Liberals urged to focus on goals
MPs to turn attention to tackling climate change and growing the middle-class
SAGUENAY, QUE. — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned his Liberal MPs on Thursday to resist resting on their laurels now that they have formed government, and to avoid becoming too distracted by the daily ups and downs of life in politics.
“We should be proud of what we’ve accomplished, but never satisfied,” Trudeau told the national Liberal caucus, which gathered in Saguenay, Que., to hammer out the legislative and political agenda before returning to Parliament Hill next month.
“I know that it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day, but let’s never forget why we are all here in this room — to help the middle class and those working hard to join it.”
The prime minister said that vision applies not just for the rest of the year, nor even the rest of the majority Liberal mandate before the 2019 election.
“As a government, we need to look 40 years down the road, not just four. To the next generation, not just to the next election. Because when a government takes that long view, it can deliver extraordinary results for Canadians,” he said.
The fight against climate change is one particularly “daunting challenge” that lies ahead, Trudeau noted.
The message served as the more uplifting side of the main theme out of the cabinet retreat that took place earlier this week in Sudbury, Ont.
There, Sir Michael Barber, a British guru on “deliverology” — the art of ensuring governments deliver on their promises — warned Trudeau and his ministers that the second year of government will involve tough choices and coming to terms with the fact that they can’t please everyone all of the time.
Thursday’s long-game reminder from Trudeau comes after days of negative attention over expensive mistakes by rookie ministers, such as the thousands Health Minister Jane Philpott spent to be chauffeured in a luxury vehicle owned by a Liberal volunteer.
The caucus retreat is a way for Liberal MPs to reconnect, but also to get updates from cabinet ministers on their legislative plans for the fall. Electoral reform, national security and the plans for a price on carbon are all on the agenda.
So are discussions with newly appointed government House leader Bardish Chagger about proceeding with an ambitious legislative agenda without things once again devolving into the bitter partisanship that tainted the spring session.