Roundup: The WE Imbroglio worsens

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Because the Liberals’ capacity for self-harm wasn’t apparent enough already, it seems that they decided to find yet another rake to step on as the WE Imbroglio continues to unfold, and we learned that two of Bill Morneau’s children have done work for WE – one of them as a salaried employee, and no, Morneau also did not recuse himself from any Cabinet discussions or decisions when it came to awarding WE the student service grant contract. Because of course he didn’t.

Within the Liberal ranks, so far only Nathaniel Erskine-Smith – already considered a “maverick” – has come out to say that he’s not keen on what has transpired, which makes me wonder how many other Liberal MPs feel similarly but just aren’t saying out of a sense of loyalty or because they would rather close ranks at a time like this. Of course, if we had a properly functioning Westminster democracy in this country, the caucus could get together and say “You know what – the leader keeps hurting the party with these self-inflicted wounds, so maybe it’s time we find a new leader,” and within a few days, they could have voted out Trudeau and voted on a replacement from within the caucus ranks, and then it would be off to Rideau Hall to swear in a new prime minister, who hopefully wouldn’t be a prone to stepping on those rakes. But we don’t have a properly functioning system because the Liberals and the pundit class back in 1919 decided it was somehow “more democratic” to give the party membership the ability to decide on the leadership, and suddenly the accountability of that leader to his or her caucus was annihilated. Now we have leaders who have centralized all power and authority and who are accountable to no one, so that when they cause trouble for their parties, the caucus is now stuck. (It would also help in keeping the party from becoming a personality cult of the current leader because that leader is easily replaced, but again, that’s no where we’re at in this country, and we are paying the price for it.

As for the Conservatives, they decided that they needed to up the stakes and send a letter to the RCMP to demand a criminal investigation of this contract, under the flimsiest of pretences. It’s ludicrous, of course, but what it allows them to do is to insinuate that the RMCP are investigating when they likely aren’t because they’re not public about what they are and are not investigating, and they can spend the summer asking Trudeau “have the RCMP contacted you yet?” and posting those clips all over their social media channels. We’ve seen this particular play before, and it wasn’t great the first time, and this iteration won’t have improved either. I suspect there is also an element of “lock her up!” as part of their calculation for this, because they know that there is an element of their base that will respond to this bit of red meat, and they can’t help themselves, no matter how corrosive this is to our political discourse, or the long-term the damage that it causes.

Meanwhile, Susan Delacourt hears from Erskine-Smith and other unnamed Liberals who are balking at how closed-off to caucus Trudeau has been, and how that breeds these kinds of problems. Chris Selley marvels at Trudeau’s trilogy of scandals, and the ways in which they are continually minimized.

Good reads:

  • Apparently the RCMP’s feelings were hurt when Jagmeet Singh suggested that the Rideau Hall intruder is only alive today because he’s white.
  • The country’s largest public sector union has negotiated a compensation package for its members for the problems related to the shambolic Phoenix pay system.
  • The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the genetic privacy bill was constitutional after all, in spite of Jody Wilson-Raybould’s objections. (Look for my story soon).
  • The Commons industry committee grilled the heads of grocery chains across the country for their decision to cut pandemic-related pay raises for their employees.
  • Mike Moffatt explains how a cruelty-free Basic Income programme won’t achieve the goal of simplification, which is often what advocates premise BI on.
  • Kevin Carmichael looks at how the government’s refusal to act on open banking is hampering our fintech sector and shackling us to our big bank oligopolies.
  • Carmichael also walks us through the deficit figures, the job numbers, and the counterfactuals that demonstrate the worthiness of that spending.
  • Heather Scoffield talks to Navdeep Bains about the economic recovery, and the looming deadline of how to transition people still on pandemic supports.
  • My weekend column suggest that our establishment economic voices need to remember that it’s not 1995 any longer, and this pandemic is different.

Odds and ends:

Colby Cosh recounts the United States Supreme Court decision on “Indian Territory” in Oklahoma, and why it’s significant for nation-to-nation relationships.

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One thought on “Roundup: The WE Imbroglio worsens”

  1. “I suspect there is also an element of “lock her up!” as part of their calculation for this, because they know that there is an element of their base that will respond to this bit of red meat, and they can’t help themselves, no matter how corrosive this is to our political discourse, or the long-term the damage that it causes.”

    Yeah, it causes unfriendly sausage makers to try and take matters into their own hands by attempting to assassinate the PM. But nothing to see here folks, back to our coverage of the “real” scandal, Crooked Justin’s Emails. Christ, these people won’t stop their relentless abuse of him until he’s dead. If they get what they want through their irresponsible stochastic incitement, I hope Michael Wernick is on hand to deliver the eulogy. Starting with the story of Cassandra. Awful, just awful. Shame on them all.

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