The Trudeau Liberals, faced with yet another ethics scandal involving a cabinet minister, continue to do what they do best when caught.
Naturally, the offending politician, being a new-era Liberal, doesn’t apologize and resign. That would be too ethical.
No, instead there is just the apology. Shouldn’t have done it. Please forgive me. Blah, blah, blah.
The Canadian voting public, however, seems almost too eager to forgive and forget.
International Trade Minister Mary Ng had been accused, in significant detail, of siphoning off $23,000 in taxpayers’ dollars to sign contracts — not one but two — for media training with public relations agency Pomp & Circumstance, co-founded and run by Ng’s pal, frequent Liberal political panelist Amanda Alvaro.
And what happens between accusation and conviction? Well, the Liberals of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, himself a two-time ethics violator, get rewarded with a byelection victory in the riding of Mississauga-Lakeshore.
What’s worst (almost) is that Mississauga-Lakeshore elected Charles Sousa, a former provincial finance minister under Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne with whom a billion dollars was squandered to kill a gas power-generating plant in order to save Sousa from losing his seat.
This is like salt in the wound.
Michael Barrett, Conservative Shadow Minister for Ethics and Accountable Government, and Jacques Gourde, Associate Shadow Minister for Ethics and Accountable Government, released a statement calling for the resignation of Liberal Minister Mary Ng.
As usual, it was ignored.
The Conservatives, however, were wise enough not to let the moment pass and rhymed off the government’s list of ethics violations—beginning with the PM for accepting a free vacation on the private island of the Aga Khan way back in Christmas of 2015, and then for interfering in the SNC-Lavalin prosecution to the point of firing his attorney general for her refusal to play along.
Trudeau’s Finance Minister Bill Morneau was found guilty after the Liberals awarded a massive contract to WE Charity, whose family members were found to have close ties to the organization.
Dominic Leblanc was found guilty for giving fishing contracts to family members when he was fisheries Minister.
A former Liberal MP was given $237 million to make medical equipment despite having no experience doing it.
The press release accuses them of a pattern of corruption and says it’s a scandal of Liberals helping Liberals line their pockets with taxpayer dollars.
“While people in this country are struggling to afford to live and provide for their family because of the crushing costs of Justinflation and higher taxes, the Liberals are helping their friends get rich on the backs of hardworking Canadians,” read the Conservatives’ statement.
“Minister Ng can no longer represent Canada’s economic future on the world stage. She must do the right thing and resign.”
The Globe and Mail’s Campbell Clark wrote that the Ng affair didn’t ring any differently than the Art Eggleton scenario in 2002, when as a federal Liberal cabinet minister he gave a $36,500 communications contract to a former girlfriend.
Eggleton, though, did the ethical thing. He resigned.
“There is nothing mysterious (here),” wrote Clark. “Ms. Ng and Ms. Alvaro were old friends and former associates from Liberal provincial politics in Ontario. Ms. Alvaro acted as spokesperson for Ms. Ng’s first campaign in 2017 and had worked in political communications for years. It’s not surprising that Ms. Ng would want to get her communications advice from a pro she knows.
“It’s just that it’s against the rules to steer a government contract to a friend.”
When Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre questioned the prime minister in the Commons, Trudeau totally avoided an answer.
Instead, he poured salt on the wound—reminding Poilievre who won and who lost the Mississauga-Lakeshore byelection.
The ethics violation? What ethics violation?
