You may have been upset to discover that the prime minister's right-hand man, Bill Morneau, resigned yesterday.
After leading Canada into it's greatest deficit since World War Two, Morneau has now decided that it's the right time for someone else to pick up the mantle. "It's the right time for a new finance minister to deliver on that plan for the long and challenging road ahead," he said yesterday in a hastily arranged press conference.
Like a sexless Casanova, Morneau has been ostracized to France where he will attempt to lead an international, economic organization; a common sanctum for failed politicians who wish to evade accountability.
Fortunately enough, Canada has not seen the back of Trudeaunomics. Chrystia Freeland, who has about as much economic experience as you do, has been appointed by the prime minister to finish the job.
If the recent PMO leaks are anything to go by, Morneau was the voice of restraint to Trudeau's happy-go-lucky pandemic spending. If this is true, then may God help us. Through Freeland's economic inexperience, the PMO and the Department of Finance will be inextricably linked; the casual attitude towards Canada's ever-growing deficits will become a religion.
Of course, Morneau's resignation was not really about his Gaulish ambitions; nor was it about his supposed "differences" with the PMO over policy. In Morneau's five-year tenure as finance minister, it is eyebrow-raising (to say the least) that we only heard about this division a few days before his resignation.
As Canada's top journo Paul Wells said today in his Maclean's column, "Morneau has always believed he could offer talking points in place of answers, and that unshakeable belief continues. He just got fired. It is pathetic to pretend otherwise."
The WE scandal has shaken this government because of it's simplicity: it's corruption, pure and symbol; packaged in a way that is understandable to even the most apathetic voter. For this reason, Morneau had to fall on the sword. Without his blood, the government would've toppled. It still may.
Despite the hard work of the government's press secretaries, it remains painfully obvious that Morneau was sacrificed so to preserve Trudeau. They attempted to disguise this because it would set an unavoidable precedent: Trudeau may be prime minister, but constitutionally he is the "first among equals." He does not deserve special treatment.
And so among all this chaos, one question should prevail. If Morneau had to resign over WE, why shouldn't Trudeau?
