Canadians were treated to an eventful week as MPs returned to Ottawa. Pictured: Bloc Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet. Photo Credit: Yves-Francois Blanchet/X.Ìę
This first week that MPs were back on Parliament Hill proved as volatile as pundits and politicos thought it would be. It began with surprising by-election results. The week included bombshell revelations about Ottawaâs newest rampant white knight, and more stories of incompetence and the lack of transparency, and it ended with a rushed cabinet shuffle. Layered on top of this cacophony of news was the confirmation that the Bloc QuĂ©bĂ©cois (BQ) will be gaming Parliament â and the country â for âwhat we can grab.âÂ
The MPsâ rowdy return was punctuated on Monday night with the upset by-election defeat in the Montreal riding of LaSalle-Emard-Verdun of the Liberalsâ star candidate, City Councillor Laura Palestini. The handpicked darling of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was humiliated when Liberal support collapsed from a 43 to 27 per cent vote share in a riding the Grits had held forever. This was the second by-election embarrassment for the Trudeau Liberals in four months, having lost another of the partyâs strongholds in Toronto in June. But Mondayâs result is worse for Trudeau and 15 cabinet ministers, who personally canvassed door-to-door in the riding, given Palestini is a well-known and popular personality at city hall, and inner-city Montreal is Trudeauâs political backyard.ÌęÂ
On the morning after the electoral debacle, Trudeau suggested the loss was a test for the Liberals and a lesson for Canadians. He said the results indicate the Liberals must fight on, âWe know that we have a lot of work to do to regain the confidence of people in LaSalle and people across the country who are concerned about the situation theyâre in⊠The big thing is to make sure that Canadians understand that the choice they get to make in the next election, about the kind of country we are really matters, and thatâs the work weâre going to continue to do.âÂ
Trudeau and his concert of ministers â from Melanie Joly to Francois Philippe Champagne to Karina Gould â took turns repeating the refrain from their Liberal talking points about the fact âCanadians do not want an electionâ and âCanadians want us to govern and get on with the job.â
As this performance was being choreographed for Ottawaâs press scrums, the lead Quebec minister and stalwart Trudeau ally Pablo Rodriguez was quietly cleaning out his office. Rodriguez excused himself so that he can run for the Quebec Liberal leadership (but he is staying on as an independent MP so that he can continue to vote with his colleagues in their increasingly desperate attempts at prolonging their mandate).Ìę
Just off the Hill precinct, Commissioner Marie-JosĂ©e Hogue resumed the Foreign Interference Commission hearings with a pronouncement that the Commission would not name the names of the parliamentarians who Canadaâs intelligence and security community had identified as having colluded with foreign countries. She stated, âIt is not this Commissionâs function to attempt to identify individuals as alleged wrongdoersâ and, âIn the present case the allegations are based on classified information which means the Commission can neither make them public nor even disclose them to the people who might be the subject of these allegations.â
As this news was being absorbed, Canadians learned from the Commissionâs hearings that the Vancouver Chinese Consulate had interfered directly against MP Kenny Chiu to successfully defeat the Conservative, the same consulate had issued an edict for the Chinese business community to cut support for NDP MP Jenny Kwan, and there were more details on how the highest offices of the land, including the Prime Ministerâs Office, failed to warn Conservative MP Michael Chong of possible harm to him and his family.Ìę
A frustrated MP Chong testified before the commission, âWe have become a foreign interference playground.â He observed, â⊠at the end of the day if Ministers and their staff and the Prime Minister and his staff are not willing to uphold their responsibility to protect the security of this country then no amount of process or no amount of new policy is going to change that abdication.â
It is now over 100 days since the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians report made public that as many as 11 MPs and Senators have committed potentially treasonous activities against the country. The Trudeau government is resolute that Canadians will not be told the identity of the potential traitors.Ìę
The Trudeau governmentâs economic development strategy was brought into question with three news stories breaking through the week. Though not thoroughly covered in English media, the Quebec media heralded the federal governmentâs $2.14 billion financial package to Telesat to expand Canadaâs space program. The Montreal-based company was given generous loan conditions, and a Quebec manufacturer is to produce a low-earth orbit broadband satellite constellation project that will deliver high-speed Internet to remote Canadian consumers.Ìę
