Remember all those fine sounding phrases like “real change,” “transparency” and “accountability”we heard from Justin Trudeau in his successful campaign to become Prime Minister?
People actually bought into it, but now that the Liberals are actually governing those wonderful qualities the electorate desire and, indeed, voted for, have vanished like a morning mist as clearly demonstrated by the actual behaviour of this government.
For all of his bluster and feigned love for democracy, Trudeau is consistently revealing his disdain for democracy and an astonishing lack of sensitivity to appearance of evil. If it’s not broken promises it’s continued undemocratic, heavy-handed conduct such as limiting parliamentary debate, cash-for-access fundraisers or so called “open nominations” in ridings. Or who will soon forget “Elbowgate” when the out-of-control PM actually physically intervened to “hasten” a commons vote?
You could add Trudeau’s secrecy and lack of propriety over the Aga Khan trip to the list and it becomes clear we have a Prime Minister who excels in rhetoric and greatly underachieves in actually walking the walk.
Take, for example, the latest blatant display of heavy-handed procedure with what the Liberals like to call “modernization” of parliamentary procedure. To their credit, opposition MP’s Candice Bergen (Conservative) and Murray Rankin (NDP) are doing due diligence in vigorously opposing this abuse of power after the Liberals voted down the opposition proposal requiring support of all parties in changing parliamentary rules.
By any definition this is clearly a power grab, which Bergen rightly described as “arrogant” and which Rankin
said was “dressed up in polite words like modernization.
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If Canadians have not seen enough to disturb them in the 18 months this government has been in power you have to wonder what it will take. But it is safe to say Trudeau and his government have already and will continue to reveal how little they are to be trusted.
Gerald Hall
Nanoose Bay