Trudeau is as Unfit to be Canada's PM as Trump is to be POTUS

This past Canada Day, I lamented being unable to visit the country of my birth by virtue of President Trump's horrendous response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yet for all my longing for my home and native land, I also made a point of declaring that I was no more fond of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau than I am of President Trump.

It would appear that I am far from alone in this sentiment. Nearly half of all Canadians want an election if Trudeau is found to have violated the Conflict of Interest Act for the third time in less than three years. 

In December 2017, Trudeau was found to have violated the Conflict of Interest Act by then Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson when he and his family took two vacations on Aga Khan's private island while Khan had official dealings with the Government of Canada nor did Trudeau recuse himself from these dealings. For this, Trudeau apologized.

In August 2019, Trudeau was found to have violated the Conflict of Interest Act for a second time by Dawson's successor, Mario Dion. This was the infamous SNC Lavalin scandal (or LavScam) in which Trudeau improperly pressured then Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould into entering a deferred prosecution agreement with the Montreal firm SNC Lavalin which has deep ties to Trudeau and the Liberal Party. Trudeau acknowledged he violated the law, but refused to apologize. It would not cost him the election last October, but it did cost the Liberals their majority in the House of Commons. Trudeau now leads a minority government which relies on support from the socialist NDP.

A year later, Trudeau finds himself in Dion's cross hairs yet again. This time the Trudeau government provided nearly $1 billion in Canadian dollars (about $750 million in U.S. dollars) to the Toronto based charity WE to administer a summer volunteer program for university students who lost job opportunities due to the pandemic. Students participating in the program would then receive a stipend.

On the surface this would appear perfectly innocuous. The problem is that WE paid Trudeau's wife, mother and brother were paid for speaking engagements and reimbursed expenses and Trudeau failed to recuse himself when his cabinet was discussing the matter. The scandal has also enveloped Trudeau's Minister of Finance Bill Morneau who has made significant donations to WE while his daughter was a paid employee of the organization. For his part, Trudeau has said he is sorry, but claims he has not violated the law.

Consequently, this has placed WE under scrutiny particularly its founders Craig and Marc Kielburger. Formerly known as Free The Children, Craig Kielburger came to prominence in 1995 when as a 12-year old he drew attention to the murder of Iqbal Masih, a child laborer in Pakistan. On a personal note, when I worked as an intern for the late Labour MP Jimmy Wray I drew his attention to Masih's murder and he spoke out about the plight of child labor. So when Kielburger managed to raise $150,000 from the Ontario Federation of Labour he won my immediate admiration. Sadly, as Free The Children became WE, Kielburger had no problem dealing with companies which used child labor. Kielburger has turned out to be as big a disappointment as Aung San Suu Kyi. 

Getting back to Trudeau this third scandal demonstrates he is very bit as unethical as President Trump and is not fit to hold the position of power bestowed upon him. Later this month, Canada's Conservative Party will choose a new leader. No doubt the Tories and their new leader will be eager to go to the polls should there be more revelations or if the scandal causes further lingering doubt in Trudeau.

The key to Trudeau's future is the NDP. While Canadians are not scheduled to go to the polls until October 2023, the NDP could bring down Trudeau in a vote of non-confidence. But they might not be eager to do so just yet. Obviously, while Canada has not been hit by the pandemic nearly as hard as the United States, masks and social distancing measures are a fact of life. While nearly half of Canadians want an election, a significant part of the electorate does not want it for understandable reasons. 

The NDP has to also consider its own position. It holds the balance of power and can influence policy in the Trudeau government. But if it bring downs the government and voters choose a majority government be it Liberal or Conservative, the NDP loses leverage. The NDP has been plagued with financial problems in recent years and a pandemic surely hasn't helped. The only way I see the NDP bringing down the government is if the damage done to the Liberals gets done to them because they are perceived as propping up a corrupt government.

While it is true that Justin Trudeau is more well mannered and has proven more competent than Trump when it comes to responding to COVID-19, he is no better than Trump when it comes to ethical conduct. Trudeau might be more contrite about his bad behavior, but he continues to behave badly.