Sunny ways not shining on Liberal backbenches
Back in 2015, when Justin Trudeau was hoping to lead the country, he was preoccupied with the concept that members of Parliament were not adequately representing their ridings in Ottawa.
“We’ll make sure that Canadians have a stronger voice in Ottawa — a voice that reflects and represents them,” Trudeau said, in June of that year when announcing parliamentary reforms.
On the campaign trail, he told the CBC’s former chief anchor, Peter Mansbridge, that he’d make sure to remain connected to the issues people face by “empower(ing) my MPs to actually be voices for their communities in Ottawa, and not just my voice in the community.”
On election night, in his victory speech, Trudeau told Canadians that 338 candidates had been “chosen by you to be their voices in Ottawa, and I pledge tonight that I will listen to all of them.”
Six years later, the prime minister seems to have forgotten those preoccupations. He is governing like a leader who views the MPs who helped elect him prime minister as a nuisance, and not as voices that deserve respect and consideration. Though, perhaps, MPs have done themselves few favours.
Trudeau’s Liberals won a third mandate on Sept. 20.
On Friday, six weeks later, the prime minister’s team finally called a formal caucus meeting. It has been scheduled for Nov. 8. The Conservatives have already met twice, so have the NDP. The Bloc Québécois held a caucus meeting one week after the election, and so far, have had three meetings.
Many Liberal MPs have grumbled about the delay, to themselves, and to reporters under the cover of anonymity. Though Toronto MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith was willing to be quoted saying what’s on everyone’s mind, that it has been “an unacceptably long time.”
In 2015, Trudeau met with his caucus on Nov. 5 — two and a half weeks after the election. But in 2019, he waited seven weeks to hold a formal meeting.
Reached Friday, before MPs were told, in the evening, of their next get-together, many backbenchers said they had no idea why it was taking so long. They used terms such as “concerning” and “self-interested” to describe the wait.
“It’s sort of like, do we know why the election was called?” one MP joked. His suggestion was that “the prime minister doesn’t want it.”
“I don’t think Trudeau wants to face the music any time soon, and if he can put it off until people get less antsy, then it works for him,” the Liberal said.
Many MPs suggested Trudeau would get an earful from caucus members about the last campaign, though some suggested that without the parliamentary secretary announcements or committee appointments, there may be fewer MPs willing to slam the prime minister’s entourage for calling an election they were ill-prepared to fight.
“I just don’t know if you will (see) the level of bravery of caucus members standing up and trashing their careers on the first day back,” said one MP.
There was some anger and disappointment expressed that caucus was not consulted before Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced the end of pandemic-relief programs last week. Benefits that affect MPs’ constituents. “As one of my colleagues said, ‘Well, it kind of makes you a little irrelevant, doesn’t it?’ We pretend like we are involved in big decisions of the government when in fact we aren’t.”
“It’s management 101,” said another Liberal MP, about the leader meeting with his team.
Since the election, Trudeau has placed calls to opposition party leaders. He’s chosen his new cabinet, and met with them. He’s even taken questions from members of the Dutch parliament and will soon be meeting with G20 leaders in Rome, and world leaders at the United Nations’ climate change conference in Glasgow. It’s hard not to see his MPs as being relegated to the bottom of his priority list.
Though some members have come to expect this.
“I’ll be honest,” said one, “they’ve (the centre) always been very detached from caucus … Cabinet was announced a few days ago, did they do anything to demonstrate that they care about keeping caucus happy?” But for the exception of Nova Scotia MP Sean Fraser making the cut and Quebec MP Steven MacKinnon’s appointment as the new whip, one MP griped that there were no indications to those waiting on the backbench that they too can make it into the inner sanctum of Team Trudeau with hard work and good behaviour.
“They don’t look at people’s capabilities. They just look at who’s an insider, who they have known for a long time, that’s generally their approach to issues.”
MPs, however, should shoulder some of the blame. During caucus meetings, sources suggest that few members use the little amount of time allotted to raise critical issues or offer constructive criticism to the prime minister or his team for their approach. “Conservatives actually have a little bit of guts. The Liberal MPs are pathetic,” one source said.
Another concern raised by MPs is that many ministers are learning from their leader’s behaviour. They don’t treat their colleagues with respect. They don’t return correspondence. They talk down to MPs. “They are so full of themselves and so lacking in substance,” one MP complained. “The vast majority of them are terrible.”
What’s clear in all this is that Trudeau has a lot of teambuilding to do. If he doesn’t want his caucus causing him grief, he and his ministers should be spending more time attending and listening to them.
Trudeau is governing like a leader who views the MPs who helped elect him as a nuisance