How Trudeau’s inner circle thinks he can weather storm
PM set to testify about role in controversial deal with WE Charity
As Justin Trudeau prepares to testify about his role in his government’s controversial deal with WE Charity, those close to him say the prime minister and his party can ride out the scandal.
Within the Prime Minister’s Office, senior staff say they have the truth on their side — that the program was conceived by the public service, and that no political staffer or minister was putting their thumb on the scale to help WE out. They say Canadians will understand what the government was trying to do.
But weathering the scandal won’t be easy.
The past month has seen a steady drip of information about how WE was selected to run the government’s $912million student volunteer grant program, a part of the Liberals’ $9-billion aid package aimed at students and young Canadians during the COVID-19 pandemic. Every new revelation draws front-page headlines and howls of cronyism and corruption from opposition MPs.
Meanwhile, ethics commissioner Mario Dion continues to investigate Trudeau and his finance minister, Bill Morneau, for their roles in the deal.
The strategy ahead, according to two senior Liberals with direct knowledge of the file, is to release as much information as possible — in some cases, as they become aware of it — and hope Canadians agree with their version of events.
“The view (within government) is the fact that the recommendation came up from the civil service, that really the choice was to launch the program as designed in time for the summer or go back to the drawing board and be months away from that part of the program rolling,” said one source, who requested anonymity to comment on internal government discussions.
“It’s not like this was the brain child of some political staffer. It was thoroughly analyzed and the due diligence was done both at Finance and at (Employment and Social Development Canada), and this is the recommendation that came up as a very binary choice.”
While Trudeau’s inner circle may be confident that Canadians will come around to their perspective, there’s no question that the WE ordeal has shifted attention away from the Liberal government’s overall pandemic response to nagging questions about ethics and accountability.
This week saw Morneau admit to the House of Commons finance committee that his family accepted two expensespaid trips from WE, and that his family had donated $100,000 to the charity over the past two years. Just hours prior to his appearance before the committee, Morneau personally cut a cheque for $41,366 to reimburse WE for the travel expenses, and suggested he mistakenly thought he had paid for the trips.
One Liberal MP told the Star they nearly fell out of their chair when they heard Morneau’s admission.
Morneau apologized for what he called a “mistake,” his second apology this month in relation to his dealings with WE, but the new information only deepened the scandal that’s been plaguing the Liberals for weeks. Trudeau, like Morneau, has apologized for not recusing himself from discussions on the WE deal.
Still, as opposition and public pressure grew on Morneau, his cabinet colleagues — and the prime minister — rallied around him. The Star reported on Thursday that at the Liberals’ caucus meeting the day before, WE was barely mentioned.
Zain Velji, a past Liberal campaign strategist and former campaign manager for Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, was critical of how the Prime Minister’s Office has managed the issue.
From a political strategy perspective, there’s a simple process for dealing with situations like this, Velji explained — dump everything at once, and don’t let it drip out over time.
“You take your licks all at once,” he said. “Rather than having it be a drip campaign that extends the media cycle to week four, which is where we find ourselves now, and potentially week five and six, with Trudeau appearing at finance (committee).”
Velji said he suspects Trudeau’s testimony at the finance committee, slated for next week, will be “20 per cent of him explaining some of the process at a very, very high level” and “80 per cent talking points.”
“If he comes across as authentic, then I think it could be a net win,” Velji said. “I do, however, see the risk being significantly higher, because for his political enemies, they’re not going to see anything other than what they want to see.”
Conservative members of the finance committee have called on Morneau to resign as finance minister. Outgoing Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer went a step further Friday, calling on both Morneau and Trudeau to step down.
“This entire scandal reeks of corruption at the highest levels of government,” Scheer said during a press conference.
But according to EKOS pollster Frank Graves, the Liberals may have already paid the political price for the scandal — and are on the rebound. On Twitter, Graves said that while the Liberals “saw their lead diminished by the WE scandal,” based on his most recent polling, not yet released, “it appears that this effect is already diminishing and (the Liberals) are back in clear majority territory.”
With WE Charity, it’s a different story. Facing intense media scrutiny — both over the deal with the Liberal government and with their operations more generally — the charity’s cofounders, Craig and Marc Kielburger, announced significant changes to their operations, including a third-party review and refocusing their efforts on international development.
But corporate sponsors — an important part of WE’s funding — seem to be distancing themselves from the organization. Virgin Atlantic Airways has suspended its sponsorship of the charity, while the Royal Bank of Canada is reviewing its ties to WE.
As for Trudeau, when asked what the PMO expects to gain from the prime ministertestifying before the committee, one source close to Trudeau said the prime minister feels a personal responsibility to explain himself to Canadians.
“(The opposition) has more questions for him. And he’s going to answer them,” another source put it.