Jul 19, 2020

Pressures on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are increasing as a result of the WE scandal. Thats the ongoing controversy over a government decision made in late June to let the WE charity operate a $912-million student volunteering scheme on behalf of the government.

The Prime Minister, his wife Sophie Grgoire, and his mother Margaret have all been involved with WE, including making speaking appearances at its events. Sensing controversy, WE withdrew from the deal, and the government has been left with a lot of questions to answer.

Those are primarily being addressed by the Federal Ethics Commissioner. The House of Commons Ethics Committee has attempted to address the matter, but less successfully because Liberal Members of Parliament (MP) on the committee have filibustered its efforts during the past week.

Further issues of concern involving WE, the Trudeau family, and other members of the Liberal government have been revealed in recent days. Margaret Trudeau allegedly accepted $250,000 from WE to appear at its events. Alexandre Trudeau, the Prime Ministers brother, also allegedly accepted a lesser amount from the organization for similar reasons.

Minister of Finance Bill Morneau became part of the scandal recently when it was discovered that one of his daughters worked for WE on a contract basis, and another of his daughters had spoken at some of the organizations events.

Evidence has also surfaced that Minister of Natural Resources Seamus ORegan, who is a friend of the Prime Minister, had helped raise $400,000 for WE with Katie Telford, Trudeaus Chief of Staff.

On the surface, things dont look good politically in the Trudeau organization. However, opinion polls keep indicating that the Prime Minister and the Liberal Party would be returned to office with a strong majority in the House of Commons if an election were held now. The Liberals were reduced to a minority of seats in the October 2019 election.

There are two reasons the Liberals could be benefiting from increased popularity. The first is money. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, they have spent a ton of it on emergency benefit payments, wage subsidies, and other programs to help Canadians get through the difficult economic situation the pandemic has caused. Bill Morneaus recent fiscal update to Parliament revealed a budget deficit of more than $400 billion and a national debt of more than $1 trillion.

Both are dubious firsts for Canada, after years of marveling at the public debts and deficits racked up by the U.S. government. Record debt and deficit aside, the government spending has been really popular and has been the defining component of the federal response to the pandemic.

Most of the difficult details of health and safety have been left to provincial and local authorities to manage. Its difficult to criticize a government that sends you a check.

The second reason is the border. During the past week, the Prime Minister confirmed that crossing between Canada and the United States will be restricted to essential traffic only. Essential means business and humanitarian reasons, not visiting friends or stocking up at Price Chopper.

Canadians have seen the stories about COVID-19 out of control in Texas and Florida but many have concluded that the entire lower 48 states are wholly consumed with COVID and chaos due to the administration in Washington, if their online comments to border-related news stories are any indication. In fact, upstate New York is no worse off than southern Ontario when it comes to COVID-19, and the situation is unlikely as severe in northern Maine or in the northern plains states either.

However, we live in a mobile society and people can, and will travel. Again, if online comments are any indication, the extended border closure has had a way of stoking Canadian nationalism and support for what the governments decision to keep the border closed. That could end up being a political dividend for Trudeau at a time when he needs one.

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WE woes mount for Trudeau and Liberals, but pandemic spending and border closure could ease the trouble - North Country Public Radio