Ethics? What ethics?
Entitlement comes easy to trio
When a prime minister, his finance minister and his top go-to man in cabinet have all been found guilty of ethics violations, the words “sleazy politics” and “unprincipled” become apt and unavoidable descriptors.
And that’s what we have in the Trudeau Liberals, its upper echelons believing their lives of undeniable privilege that comes with wealth and lifelong entitlement puts them above us all.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau … guilty.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau … guilty.
And now, guilty too, is former Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc, recently elevated by Trudeau to smooth the path towards inter-provincial love and the acceptance of a controversial and stalled pipeline that goes against the party’s legacy of progressiveness and environmentalist tree hugging.
It’s a sorry state of affairs. As for Trudeau and LeBlanc, it’s perhaps the merger of shared backgrounds that has led to this moment.
“I have a deep understanding of the values that are important to (Justin),” LeBlanc said in a 2015 interview, a few months after the Liberals were elected to a majority.
“And I think I have a good understanding of the way he wants to operate the government. And this comes from literally knowing him since we were children.”
So, here we are.
Trudeau, who thought there was nothing wrong with spending Christmas on the private Caribbean island of the billionaire Aga Khan, will go down in history as the first Canadian prime minister found to have violated ethics rules by the government watchdog.
Bill Morneau, who thought there was nothing wrong with not disclosing he was a director of a company that owned a private villa in the south of France, was shown otherwise by the same guardian of principles who found his boss playing loose with the rules.
And now, LeBlanc, former Trudeau babysitter and childhood friend, son of a former Liberal cabinet minister and later governor general of this country, who thought there was nothing wrong in awarding an Arctic surf clam licence to a company with direct links to his wife’s cousin.
None of these involved the parking of privilege at the door.
All were unprincipled. Name another western democracy, past or present, where the holders of the top three portfolios in government have such black marks against them.
Earlier this week, Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion ruled without reservation that LeBlanc should have recused himself from involvement in approving the multi-million-dollar award in February to Five Nations Clam Co. when he knew it would likely pad the wallet of his wife’s cousin.
Unlike Trudeau and Morneau, who could attempt to blame their faux pas on political naiveté, the same could not be said of LeBlanc who has represented the New Brunswick riding of Beausejour for 18 years.
He is a bona fide veteran of the political trenches.
There are always winners and losers in such awards, of course.
With Five Nations Clam getting 25% of the annual Arctic surf clam quota — a contract worth approximately $24 million in its first year — it cut by the same percentage the quota to the Clearwater surf clam company in Grand Bank, N.L.
This naturally incensed Grand Bank Mayor Rex Matthews, who is now calling for LeBlanc’s head.
He wants him removed from Trudeau’s cabinet.
“The prime minister should set a good example and remove him from cabinet,” said Matthews. “(LeBlanc) was less than honest.
“He never was forthcoming in saying, ‘Yes, there is a conflict here.’ No, he played it right to the end. Now I think he should pay the price.”
The problem with Trudeau setting an example, of course, is that he is no example himself.
In fact, he helped set the lowness of the bar.