The ‘stumbles’ outweigh Liberal achievements

My favourite endof-year review so far is one that ran in the Toronto Star under the guise of an editorial that wagged a worried finger at Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government.

The Star doesn’t like criticizing Liberals. It’s proud of its heritage as Canada’s leading purveyor of righteousness. But sometimes it recognizes the unpleasant need to scold wayward members, and Trudeau’s troops have definitely been wandering down some wayward paths of late. His poll ratings suggest Canadians have lost some of their infatuation with the prime minister and begun wondering when he’s going to start getting serious.

What I like about the editorial is the contrast between its ritual praise of a fellow “progressive” and the substance of the issues that spark its concern. The praise is limp; the issues are serious. Is One Yonge more worried than it lets on?

First the ritual praise: Trudeau’s debut year in power has produced “much to applaud,” it asserts. Oh yeah? Like what?

Well, there’s the restoration of the long-form census and the “unmuzzling of government scientists,” money for “major infrastructure investments that will stimulate the economy and make our cities more livable,” changes to the Canada Pension Plan, “real movement on climate policy” and the introduction of the Canada Child Benefit.

With the exception of the child benefit policy, this is a pretty weak list. Canadians didn’t oust Stephen Harper so they could fill in a longer census form and free scientists to take phone calls from journalists. The minor CPP change will be pricey, accomplish little and was forced on Ottawa by Ontario’s Kathleen Wynne, Canada’s leastpopular premier. The infrastructure pledge remains no more than a promise to spend borrowed money, only a fraction of which will go to actual construction projects. The impact remains a guess. Trudeau’s climate record consists of signing an international accord that became redundant with the election of Donald Trump, and a “national” energy plan that simply groups together provincial programs that already existed. The prime minister did approve some pipelines, an authentic achievement the Star doesn’t mention, probably because pipelines aren’t popular with “progressives.”

Against that list, look at the “series of stumbles:” the cash-for-access disaster; the wholesale ruin of the Liberals’ electoral reform plan; the predictable swamp that has swallowed its reconciliation efforts with Canadian aboriginals; its embrace of the same security laws it so fiercely denounced when they were introduced by Conservatives; and it’s failure to pursue “tax fairness,” a euphemism for the left’s yearning for soak-the-rich tax policies.

Next to the flaccid list of achievements, these “stumbles” reflect serious failures. Trudeau’s inability to produce a coherent excuse for selling preferred access to government leaders to wealthy donors has made him look stubborn, ridiculous and ill-prepared. After proudly releasing a tough ethics code on taking office, he and his top ministers are now flagrantly defying it in the face of a growing wave of public scorn, suggesting a resurgence of the arrogance for which Liberals have long been known.

The cash-for-access foolishness follows close on the heels of the complete meltdown of Trudeau’s electoral reform plan, which left observers wondering whether the party ever had a plan at all, beyond announcing there would never be another election under existing rules. If Trudeau and his advisers did have a well thought-out strategy, no one seems to have told Maryam Monsef, the young and inexperienced minister stuck with trying to sell it.

The government’s embrace of Tory security laws, and the reluctance to adopt damaging tax laws, were both predictable. It’s easy to bleat sanctimoniously in opposition, but the responsibilities that come with power tend to open the eyes to reality.

But perhaps most inevitable of all was Ottawa’s inability to wave a hand and clear away the centuries of distrust and suspicion that have so deeply scarred relations with aboriginals.

On the campaign trail Trudeau insisted — whether through naivete, inexperience or cynicism isn’t clear – that good intentions and the keys to the Treasury were the only things necessary to bring about reconciliation with Canada’s diverse and disgruntled aboriginals. It appeared never to have occurred to the Trudeau team that previous governments had come to power with equally high-minded intentions, only to run into the minefield of competing interests, fluid leadership and unmeetable demands that scuppered their efforts. Both Jean Chrétien and Stephen Harper made sincere attempts to introduce much-needed reforms, only to see them run aground on native resistance. Trudeau, convinced of sunny ways, unwisely raised hopes once again and is now seeing them crumble. It’s unfortunate, and may only add to the bitterness on both sides in the end.

Fortunately for The Star (or perhaps it was foresight) its views were published before last week’s meeting of health ministers, which saw the finance minister being derided in the same outraged terms previously heaped on Jim Flaherty and Joe Oliver, two Tory ministers who refused to cave to the province’s demands for floods of new money. Morneau’s determination to stick with the Tory funding formula is an “insulting ultimatum” representing “a road map to catastrophe” says Quebec Health Minister Gaétan Barrette.

Tsk tsk. How quickly the lustre fades. Perhaps poor relations with the provinces is an issue The Star can reserve for next year’s look back at the Liberal performance.