Want better politics? Criticize your own side
“Call it out.”
It’s a slogan that’s in season but one that is selectively applied. Most partisans live to call out opponents over hypocrisy and double standards, then go mute when it’s their side that transgresses.
“Call it out,” Liberal minister Catherine McKenna tweeted in endorsement of a righteous speech by the U.S. Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez in which Ocasio-Cortez condemned a Republican colleague for his sexism. “We need more women in politics,” McKenna added.
Amen. But where was McKenna when it was her former cabinet colleagues, Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott, being crushed for calling out Justin Trudeau over his office’s meddling into the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin? Calling out someone you dislike is easy; doing the same to your boss is harder. The former also achieves little other than entrenching partisanship, while more of the latter would transform our politics for the better.
Imagine if more Liberals had trimmed Justin Trudeau’s sails — even behind closed doors — during SNC? Do you think doing so would have made it more, or less likely for Trudeau to step in the ethical dung again over WE? I suppose we’ll never know.
Thankfully, Trudeau has blessed us with another teachable moment — in the midst of a pandemic, no less — but only backbencher Nate Erskine-Smith stands ready to criticize Dear Leader for yet another stonking ethical transgression. Instead, we are treated to the sight of backbench bootlickers such as Peter Fragiskatos trying to shut down the finance committee’s investigation of WE Charity’s multi-million-dollar Canada Student Service Grant contract.
Fragiskatos’s shut-down shenanigans continue the long, slow descent of politics to a place where no decent person would ever want to go. No, this isn’t a new phenomenon, as evidenced by the Stephen Harper years, but Trudeau promised better. And if being in politics culminates in the endless swallowing of dirt without complaint on behalf of your ethically challenged leader, we can stop wondering why nobody with half a brain cell wants to get stuck into public life.
Because whether the politicians notice or not, ordinary people know the smell of something dodgy. And so it is with
WE. What would restore some of their confidence in the political process is if members of the governing party could play a role in holding its leadership to account.
If nothing untoward happened with WE, there would be no reason to filibuster the committee, as happened last week when the Liberal members blathered on about absolutely nothing at all. If WE was entirely above board, we wouldn’t need to curtail the number of hours the principals would appear to explain how this project originated entirely with the public service (wink, wink). The latest developments prove we need more committee time, not less. Does anyone doubt the only reason Bill Morneau suddenly remembered his $41,000 WE tab was because he was about to appear at committee?
Whether the Liberals want answers or not, Canadians deserve them on why WE was authorized to get most of its money upfront. They deserve to know why WE was given the green light to roll out the contract weeks before cabinet gave it the official go-ahead. And they deserve to know whether any of this was done because WE had a special relationship with the prime minister and his finance minister — to say nothing of the extensive financial relationship the charity had with the prime minister’s family.
The good news is that calling it out can be done. In fact, it’s already being done on another file. Nova Scotia Liberal MPs Lenore Zann, Sean Fraser and Darren Fisher added their names to the call for a full public inquiry into the Portapique mass shooting, despite earlier signing their names to a letter from the Nova Scotia federal Liberal caucus endorsing the government’s plan for a less invasive “joint review.” The government has now, thankfully, opted for the full inquiry. Pressure works.
The Nova Scotia Liberals’ conversion on the inquiry was no doubt fed by their constituents’ anger. More MPs from all parties now need to put their constituents’ views ahead of their leadership’s when it comes to the proper administration of public business. It would be good for our democratic health.