In my column last week I wrote that Trudeau and his Liberal government were planning to put an aid package of $82 billion to provide assistance for people that have lost their jobs and for small businesses that have had to shut down due to the pandemic.
Subsequently, they called an abbreviated session of parliament together to legislate the passage of this package.
The opposition parties all agreed that they unanimously would have this passed.
True to their colours, the liberals tried to enlarge the bill to give the finance Minister power to increase spending as they saw fit, increase taxes and not have to get parliamentary approval until Dec. 31, 2021.
Of course, the opposition would not go for that. When the opposition asked them to exclude the additional clauses they resisted.
The result was an all-night negotiation that resulted in the powers being excluded but the package was enlarged to $107 billion.
In last week’s column, I wrote that I thought the Liberals were jumping up and down with glee at this opportunity to spend money they don’t have like it was water coming out of a well.
It would seem that my thought was an understatement. Not only did they want to spend money like water, they thought that it was an opportunity to assume dictatorial powers.
Here Trudeau’s hypocritical tendencies come to light again.
In an address to the nation, he said, “You have my unwavering commitment. We will protect and uphold democratic values. We will protect and uphold democratic institutions as we deliver support to Canadians as quickly as possible.”
At the same time, Trudeau made the case for the government to be able to act fast without seeking the consent of Parliament.
As was stated in the Edmonton Sun, at that parliamentary session they didn’t fight to speed up the financial assistance.
Throughout the day in more than nine hours of negotiations with the opposition parties, they fought for one thing, the extra powers they would receive under the bill.
Can you imagine the potential mess this country would be in if they had of won a majority in the last election?
Some of the blame for the potential financial mess this country is going to be in has to go to the Conservatives.
They blew the last two elections, especially the last one. Trudeau and the Liberals had gone from one mistake or disaster to another for a period of four years and the Conservatives were unable to exploit it.
They were afraid of conducting a campaign that would really expose the incompetence of the then Liberal Government, and the other problem was Andrew Scheer when questioned on social issues was wishy-washy when responding to the questions instead of responding with conviction.
By losing the election he was more or less forced to resign as leader of the party. That forced the Conservative Party to organize an election for a new leader.
The membership vote for this was to take place on June 27.
On March 26 the party postponed the vote to a later date due to the Ontario Government’s restrictions on the closer of non-essential businesses because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The party couldn’t even go into their own office.
Knowing that regardless of what they may say the liberals will always take political advantage of any situation and they demonstrated that with their attempted power grab.
My fear is that as soon as this is over the Liberals will call a snap election to take advantage of what may be a favourable poll on their management of this crisis.
Every morning right now Trudeau is making a grand announcement on the status of the pandemic.
This makes him look like a leader in control. So by delaying the vote for a new leader that person will have less time to get election ready.
by Herman Schwenk