Canadians are miffed by the WE mess, but they are still willing to give the prime minister the benefit of the doubt. Their patience is wearing thin. The opposition parties will continue to push for Justin Trudeau’s head, and unless he does something soon, they may succeed.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on August 3, 2020.

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs to learn a valuable lesson from the last scandal that almost buried his government.

The agonizing internal bleed caused by the cabinet resignations of Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott almost cost him the government.

Instead of earning a robust majority in the midst of a strong economy and great job numbers, Liberals limped back with a minority. The loss of seats was the result of integrity questions related to SNC Lavalin’s effort to secure a deferred prosecution agreement.

The prime minister suffered a personal hit in his popularity when allegations from two ministers dragged on for months.

History seems to be repeating itself. The damage being done by the WE funding agreement is growing daily. It appears the government does not have a strategy to make it go away.

The only thing that will work is a high-profile firing or two. That will remind the public that someone has actually paid a price for this mess.

The deeper we plumb the international workings of the WE network of not-for-profit to business links, the more the government is being damaged.

Recent surveys show that most Canadians have lowered their opinion of the prime minister because of the WE problems.

They are still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but simply saying sorry is not enough.

At some point it was rumoured that Bardish Chagger would have been on the chopping block as she was the minister directly responsible for delivering the program.

Thankfully, that did not happen, as that would simply have reinforced the Raybould/Philpott narrative that Trudeau was not really supportive of women on his team.

Trudeau and chief of staff Katie Telford did a decent job of defending themselves in their testimony before a parliamentary committee.

But that will not turn the corner.

And in the dog days of summer, the opposition parties will continue to do their level best to keep the WE saga on the front pages of the newspaper.

That is their job, and they have been superb in keeping new information about WE to a public that is fatigued from hearing nothing but COVID news.

The internal machinations of WE have certainly provided fodder for critics.

Ousted WE Charity chair Michelle Douglas testified last week that she did not know the organization paid people as WE day speakers. That was a complete contradiction to statements issued by the organization when it was revealed that Trudeau family members had been paid for their appearances.

The fact is that the prime minister’s mother has built up a national following because of her personal experience with and advocacy for mental health issues.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Margaret Trudeau being paid for her work, but there is something wrong when one arm of the WE organization has no knowledge of the payouts by another arm of the organization.

Recent news concerning WE’s hiring of high-priced American lobby firms to support their initiatives in the United States is also prompting more opposition questions.

In reality, an international movement with the reach of WE needs to rely on paid help to get support and sponsorship.

And the Kielburger brothers made it very clear that if this line of inquiry continues, the very survival of the organization could be at stake.

Thousands of young people will be deprived of an opportunity to learn about community contributions because somebody jumped the gun on awarding a contract to WE.

The prime minister needs to staunch the bleeding by some bold internal moves.

One of them definitely includes moving the minister of finance out of his portfolio.

The second one must include a restructuring of the inner advisory circle of the prime minister, who apparently did not understand the basic concepts of parliamentary recusal.

Ultimately, the buck stops with the prime minister, but if his office did not provide him with proper advice, he needs to ensure that does not happen again.

The leader has done a fantastic job in carrying the country through the COVID crisis.

It is a shame that a not-for-profit sidebar could undo all the good that has been happening.

But unless the prime minister moves quickly with some dramatic internal departures, that is exactly what could happen.

Canadians are miffed by the WE mess, but they are still willing to give the prime minister the benefit of the doubt.

Their patience is wearing thin.

The opposition parties will continue to push for Trudeau’s head, and unless he does something soon, they may succeed.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

What started out as a potential logistical glitch in the speedy rollout of government COVID-based aid is turning into a massive headache that could cause permanent damage to the government.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on July 27, 2020.

OTTAWA—By the time this column is published, Finance Minister Bill Morneau could well be toast.

In the best-case scenario, he will have decided to step aside and take one for the team.

What started out as a potential logistical glitch in the speedy rollout of government COVID-based aid is turning into a massive headache that could cause permanent damage to the government.

In a minority situation, the Liberals are not in a position to tough it out, as they did during the Jody Wilson-Raybould debacle.

The opposition parties are hungry for a trophy, the resignation of a senior, high-profile minister.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the finance minister tried to contain the damage by apologizing for their clumsy refusal to recuse themselves from the cabinet vote on a sole-source management contract for the WE Charity, notwithstanding their families’ ties with the company.

The recusal question did not stir much public interest. Most Canadians do not understand the arcane rules of government operations and couldn’t care less about recusals.

But the same cannot be said for free trips.

The revelation late last week that Morneau and his family joined two WE-sponsored fact-finding trips as potential donors would have been fine in the private sector.

As a government minister, it is a no-no. Morneau must be very regretful of his decision to voyage with WE in 2017.

But he also knows that the rules that apply in the private sector do not pass the smell test in politics.

Take the issue of speakers’ fees. One of the most vociferous critics of the so-called WE scandal is journalist Andrew Coyne. He recently wrote a column calling the situation a “a rat’s nest of mutually beneficial relationships between the Liberals, the Trudeau family and WE.”

The only involvement of the Trudeau family was speech payments.

The $312,000 for Margaret Trudeau sounds staggering to the ordinary citizen.

But that was for 28 events.

According to Speakers’ Spotlight, they advertise speaker fees between $5,000 and $10,000.

But Margaret Trudeau was paid an average of $11,142 per appearance.

The payment is certainly in the ballpark of what constitutes standard rates for Canadian celebrity speakers.

The WE exposé started as a front-page news story on speakers’ fees, but that narrative did not appear to stir up public anger.

The fateful family trip on the WE dime served to elevate this saga from a summer blip to a full-blown crisis.

Morneau will shortly be facing a resolution which could confirm that he has lost the confidence of the House of Commons. The Conservatives have made it very clear they want his head.

More information on the details of WE voyages and the confusion around who was paying for them will be continual, featured fodder for the opposition parties.

Even as Morneau claimed he paid for the trips but mislaid his receipts, WE officials were issuing a statement saying they regularly offered free trips to potential donors in the hopes of securing ongoing financial support.

The Morneau family followed up their experience with a donation of $50,000 to WE International work and a second $50,000 pandemic support cheque in June. The 2017 trips were obviously not an attempt to get something for nothing.

But it certainly throws doubt on the finance minister’s capacity to deal objectively with funding decisions that involve WE.

This is not the first time the minister has suffered a lapse in judgment concerning government reporting rules.

His failure to include a family home in France in his parliamentary declaration was another mistake for which he apologized and pleaded no malicious intent.

Morneau survived that mistake relatively unscathed, but the increasing number of complaints about his family relationships with WE are too numerous to ignore.

Trudeau and his team will have to move quickly to staunch the bloodletting on this issue. That leaves few options beyond convincing the finance minister to step aside.

Morneau would do everyone a favour if he decided to take one for the team.

It may not be fair, but in the world of politics, this growing problem will not go away until a senior member of the government pays a heavy price by resigning.

The firing of a finance minister would cause turmoil in markets during a time when Canada cannot avoid more financial hits.

But a personal decision to step aside would help the government and restore Morneau’s personal reputation.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.