Will They Or Won’t They?

Besides broken promises, there are a lot of things that could hurt Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in this October’s federal election.

There is the bratty sense of entitlement, the dubious judgement and the furtive backroom dealings with a company charged with fraud and bribery.

But it is the RCMP who could provide the nitro to blow the doors off Trudeau’s bid to win a second term as prime minster.

The national police force is facing the momentous decision of whether to launch a formal criminal investigation into the SNC-Lavalin scandal, just as the Quebec engineering giant had its credit rating downgraded to junk status.

If they do investigate — and that fact becomes known — Trudeau will be forced to spend the election campaign trying to convince Canadians he is not a crook.

The prime minister knows that all too well. That’s why he and the Liberal Party are fighting back with all the usual tools to change the political channel:

Daily spending announcements have become obscenely routine; cabinet ministers like Chrystia Freeland have offered protestations of undying loyalty; and strategists are pushing the line that Canadians aren’t interested in the scandal. Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott, the two cabinet ministers who put Trudeau in his current predicament by refusing to play ball on the SNC-Lavalin case, are dismissed or attacked by Liberal loyalists.

Fair enough.

Politics can be a dirty and brutal business, especially when all the marbles are on the table in a national election. But Trudeau made a major error in his defence strategy when he stooped to the fine art of sucking and blowing on the report of Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion.

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See Also:

(1) Any speech bans during elections are dangerous for our democracy

(2) “Fact Check”? CBC runs fake news poll as political propaganda — then covers its tracks