Winepress of sour grapes

Conservative bile is bubbling as Parliament resumes today and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government gets fully up and running. To hear the Tories and their acolytes tell it, the Liberals are fumbling and stumbling on every front, getting nothing right.

Rarely has Canada’s political winepress squeezed out quite so many sour grapes so soon after an election.

As Trudeau hobnobbed with the great and the good at Davos last week, the Tories sniped from the sidelines, blaming him for bungling the federal deficit numbers, mismanaging the influx of Syrian refugees, even failing to grasp the importance of the oil sector.

Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose — who long ago wrote off Trudeau’s “big, activist government” — now faults it for “blowing” plans to run only modest deficits. During the campaign, the Liberals talked up deficits of $10 billion over the next three years, chiefly to fund much-needed infrastructure, prior to balancing the budget. But given the sharp slump in the economy, they now say that number isn’t set in stone and could run higher.

Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel, meanwhile, believes the Liberals are “flying by the seat of their pants” in coping with 25,000 Syrian refugees, after having “pulled the number out of thin air.” There “really hasn’t been a plan,” she says.

Trudeau even caught flak from Alberta’s rightwing Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean for telling the movers and shakers at Davos that he’d like Canada to be known for its resourcefulness, not just for its resources. The comments “didn’t make any sense,” Jean said. “This is a gentleman I’ve never taken seriously until he became prime minister.”

Canadians, who repudiated the Conservatives on Oct. 19, can be expected to take all this grousing with a grain of salt. The dogs may bark, as the saying goes, but the caravan moves on.

What’s being lost in the conservative farrago of carping is that the Liberals are largely on the right track. Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz effectively handed the government a licence to stimulate the economy with bigger deficits by holding off lowering the bank’s key lending rate this past week, anticipating “fiscal measures” in the upcoming budget. Bay Street economists, too, are cheering on bigger deficits. Credible analysts believe Ottawa could run a $25-billion deficit without courting ruin. And given the sharp and unexpected hit Canada has taken from low oil and commodity prices, extra stimulus is more than justified.

On refugees, few in Canada, including the Star, believed the Liberals could bring in 25,000 Syrians before the new year. And meeting housing and other needs was always going to be a challenge. Even so, Canadians feel Ottawa is doing the right and generous thing.

It’s worth recalling that Stephen Harper chided Trudeau during the campaign for proposing to “run a deficit on purpose,” and stubbornly refused to offer Syrians generous asylum. Now Harper’s party is OK with “a little bit of deficit” but faults Trudeau for not spelling out just how large a deficit he intends to run, and for not resettling refugees faster. There’s no pleasing some people.

As for promoting Canadian resourcefulness over resources at Davos, that just makes sense. Investors aren’t flocking to the Alberta oilsands when oil is going for $30 a barrel. Better to pitch Canada’s plans to invest in the future and to promote our highly educated, diverse population, advanced infrastructure, health care, social and financial stability. The Canadian advantage isn’t just oil.

No government, this one included, is perfect. Trudeau could have handled the withdrawal of Canadian warplanes from the fight against the Islamic State group better. And the Liberals’ promised tax changes will drain a bit more from the treasury than expected.

But Trudeau’s early days have not been the fiasco the Tories make out. There’s fresh energy and purpose in Ottawa. For the first time, the cabinet is gender-balanced. Relations with premiers, First Nations and cities are much better. The Liberals are bringing in more tax fairness and more support for a greener economy. MPs and scientists are free to speak their minds again. Draconian security laws are being reviewed.

This is not a government flying by the seat of its pants. It’s the leadership Canadians voted for.

Conservative carping at Justin Trudeau’s Liberals rings hollow