Apr 2 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Jody Wilson-Raybould appears to have written a whole new manual on how to lose your job in politics. Maybe there have been other politicians who turned a cabinet demotion into a three-month-long crisis for their governments, though none spring to mind. Perhaps there are other ministers who have spent days warning their bosses not to […]
Mar 29 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Seven years ago this weekend, Justin Trudeau walked into a boxing ring and changed a lot of people’s minds about him. With his knockout victory over Sen. Patrick Brazeau on March 31, 2012, Trudeau defied all the critics who said that this then shaggy-haired, backbench MP wasn’t tough enough to be a political contender.
Mar 26 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Everyone in politics is a communications expert, it’s said. The exception, as demonstrated throughout the past seven weeks of the SNC-Lavalin saga, appears to be almost everyone in Justin Trudeau’s government. The issues at stake in the SNC-Lavalin affair go well beyond good or bad communication strategy, obviously.
Mar 19 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Conservatives and New Democrats were less than impressed when Justin Trudeau rolled out three big steps on Monday to address the damage of the SNC-Lavalin affair. But the opposition wasn’t the intended target of the measures — which included the resignation of Canada’s top bureaucrat, a mini-shuffle of the cabinet and the appointment of former […]
Mar 14 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Up until six weeks ago, it looked like Justin Trudeau had fine-tuned his operation into election readiness for 2019. The SNC-Lavalin affair has blown those best-laid plans to smithereens, to say the least. Now, with a budget on the immediate horizon and an election just seven months away, Trudeau has some immediate repair work to […]
Mar 12 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Members of Parliament face a lot of hard decisions, but an easy one is sitting right now before Liberals on the Commons justice committee. On Wednesday, MPs on the committee will be asked to vote on whether to hear again from former minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, on what is now known as the SNC-Lavalin scandal.
Mar 8 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — International Women’s Day came and went in Canada on Friday without much fanfare by Justin Trudeau, who normally uses the occasion to burnish his feminist brand. That brand, like everything else around Trudeau this past month, has been tarnished by the ongoing SNC-Lavalin saga, which has cost the prime minister two strong women ministers and […]
Mar 6 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Last week, the SNC-Lavalin affair was a legal thriller. This week, it’s also looking like a family drama, complete with tales of broken trust and frayed relationships at the highest level of the Canadian government. This new layer was added to the SNC-Lavalin controversy on Wednesday when Gerald Butts, former principal secretary to Prime Minister […]
Mar 5 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — In a rollicking couple of months filled with surprise developments for Justin Trudeau, one enduring question lingers — why does the prime minister keep being surprised? His newest surprise this week was the departure of another cabinet minister, Jane Philpott, who resigned on Monday in solidarity with Jody Wilson-Raybould, whose explosive exit also caught Trudeau […]
Mar 4 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Jane Philpott was known as a fixer in Justin Trudeau’s government. Well, the newest former member of the cabinet has definitely fixed things now, but not in any way that works for Trudeau and his chances of being a two-term prime minister. More to the point, Philpott’s departure proves that women have indeed done politics […]
Mar 1 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — In the summer of 2015, when the Liberals were tanking badly in the pre-election polls, a person in Justin Trudeau’s inner circle explained how the boss was dealing with the prospect of defeat. “When we get nervous, he gets calm,” said the adviser. Trudeau must be very calm right now, because Liberals are nervous in […]
Feb 27 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — It is going to be impossible to look at Justin Trudeau’s government the same way again. Jody Wilson-Raybould has blown apart many things with her devastating allegations about her life inside the Trudeau government — just how much, we may not know until the October election.
Feb 25 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Leadership strife is not at the root of the current troubles plaguing Justin Trudeau’s government. Or is it? While Jody Wilson-Raybould’s split with the Prime Minister’s Office is not apparently linked to any leadership ambitions, it is abundantly clear now that the former justice minister is driving the bus in this whole saga over SNC-Lavalin.
Feb 21 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — If Jody Wilson-Raybould felt she was suffering “undue pressure” before in her spat with the Prime Minister’s Office, it is looking like a walk in the park compared to what the former minister in Justin Trudeau’s government must be feeling now. Thanks to an extraordinary intervention on Thursday by Michael Wernick, Canada’s top civil servant, […]
Feb 19 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Surprising things don’t tend to happen outside cabinet meetings on Parliament Hill. So the appearance of Jody Wilson-Raybould at cabinet on Tuesday — a mere week after she quit her job as veterans’ affairs minister — was stunning not just for how it happened, but for where it happened.