When people work with Trudeau, he has a tendency to ruin reputations. Pictured: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Photo Credit: Justin Trudeau/X.
This author’s departed father had a saying about people having what he called the “reverse Midas touch.” Instead of turning things into gold, folks with this quality “turned everything into garbage.” He used a more colourful word than garbage, but you get the drift. It occurred to this author recently that this is a characteristic of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as it pertains to people that choose to associate with him. It seems that when people work with Trudeau, he has a tendency to ruin reputations that were otherwise quite decent – often stellar – before their association with Trudeau.
One good example was former governor general David Johnston. Serving as Canada’s governor general from 2010 to 2017, Johnston seemed to be a perfect person for that job. Johnston had a distinguished reputation, being educated at Harvard and Cambridge, was a professor of law for years, Dean of Law at Western University, principal at McGill and President of the University of Windsor. Despite his close association with Liberals, including the Trudeau family in former prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s time, he was appointed to the Governor General role by former prime minister Stephen Harper, a Conservative.
Then the Trudeau kiss of death came into the picture. Accepting Trudeau’s offer to act as “special rapporteur” to investigate Chinese Communist Party interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, his was supposed to determine whether a full-blown public inquiry into the issue should be undertaken. He did a very superficial job, ignoring or minimizing information that was damaging to the Trudeau Liberals, and ended up concluding that a public inquiry was not necessary when anyone aware of the clear evidence of Chinese interference in our elections knew such an inquiry was absolutely essential.
He was rightfully criticized for this decision, and more information started to be made widely public about his long, cozy relationship with China and the Trudeau family. Although he initially tried to hang tough in the special rapporteur role, he ended up resigning and slunk away into the sunset as the guy who stretched the truth – or worse – at Trudeau’s behest. A decades-long reputation in tatters.
The WE charity had a pretty good reputation for a long time, appearing to bring positive results to young people in Canada and less developed countries. The attention the charity received by the stupid plan of Trudeau to award it close to a billion taxpayer dollars meant that more attention was paid to things such as the charity having paid money to Trudeau’s mother, brother and wife for speaking at WE events, the failure of some of its projects in far-off countries and the fact that the organization had amassed a hugely valuable real estate portfolio in the Toronto area. We haven’t really heard much about WE since. Another reputation bites the dust.
Bill Morneau must surely be regretting his affiliation with Trudeau too. As the heir to a hugely successful family business started by his father, and fabulously wealthy due to both the inherited business and his marriage to a member of the McCain family, he definitely won the genetic lottery. Wanting to try his hand at politics, he made the error of running for the Trudeau Liberals. After the Liberals’ 2015 electoral victory, he was the natural choice for finance minister. He soon discovered that there was absolutely no sense of financial sanity in the Trudeau fold and ended up stepping away from politics as he was often at odds with Trudeau’s desire to spend Canada into oblivion. Another reputation down the tubes.
Mark Carney looks to be the next victim. After many successes on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs, as Bank of Canada governor, Bank of England governor, board member of many large global investment companies and affiliations with international entities such as the UN, he has inexplicably opted to join the Trudeau Liberal cabal as a special advisor on economic issues. Discussions have already taken place in the House of Commons about the fact that he chose to be an advisor instead of running for politics since as an advisor he doesn’t have to give up his many lucrative board positions and other sinecures as he would have to if he became a member of Parliament. The potential for conflicts of interest with Carney still sitting on all of these boards and financial entities while being effectively a back-up finance minister is massive. Maybe Carney’s not as smart as many people seem to think he is after all. Reputation on the ropes.
A number of people initially associated with Trudeau saw the writing on the wall before their reputations were ruined and chose to get out. Trudeau’s famous dust-up with former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould is a classic case of her initially believing in Trudeau but, as she noted in her book after leaving Liberal politics, she eventually realized that “he would so casually lie to the public and then think he could get away with it.” Former health minister Jane Philpott resigned along with Wilson-Raybould, incensed with how Wilson-Raybould had been treated by “feminist” Trudeau.
Former Liberal MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes chose not to run again after being totally disillusioned by Trudeau’s fakery, and famously commented on a phone conversation she had with him after she chose not to run again in which he berated and talked down to her how grateful she should have been for everything he had done for her. Former Trudeau cabinet minister and army officer Andrew Leslie also chose not to run again after learning what Trudeau was all about, and has written a recent book highly critical of Trudeau’s unserious leadership.
Marc Garneau, also apparently a decent man, hung in longer than most but finally stepped away and penned a book highly critical of Trudeau in which he documented how Trudeau never sought others’ expert advice on important issues, seemingly thinking he knew it all. All of these folks that apparently saw the real Trudeau early on have retained their reputations, and many have moved on to greater heights.
The reputations on which Trudeau has inflicted the most damage have been those of himself personally and Canada as a country. Having had a terrific status in the world for decades, Canada is now viewed as a bad, woke joke by other countries. Canadians have not covered themselves with any glory by voting for Trudeau in three elections – albeit two with minorities – as other countries’ leaders view Trudeau with disdain as a lightweight and poser who is reduced to showing off his socks at important international meetings. As for Trudeau personally, he is now despised by a large majority of Canadians and there are all kinds of speculation about what on earth he will do post-politics, as he doesn’t really have any marketable skills.
Given Trudeau’s abysmal track record, another saying of this author’s dear Dad might be relevant to those considering associating with Trudeau in future or accepting some kind of appointment, position, inquiry head or similar – when you lie down with the dogs, you get up with the fleas. Dad was bang on.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
