Canadian federal politics lately seems to be designed to induce depression.
First, the Liberals have been sucked into a massive corruption scandal in Quebec.
The Globe and Mail reported that the Prime Minister’s Office pressured the (now former) cabinet minister Jody Wilson-Rabyould to cut some kind of a deal with SNC-Lavalin, a Quebec construction giant that has been embroiled in multiple corruption and bribery charges over the last few years.
The most recent scandal involves SNC-Lavalin’s dealings with the former Gaddafi regime in Libya.
PM Justin Trudeau said of course, there was no pressure. Yet the timing of events is not great – Wilson-Raybould was recently demoted from justice minister. It looks like a punishment.
Then she abruptly resigned from cabinet altogether. The federal ethics commissioner is launching an inquiry.
The Conservatives, meanwhile, are still working hard to prove they’re a stable alternative by parroting talking points from YouTube conspiracy theorists.
Yet again, Andrew Scheer’s party ran an online ad attacking the Liberals for a filthy UN plot to erase our borders! This is, of course, nonsense. It’s so nonsensical that when a reporter pointed out the ad, a party spokesperson disavowed it.
The Tories are trying to have their far-right cake and eat it too, probably worried again about Maxime Bernier’s PPC eroding their base.
The NDP, under new leader Jagmeet Singh, decided to make the left-wing version of the Conservatives’ blunder, by wading into the crisis in Venezuela.
Canada recently recognized Venezuelan politician Juan Guaido as the country’s interim president. Guaido is locked in a struggle for power with Nicolas Maduro, who has helped ruin Venezuela’s economy to the point that hunger runs rampant.
However, some in the NDP dubbed Guaido the leader of a coup, and suggested Maduro’s last (rigged) election was legitimate.
This is all the more embarrassing because Guaido is not some neo-fascist. His Popular Will party are social democrats. Like the NDP.
It’s all too predictable.
Nine months before a federal election, the Liberals are facing a possible major corruption scandal in Quebec. The Tories are making common cause with the kind of loons who rant about UN black helicopters. And the NDP are nostalgic for the days when their candidates said nice things about Fidel Castro.
Could we have one adult party in this country? Please?