You could fill a newspaper’s obituary page with all the institutions Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have marred, stomped over like defiant toddlers in the throes of a tantrum and ultimately dealt crippling blows it will take years to recover from, if ever.
The latest: governors general, and the once bipartisanly esteemed David Johnston. The special rapporteur could’ve easily retired in relative peace, but instead Trudeau recruited him back to public life to serve as what very much looks like his puppet.
Johnston may not be attached to Trudeau at the limb, but the controlling strings of close family and class connections, as well as a professional history intertwined with Beijing, are showing.
For a while, it looked like his performance might pass public scrutiny. However, a wholly insufficient first report on foreign interference that refused to call for a public inquiry, offer transparency or seemingly consider sources and intelligence outside those offered by the very people it was meant to investigate, made those strings plain as day.
Now, after refusing to step down following a majority House vote demanding he do so, supported by all opposition parties, Johnston’s performance appears so orchestrated, it would be a farce if it weren’t a tragedy for Canadian democracy and public trust.
“I deeply respect the right of the House of Commons to express its opinion about my work going forward, but my mandate comes from the government. I have a duty to pursue that work until my mandate is completed,” wrote Johnston in a statement.
While obviously technically appointed by Trudeau, Johnston ignores that his real mandate is to Parliament at large and the Canadian people. His role isn’t to serve the Liberal government; it’s to investigate what they knew and when they knew it in order to restore broken public trust. Instead, he’s fragmented it further.
Without the confidence of opposition parties, who represent voters from coast to coast, he cannot fulfill his mandate. It’s as simple as that.
If he truly can’t see this straightforward truth, his judgment isn’t fit for the job. If he refuses to see it, his morals aren’t fit for it.
Instead, Johnston is now like a puppet insisting he’s a real boy while everyone not invested in the ruse can plainly see he’s not. The more he insists, the more offensive it becomes that he and those producing the show clearly think the audience is dumb.
So while Johnston was tasked with shedding light on one crisis, he’s instead created another — a parliamentary one.
If Trudeau and Johnston don’t come around and quickly, there’s no reasonable way NDP leader Jagmeet Singh can justify continuing the confidence-and-supply deal. Moreover, there’s nearly no reasonable way he can justify supporting the continuation of this Liberal government, period.
Singh says he doesn’t want an election until confidence is restored in our electoral system, but it increasingly looks like there’s no way to restore our electoral system without him pulling his confidence.
For Johnston and the prime minister to flatly ignore the will of every opposition MP on a matter of national security and democratic interference undermines the spirit of our system. It doesn’t restore faith in democracy; it helps destroy it.
National Post
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