Morneau voted business Newsmaker of the Year
OTTAWA — When 2017 dawned, Finance Minister Bill Morneau was presiding over the early stages of an economic resurgence that would lift growth beyond expectations, create jobs at an impressive clip and help shave billions off his projected budgetary deficits.
What a difference a year makes.
As the holidays loom, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s financial lieutenant is likely licking his wounds after months spent at the centre of several headline-hogging controversies that overshadowed the good economic news.
Morneau’s challenges in the second half of 2017 kept him in the news for months, making him an easy choice for the journalists who voted him Canada’s 2017 business Newsmaker of the Year in the annual poll of the country’s newsrooms by The Canadian Press.
He won 50 per cent of the votes in a field of nine candidates that also included his counterpart in foreign affairs, Chrystia Freeland, Bombardier CEO Alain Bellemare and the proverbial thorn in Morneau’s side, the small-business owner.
Morneau’s toughest stretch began slowly, with a contentious tax-reform plan released quietly in the dead of summer. Over the following weeks, however, a surge of complaints poured in from enraged business owners, doctors, tax experts and even backbenchers within his own Liberal party.
Later, the wealthy former businessman was swarmed by ethical questions over how he handled his substantial personal assets after coming into office.
More recently, he faced conflict-of-interest allegations that led the federal ethics commissioner to launch a formal examination and the Opposition’s call for his resignation.
Morneau has come to symbolize either unaccountable wealth and excess, or the fight against them, said Daniel Tencer, senior business editor of Huffington Post Canada.
“Certainly, the opposition in Parliament tried to paint Morneau as being an out-oftouch Liberal elitist — wealthy and trying to hide his own wealth from the public,” Tencer said.
“Whether or not that is true, Bill Morneau vehemently disagreed with that portrayal — and yet that image seems to be sticking with him, at least to some extent.”
Matt Goerzen, managing editor of the Brandon Sun, said the federal tax proposals erupted into a top concern for his readership.
The newspaper received a flood of angry comments and letters, particularly from local businesses and the agricultural sector.
“Minister Morneau has been in the eye of that storm as the focus changed from the federal tax changes to Morneau’s personal business interests,” Goerzen wrote.
“This ongoing story has eaten up a lot of ink and airtime.”
In the wake of calls for Morneau’s resignation, Trudeau has stood by his man.
How long that confidence lasts remains an open question.
“It’s been a calamitous year for Bill Morneau,” said Bill McGuire, editor of the editorial and opinion pages at the Guardian in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
“Perhaps a less capable minister would have been fired or tendered a resignation months ago. Yet, he remains in control. He certainly deserves the title as Newsmaker of the Year.”