Columnist leaps to wrong conclusion

Dear Editor:

Re: Rising doubt in Trudeau, Courier Feb. 26

In the wake of the SNC Lavalin affair, Prince George Citizen Managing Editor Neil Godbout expresses shock that a Leger poll said 55 per cent of Liberal supporters aren’t sure whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in the wrong, therefore the majority of Liberal supporters are questioning the prime minister’s behaviour.

This is a bad-faith argument. Of course a majority are uncertain, we don’t know yet how much of it was principle or how much was hurt feelings? It certainly was not a breakdown of the political system, as Opposition and media claim. Canadians can be proud that our institutions and systems of parliamentary checks and balances held.

Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick’s illumination was more insight than any we’ve had from the politicians or the media. It is becoming apparent that it is turning into a case of “he said and she felt.”

The PM was a little taken aback by how it unfolded and publicly admitted he was confused, because his conversations with Wilson-Raybould were not consistent with her actions. Did he feel hurt? Did she feel hurt (probably)? They are both human like the rest of us.

We call for transparency; yet we have transparency with daily details of how government performs, but that kind of transparency is boring; not as juicy as what appears to be on the surface a political scandal that affects the fortunes of government; we revel in all its messy particulars.

But what does this kind of messy transparency into the inner workings of cabinet tell us? Though Canadians gain comfort that our institutions hold up, it tells us people trip up and sometimes hurt feelings result in sudden and unclear actions.

The 55 per cent mentioned in the Leger poll are the sensible ones who wait for more of the tale to be revealed, before we can heal.

The editors of the Globe and Mail, which broke the story, have pressed down on the accelerator in their own public defence; against suggestions the leak was the trigger that inflamed hurt feelings into claims of political misdeeds.

Wernick’s comment clearly makes that assertion. He also makes clear the broader circumstances of that first meeting, which was mainly about another issue; the Indigenous reconciliation file that had stalled because the former attorney general Wilson-Raybould and Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett were at loggerheads as to how to proceed, and the PM wanted to resolve this.

The SNC Lavalin question was in fact a sidebar discussion.

For healing to take place, all voices must be heard. Jon Peter Christoff, West Kelowna