So, what do the Liberals have to hide?
It certainly looks like they need to hide something when you consider how fast they shut down the emergency meeting of the Justice Committee.
At this point it looks like Trudeau has decided to double down and dig in and simply take his lumps on the SNC-Lavalin mess.
No doubt part of this is due to March break. There is no daily Question Period to give the opposition plenty of media coverage. Most voters are distracted, kids are home from school or the whole family is off on a holiday. Other than those in the Ottawa bubble, he is gambling most Canadians aren’t paying close attention at the moment. He is probably right.
In what has turned into “Round Two” of the SNC-Lavalin scandal, this is the first shoe to drop. What is the second?
Could it be bouncing the two former ministers from caucus? For all of the above reasons this is a good time to it. MPs are away, including those in his own caucus and by the time they return; any major media hits would be over. MPs can be reminded about who has to sign their nomination papers and either line up behind Trudeau or face the same as the former ministers. Judging by the parroting of Liberal talk points from ministers recently pledging their fealty to the PM; do you think there will be an outcry from sitting Liberal MPs?
Besides, there is always another story to change the channel- just look at the Boeing aircraft coverage today.
The best channel changer will be the budget and all of its pre-election goodies. Add in a few days of leaks around the budget and the Liberals can bury the former AG with other news. Then at the next few meetings of the Justice Committee the Liberal majority can keep shutting opposition motions down. After awhile it will get boring for all concerned, including the media.
As for all of the calls for a public inquiry that one is dead in the water. No Prime Minister facing what the Liberals are facing and knowing that the potential witness list would have to testify under oath will ever agree to one. A public inquiry is one more Opposition pipe dream.
It is not a bad gamble on his part providing more details around the SNC-Lavalin story and political interference don’t come out.
There are only 50 days of Question Period left and 10 of those are on a Friday, so really 40 days to worry about. With interest about to shift for a week or two to the budget, he could hang tough before the summer recess and the real election campaigning gears up.
Trudeau likes to surprise people and show how tough he can be- remember the boxing match.
Perhaps what we saw today was Trudeau trying to box himself out of a corner. The opposition will be hard pressed to prevent it.