you really have have to scramble with a cabinet that’s loaded with Public Servant Lifers but few with medical expertise, or if we remember the Katrina debacle back in the Aughts you have Bush’s party friends in high places mismanaging just about everything in plain sight of the country.

    But knowing that Butts and his Bay Street City Rollers are most likely too busy drinking Ontario’s finest Ice Wines to care about the ghost of Vincent Price in the Red Mask a knocking on Parliaments door, I’m noticing that in my neck of the woods, most Canadians are quietly turning via silent prepping and that the consensus on the street is that they don’t expect the Trudeau government to do anything or to assist until it’s too late. Which for any Liberal if that behavior trends really hard upward especially among say the GTA area, you can look to that expansion to Doug Nation taking out the last stronghold for the Federal Libs.

  14. Roger Clarke says:

    My initial assessment of this jumped up little [in terms of his intellect] shit has been vindicated, and by a former major operative of the Liberal Party of Canada, no less. There is a God/Dog! Now, if only events would somehow conspire to get us rid of him…

    • Grames Barnaby says:

      Well here’s what you should do, instead of waiting for events, once we’ve passed this pandemic get together with your fellow Canadians sign up for some counter parties to Liberals and hit the streets working their war rooms, etc, build up the vote in your community and get them out there to turf Trudeau.

      Look it’s easy to bitch on a random comments board. But if you want results get off of the duffer turn off the hockey game and simply stop being a passive observer and be an active man in real life. That’s how the Liberals operate a healthy network.

      By contrast I’ve observed that too many of fellow Conservatives have become so passive constantly waiting for ownage events to occur or waiting for some random Godot leader to deliver them from evil, instead of networking, training, promoting and encouraging folks to get involved in the non private aspects of real life. And they wonder why they haven’t been moving the needle much these days in Science, Industry, The Arts, or even Finance anymore. Leaders are only as good as the solid ground works team that backs them.

      Don’t sit around and wait for storm to come, be the farmer and harvest, prepare and then execute.

  15. PJH says:

    test….

  16. Miles Lunn says:

    Justin Trudeau was always a lightweight and won largely on his famous last name and fatigue of Harper government. In first term, things largely went smoothly and if he had avoided all the self inflicted errors, probably won another majority. With the storm clouds on horizon, this is going to be a much tougher second term and I don’t have a lot of faith in handling it. Nonetheless Tories need to get their act together as much like Ontario Liberals will continue to win until Tories can offer a decent alternative. Tories have a wide open opportunity to win, but so far to date seem to be doing a good job of preventing that from happening.

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