Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, March 19, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Wattie
Reuters: Canada's Trudeau sticks to guns as scandal threatens re-election
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s insistence that there is little wrong with how he is handling the worst crisis of his tenure is frustrating lawmakers and senior party figures who believe the approach could cost him re-election this October.
Angry legislators are starting to push back against Trudeau and his team, opening up public divisions of the kind the ruling Liberals have not seen for almost 20 years.
Trudeau has been under pressure over allegations that officials inappropriately leaned on then-Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould last year to try to ensure SNC-Lavalin Group Inc avoid a corruption trial by paying a fine instead.
Wilson-Raybould resigned on Feb. 12 after being demoted within the Cabinet, and a second minister, Jane Philpott, subsequently quit over the way the matter had been handled.
The mood among senior advisers inside the prime minister’s office has often been grim, according to two Liberals familiar with the matter.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: There are multiple reasons why Canadian Prime Minister is on track to lose in this year's federal election. The current focus is on his government's interference in a criminal case involving a company that has close ties to the governing Liberals, but he has bigger problems than that. He has lost the support of Western Canada who are furious with his energy policies that has resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of well paying jobs in the energy sector. His tax policy on energy is also alienating voters in 4 key provinces who feel they are being targeted because their provincial governments have a different approach on how to combat climate change in view of their unique provincial economies. In Canada's largest province (i.e. Ontario), manufacturing jobs are leaving because of taxes and regulations that make it difficult to be competitive with the far more business friendly U.S., and there is also a cultural backlash among religious immigrants who do not feel comfortable with Prime Minister Trudeau's social agenda that includes support of abortion and LGBT issues. And in the province where I live .... French Quebec .... there is a serious backlash against Prime Minister Trudeau's open immigration policy among many in the French population who feel that their culture is being diminished. Bottom line .... his only hope for re-election right now is that his opponents screw it up, which they do have a history of doing. But if I was a betting man, I would definitely not be putting any money on his chances of being Prime Minister at the end of this year.
