Trudeau plays waiting game with Singh
By sitting on a byelection call for the B.C. riding of Burnaby South, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is deliberately stalling NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s bid to enter the House of Commons. In so doing, the prime minister is merely using his prerogative to wait up to six months after a vacancy occurs to set a date to fill it. Technically, he has until midMarch to call a vote in Burnaby South. But by forcing Singh to cool his heels for no reason other than because he can, Trudeau is lowering the bar on what had until now been considered byelection fair play on the part of a prime minister.
The longer this goes on, the harder it will be for Trudeau to continue to claim the high ground for his Liberals.
But first, some background. On the weekend, a byelection was called for Dec. 3 in the riding of Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes. Voters there will choose a replacement for Conservative MP Gordon Brown, who passed away last spring.
Trudeau had until Tuesday to call the Ontario byelection, and was widely expected to set the same date for a vote in Burnaby South.
It has been almost three months since Singh announced he would run for that seat, which was left vacant when New Democrat MP Kennedy Stewart resigned to run, successfully, for mayor of Vancouver. If all went well in the byelection, the New Democrats believed Singh would enter the House before year’s end.
After all, it had been the practice of Trudeauís predecessors to extend the courtesy of a swift byelection call to seatless opposition leaders.
Brian Mulroney, Jean Chrètien, Stockwell Day and Stephen Harper all benefited from the practice. So did Joe Clark, even as - in contrast with the others - he was not taking over the leadership of the official Opposition. In his second incarnation as Tory leader, Clark re-entered the Commons to lead the fourth party.
For the record and with the notable exception of Harper, all those leaders - like Singh - initially sought a federal seat outside their home province.
On the weekend, a Liberal spokesperson justified the decision to make the NDP leader wait by pointing out he had declined to run in any of the byelections that have taken place over his first year as leader. But that response is disingenuous, as is the contention that it would have been irresponsible to hold a federal vote in Burnaby while B.C. is holding its electoral reform referendum.
Beggars - or, in this case, third- and fourth-party leaders - cannot be choosers, but there is no rule that stipulates a rookie leader should be politically suicidal.
Every prime minister I covered came to the office promising to stick to the high road. Instead, when it came to using prime ministerial powers for partisan advantage, each and every one of them ended up pushing the envelope a little further. Trudeau is turning out to be no exception.