This series of articles outlining the many failures, lies and bizarre moves of Justin Trudeau was originally going to be a two-parter, but I am now finding that four parts is barely enough to cover what has turned out to be such a long list. However, the election is mere days away, so this series must be concluded. Please excuse any overly brief treatment of issues that have not been mentioned to date.
Although the first part of Trudeau’s tenure was certainly full of broken promises, errors of omission and commission as well as outright lies, the pace seemed to pick up markedly in the last 18 months of the four-year term. This was partly because some of the problems had been kept under the radar for a while but eventually became public, but also because some of the media decided the frequency and severity of Trudeau screw-ups could no longer be ignored. That being said, there is no doubt that Liberal-friendly media covered up or minimized many serious errors made by Trudeau and his colleagues, and that complicity continues to this day.
A number of disparate events and disclosures of past misbehavior put even more dents in the “nice guy” Trudeau image that had already been eroded by “Elbowgate”, his temper tantrum over the supply ship contract leak, calling an opposition MP in the House of Commons a “piece of sh*t” and his long history of charging charities $20,000 for a speech and/or appearance when MPs typically do such things for free as part of their job. Revelations of an incident in which Trudeau reportedly groped a reporter in 2000 and the several incidents of “blackface” that have recently emerged deservedly damaged Trudeau’s feminist and non-racist credentials. The mean side of Trudeau’s personality was fully on display when he told a wounded veteran he was asking “for more than we are able to give” in February 2018 and sarcastically told an indigenous protester in March 2019 “thank you for your donation”. The dismissive, condescending way in which he subsequently treated Liberal MPs Jody Wilson-Raybould, Jane Philpott and Celine Caesar-Chavannes cemented the reality that Trudeau really wasn’t such a “sunny ways” guy after all. And as he never admitted to past misdeeds until he was caught red-handed, it also raised the question of how much more dirt was yet to be discovered about “transparent” Trudeau.
Another epic Trudeau fail involves federal-provincial relations. One of Trudeau’s many claims in 2015 was that he would be far more consultative with provincial premiers than his predecessor Harper, and that he would usher in a new era of inter-governmental harmony. In reality, relations between the federal government and the provinces under Trudeau took what was becoming a familiar route – Trudeau’s way or the highway. Despite ongoing claims by Trudeau that he always sticks up for Canadian jobs, he totally abandoned Alberta and to a lesser extent Saskatchewan where job losses have numbered over 100,000, well in excess of any other part of the country. Despite ongoing declarations that “the economy and the environment go hand in hand”, Trudeau’s claims that he really did want a pipeline built to boost Alberta’s fortunes were not followed up by action. The government’s purchase of the Trans Mountain Pipeline in mid-2018 for the outrageous sum of $4.5 billion was viewed cynically by Western Canadians as yet another delaying tactic costing a great deal of money. This cynicism was well-founded as any progress on actually building the pipeline to date has been slim to none, while the Trudeau government continues its mixed-message approach of stating it wants a pipeline built while erecting ever more regulatory and other barriers to such a project.
The election of a number of conservative provincial governments coupled with Trudeau’s lack of concern for Western Canada has produced the most fractious federal-provincial relations climate Canada has seen since – well, since Trudeau senior was in power decades ago. The federal government forcing a carbon tax on provinces that wanted to approach environmental issues in other ways certainly didn’t help foster a climate of mutual co-operation and respect. Any Canadian who doesn’t believe we will soon have a serious national unity crisis on our hands if Trudeau is re-elected with a majority, or even with a minority coalition government composed of Liberals and some other party, is simply not paying attention.
The Liberals continue to boast about their economic accomplishments, but as the world has been on a growth path for the last number of years, Canada would be part of that trend regardless of which government was in power. The fact that the US economy has been especially strong of late has boosted Canadian economic fortunes as well, which is rather ironic considering the disdain in which many Canadians, especially Liberals, hold the current US administration. Debt accumulation by governments and individuals, inflated real estate values and record-low interest rates have also been drivers of the economy, but these are factors that boost short-term fortunes but eventually drag down growth. Many billions of dollars in investment have left Canada, notably from the vital resource and manufacturing sectors, and investors have sought greener pastures elsewhere because of the uncertainty and regulatory barriers to investment the Trudeau government has put in place. The Liberals’ ill-advised and badly bungled attempt to drastically alter the tax regime for small businesses served to alienate a sector that represents about half of the economy and most new job creation, and highlighted the government’s incompetence on an important policy file. Funnily enough, the botched small business tax reform effort backfired on Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau, as it shone the spotlight on them both being wealthy trust fund babies and, in Morneau’s case, someone who suffered temporary amnesia about his ownership of a villa in France.
Most analysts currently believe the world economy is due for a recession, and Trudeau’s policies have left Canada woefully ill-prepared for an economic downturn. Despite the monotonous droning on about how this government is focused on “the middle class, and those working hard to join it”, data show that a majority of middle class Canadians believe themselves to be worse off than they were four years ago and that taxes have actually increased on middle income earners during this period.
The mess that is the current state of our immigration system can also be laid at Trudeau’s door. In his zeal to appear as the anti-Trump, Trudeau sent out the infamous “Welcome to Canada” tweet in early 2017. This missive triggered an inflow of people to Canada that has gummed up the works of our immigration process, imposed unplanned costs on many municipal and provincial governments to provide shelter and social services on would-be immigrants, wreaked havoc at border locations and infuriated many first-generation Canadians who followed all the rules to come to Canada and are now appalled by the many people “jumping the queue”. Canada has always been a very welcoming country to immigrants and remains so, but the abandoning of so many rules and procedures for virtue-signaling purposes has raised concerns among Canadians that our border is in disarray.
The most serious and substantial transgressions of the Trudeau government involved the SNC Lavalin and Vice-Admiral Mark Norman scandals. Even putting aside the disgraceful way Trudeau treated a number of senior Liberal colleagues and a lifelong honourable senior military officer, both incidents proved that this Liberal government had no respect for the judicial system when abiding by the law would mean interfering with their political objectives. In addition to the ethics breaches pointed out by the Ethics Commissioner’s August 2019 report, some analysts are of the opinion that criminal charges are called for in the SNC Lavalin case. The Trudeau government shamefully shut down the proceedings of several Parliamentary Committees that were looking into various elements of the SNC Lavalin situation, and if the Liberals are re-elected with a majority, this matter will likely go no further despite comments from the RCMP that they are reviewing the matter. If, however, some other political party or possible coalition ends up in power, we could see a full RCMP inquiry into obstruction of justice. Whatever the case, Canadians deserve answers on such an important issue concerning the justice system of our nation that we all rely on to be impartial and not subject to political interference.
Looking back on Trudeau’s four years in power, it is clear that every key element used to sell Trudeau to Canadians was false. The image of the feminist, diversity-loving anti-racist, fiscally responsible, transparent government advocate, healer of federal-provincial tensions and indigenous conflict, exemplar on the world stage and all round “sunny ways” guy has been completely obliterated. The Liberal government’s delivery on its many early grandiose promises has been abysmal as well. Compared to 2015, Canadians are now much more heavily burdened by both personal and government debt, more divided as a nation and more anxious about their future. We’ll know in a few days whether Canadians are OK proceeding with more of the same.
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.
