Imagine if high level officials criticized the government while still in power?
Former Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau has levelled criticism at PM Justin Trudeau for using vaccine mandates as a divisive wedge issue.
In a recent interview touting his new book, Morneau said Trudeau using vaccine mandates to divide Canadians during the last election wasn’t “helpful”:
“When you react to social media, when you react quickly to the 24/7 news cycle, you find yourself taking decisions, saying things that exacerbate the strongly held opinions of the people who are putting out those points of view,” said Morneau.
“The decision in the last election campaign to use the vaccine mandate as a wedge issue — I didn’t see that as something that was helpful,” he added.”
Morneau’s criticism of Trudeau is relatively tepid, but that fits with Morneau’s Bay Street buttoned-down style.
The fact that he made these criticisms at all is notable, as Morneau’s remarks echo what Trudeau’s political opponents have long been saying.
While Trudeau postures as a ‘unifier,’ his approach has become more and more divisive the longer he’s been in power.
A combination of arrogance, ignorance, contempt for disagreement, and a dangerously utopian vision, has eroded Trudeau’s support over time.
Thus, “Sunny Ways” has turned into one divisive wedge issue after another, with the most divisive of all being employed in the 2021 election.
How about saying these things while in office?
If Morneau felt this way about Trudeau’s divisive approach, it’s likely other Liberal MPs and cabinet ministers did as well.
Unfortunately, we only really see people speak up once they have left.
Imagine if Morneau had spoken out more critically of Trudeau while in office.
Imagine if – despite no longer being in the government – Morneau spoke out forcefully during the 2021 election when Trudeau was dividing Canadians?
Those criticism would have held a lot more weight if made in a timely fashion, rather than during an attempt to sell a book.
Canada’s political system still remains far too leader-dominated and centralized, and that dissuades people from speaking out even when they have serious ethical concerns about the direction of the government.
That’s why we should continue to push for our political system to be more decentralized, and give more power to individual MPs rather than making everyone so beholden to the opinion of one person at the top.
As we are seeing, when such a system is controlled by someone like Justin Trudeau who lacks the qualities of a leader, the damage can be quite profound.
Spencer Fernando
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