The strange thing, as the economy contracts, millions lose their jobs and thousands die, is how excited some Liberals and their friends seem to be.
“It’ll be a good time to be a progressive government,” an unidentified senior Liberal told Le Devoir in mid-May. “There are a lot of us who are dreaming big, who have an audacious vision for this enormous social and economic challenge before us.”
Another told the same reporter: “I know that behind the scenes, this thinking is underway and I have more confidence than ever, because Justin Trudeau seems to really grasp the immensity of the moment, how important it is for his political legacy, and we’ll have a plan that will be exciting to put to Canadians at the next election.”
And in late March, only days after the coronavirus lockdown began, Michael Sabia had a remarkable opinion article in the Globe and Mail.
Sabia is a veteran mandarin and business executive who’d just stepped down as head of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Quebec public pension fund. He’s no partisan, but he did serve on the Advisory Council on Economic Growth that Bill Morneau appointed to generate big economic ideas for the Trudeau Liberals’ first mandate. In the Globe, he said that protecting Canadians’ health and helping them pay their bills were only the first part of the challenge facing government.
The big challenge will be building the new post-lockdown economy, Sabia wrote. “Governments will need to lead on this,” he wrote. “Leaving it to chance will only make the reignition process longer, more difficult and more haphazard.”
[Interesting Read]
See Also:
(2) Canada could be last country to cling to two-metre physical distancing rule
(3) ‘Long journey ahead’: PM extends CERB by 8 weeks
(4) Was the government’s large employer emergency package designed to fail?
(5) Trudeau badly wants that Security Council seat – but why?