At the media announcement alongside the Quebec premier, Trudeau gushed, âYes, itâs about investing in satellites and space and all sorts of really cool stuff, but itâs fundamentally about making sure that Canadians and people in more distant communities and smaller northern communities and in remote parts of the world can be connectedâŠâ
The Telesat fanfare caught Starlink satellite company owner Elon Musk by surprise. Musk posted on X that his company could provide the Internet service for âless than halfâ the multi-billion-dollar price tag. Starlink currently holds a licence for a high-speed Internet program for rural communities and now serves more than 400,000 Canadians across the country.Ìę
Another item that received scant coverage in government-sponsored legacy news was a story that Blacklockâs Reporter broke about the dismal performance of the department of environment in its management of hundreds of millions of dollars of green subsidies. Blacklockâs exposed that, âFederal auditors cite Environment Minister Steven Guilbeaultâs department for poor oversight of millions⊠management of taxpayer funds was so sloppy it represented âpotential legal and reputational damage.ââ Since 2016, the governmentâs green transition subsidies have spanned 45 separate programs managed by 11 different departments and agencies, and as much as $625 million has been handed out âwith little corresponding scrutiny of where the money went or why.âÂ
Lastly, it was revealed that Trudeauâs newly feted economic growth advisor Mark Carney has been whispering more than Liberal Party policy in Ottawaâs corridors. The Globe and Mail reported that Brookfield, the mega-investment firm that Carney chairs, is soliciting the federal government to complete an investment package of Canadian holdings worth upwards of $50 billion. Brookfield is seeking $35 billion of investment from Canadaâs pension funds, a financial commitment of $10 billion from the government, and the balance of approximately $4 billion in this fund will come from Brookfield investorsâ capital.Ìę
Tristin Hopper, writer at the National Post, commented, âThis means that Carney is taking on a new job at the right hand of the prime minister at the precise moment that he oversees a company seeking to secure one of the largest contributions of federal cash in the countryâs history.â In a Western Standard column, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner summarized, âThe brazenness of this move is stunning, even if measured by the low bar of Mr. Trudeauâs wobbly ethical standards.âÂ
As a sidenote to this sordid affair, the National Post also reported, âThe Brookfield fund is only the second time in the last week that Carney has been personally connected with a project involving billions of federal dollars transferred to a private company. Carney also happens to have personal ties with TelesatâŠCarney and Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg have often been described as âgood friendsââŠâ
Brookfield spokespeople, and Carneyâs close friend, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, declined to comment on the new fund.ÌęÂ
The rollicking week in Ottawa politics ended with a cascade of headlines about next weekâs non-confidence vote. The Liberals have given the Conservatives their wish to schedule an early vote that has the potential to dissolve parliament and prompt an election. The Conservatives will move a non-confidence motion: âThe House has no confidence in the Prime Minister and the Governmentâ to be put to a vote on Wednesday night.Ìę
There will be no suspense with the vote however as the BQ MPs have already indicated they will support the Liberals. BQ Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet explained to a national press corps media scrum, âQuebecers want less an election than Canadians. I believe they understand that there is an opportunity to get something out of this situation. So, what is the point of replacing one person who doesnât work for Quebecers by another person that will not work for Quebecers. In the meantime, letâs grab something.â
Blanchet would later slap down Quebec Premier François Legault when he urged the BQ to pull the plug on Trudeau, saying that the BQ serves Quebecers âaccording to my own judgment.â In support of their federal separatist party cousins, the provincial PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon chimed in by stating the BQ should not join the âConservatives of Alberta,â and that, âWhether itâs Poilievre or Trudeau, we would get nothing and regress on a linguistic, financial, environment or social level.â
So, if this first week is any indication of how the fall session of parliament will unfold, Canadians are in for more of the same, except worse, much costlier, and all about Quebec.
Chris George is an advocate, government relations advisor, and writer/copy editor. As president of a public relations firm established in 1994, Chris provides discreet counsel, tactical advice and management skills to CEOs/Presidents, Boards of Directors and senior executive teams in executing public and government relations campaigns and managing issues. Prior to this PR/GR career, Chris spent seven years on Parliament Hill on staffs of Cabinet Ministers and MPs. He has served in senior campaign positions for electoral and advocacy campaigns at every level of government. Today, Chris resides in Almonte, Ontario where he and his wife manage .ÌęContact Chris at chrisg.george@gmail.com.
