Geoffrey Stevens's blog

SNC-Lavalin affair leaves a foul smell on Parliament Hill

Submitted by Geoffrey Stevens on Tue, 03/19/2019 - 09:42

The SNC-Lavalin affair is a bit like Shakespeare’s “poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more.”

It has had its hour and much more. It has wreaked considerable havoc, damaging the credibility of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and knocking his Liberal Party into second place in the polls, while, ironically, making one of the Liberals’ own, Jody Wilson-Raybould, a heroine – an Indigenous woman bravely fending off a horde of male politicians who pursue power at the expense of principle.

Seven steps to salvation for the Trudeau government

Submitted by Geoffrey Stevens on Mon, 03/04/2019 - 15:27

Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister of Canada
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa

My Dear Prime Minister,

You’ve got yourself and your government into a pretty pickle, haven’t you, Sire?

Just when the universe was unfolding the way your father said it would, just when your Liberals were on a nice roll to re-election in October, this accursed SNC-Lavalin business had to rise up and bite you in the credibility.

SNC-Lavalin is costing Trudeau something precious: public trust

Submitted by Geoffrey Stevens on Tue, 02/26/2019 - 09:30

The SNC-Lavalin affair, which is consuming all the oxygen in the capital and has ground the Liberal government to a virtual halt, is a scandal of a different sort.

There is no wealthy entrepreneur underwriting the governing party’s election campaign in anticipation of landing a contract to build a transcontinental railroad, as was the case in the Pacific scandal of the 1870s.

There is no sleazy lobbyist slipping envelopes filled with $1,000 bills to a former prime minister, as there was in the contemporary Airbus scandal.

As Gerald Butts goes under the bus, Trudeau’s woes deepen

Submitted by Geoffrey Stevens on Tue, 02/19/2019 - 10:50

How is this ugly SNC-Lavalin affair going to end for Justin Trudeau’s Liberals?

In a word, badly.

It is bad enough already and will only get worse before it gets better – if it does. It has already cost the prime minister a highly prized cabinet minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, his former minister of justice and attorney general. On Monday, it cost him his principal secretary, Gerald Butts, one of his closest personal friends.