TRUDEAU’S SAUDI PROBLEM. COYNE & McPARLAND,

All things being equal, the Trudeau government would have every right to feel upset at the $ 15- billion Saudi arms deal bequeathed it by the Harper Conservatives.

The Liberals didn’t make the deal. They didn’t promote it. If they’d been in power, they might not have pursued it.

But the deal was done and now they’re stuck with it. They’d love it if they could just slough it off as another ugly legacy of the defeated, warmongering Tories. But they can’t, and the reason they can’t is their own fault, not the Conservatives’.

The Trudeau campaign was founded heavily on the notion that the right- minded, positive- thinking, wellmeaning Liberals could do things the Tories couldn’t. The world wasn’t so complicated it couldn’t be approached with political will and positive thinking. Unfortunately, the world isn’t really like that. And the Saudi deal is underlining the fact the Liberals aren’t really all that different from the Conservatives.

Justin Trudeau made the first mistake when, during the campaign, he said the Liberals would not cancel the deal. His error was in the quip he offered: the light armoured vehicles Canada is selling were really just “jeeps,” he claimed. Like the ones people use to ferry the kids to soccer games.

They’re anything but jeeps. They’re armoured vehicles that can be equipped with serious weaponry. Their purpose is to control a populace subject to some of the toughest human- rights restrictions in the world. Now that he’s prime minister, Trudeau’s people are stuck explaining his remark: was he ill- informed, or was he trying to divert attention from the fact Liberal policy was no different from Conservative.

Stéphane Dion exacerbated the situation when he tried to explain why there would be no change in the policy despite a worldwide outcry at the mass execution of prisoners in Saudi Arabia, including respected Shia cleric NimralNimr. Dion’s reasons — that the deal was signed under the previous government, that it involved a private firm, that Canada’s allies also sell weapons to the Saudis — would be fair enough except for one thing: the Liberals promised to be a different, better government than the one they replaced, not a replica.

Yes, Canada’s allies sell arms to the Saudis — they also are committed to continuing the air campaign against ISIL, which the Liberals say they’ll back out of. Yes the contract was signed under the previous government, but so what? The Liberals have been happy to revoke or cancel all sorts of Tory actions, including a demand that 33 Conservative appointees voluntarily resign their positions. Yes it involves a private company, but it was brokered and promoted by the government, and is subject to government restric- tions on the human- rights record of the purchaser.

So none of Dion’s arguments hold water. The Liberals’ last line of defence, that they said during the campaign they would not cancel the deal, is accurate enough. But a series of remarks tweeted during the campaign shows the Liberals were playing both sides of the fence, condemning the Tories while adopting the same practices. The tweets, by Trudeau’s top adviser, Gerald Butts — now his principal secretary — bluntly at- tacked the Conservatives for refusing to stand up to Saudi human-rights violations.

“At last, a Western government is standing up to Saudi Arabia,” he tweeted after Sweden cancelled an arms deal.

“Don’t make me remind you that Saudi Arabia is crucifying a boy for writing a blog,” he said in another.

Now it’s the Liberals that can’t bring themselves to stand up to the Saudis, beyond a token statement of criticism issued by Dion following the mass executions. And they are motivated by the same reasons: self-interest and global pressures.

The deal will support jobs in an area of Ontario where the Liberals are loath to risk losing votes. The size of the contract, $ 15 billion, is bigger than their principles. As well, once he took office, Trudeau was presented with a paper urging that Canada strengthen ties with the Saudis because it represents major commercial interests and is a bulwark against the potential chaos of a Middle East dominated by Iran. After pledging to end the era of Tory secrecy, the Liberals are now refusing to release details of a recent assessment on Saudi human rights.

In other words, they are standing by the Saudis for the same reasons the Tories did, despite their inflated rhetoric. The controversy over the deal exposes them for what they are: no better or worse than the government they attacked so vociferously. As one of the protesters who gathered on Parliament Hill this week noted: “Their words do not match their actions.”

SIZE OF THE CONTRACT... IS BIGGER THAN THEIR PRINCIPLES.