Things have not been going well for the Trudeau government of late. Tim Harper catalogues its problems:
Nowhere has the gap between expectations and delivery been wider than on Indigenous reconciliation, part of a sweeping series of pledges Trudeau made on the campaign trail.
Despite a commitment to end all drinking water advisories on reserves within five years, the government says there were still 41 short-term advisories as of Aug. 31 and 103 advisories that have been in place for more than a year. The statistics do not include British Columbia.
The Enquiry Into Murdered And Missing Aboriginal Women keeps spinning its wheels as staffers resign. And there are a host of other problems:
Another Liberal promise, electoral reform, was cynically tossed overboard after a long series of sham hearings and questionnaires.
The early glow as Trudeau’s government welcomed Syrian refugees has long ago faded. Now the debate revolves around those arriving illegally at land crossings and whether Trudeau oversold the welcoming nature of this country’s immigration system.
Promised deficits of under $10 billion for two years before a return to balanced books was quickly punted and although this year’s deficit is smaller than forecast, there is no longer any timetable for balance.
Two years after pledging that Canada would return to a peacekeeping role as a sign the country is back on the international stage, the plan is in limbo.
Worse, this government can seem petty, whether moving to tax employee discounts (now apparently under government review), a measure that goes after low-paid retail clerks, not the 1 per cent, or spending more than $110,000 fighting an Indigenous girl’s $6,000 dental claim.
It has spent more than $700,000 fighting a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal order that it cease discriminating against Indigenous children when it comes to health and social services spending.
Finally, there is the hew and cry over Bill Morneau's tax reforms. Today Justin is in Washington trying to deal with Donald Trump -- a task that increasingly seems impossible.
It's not unusual for a government in the middle of its mandate to lose its moxie. But if it doesn't recover, it could be sounding its own death knell.
Image: quotesgram.com
4 comments:
My take on the Trudeau government is that, with a couple of exceptions, they look like a gang of amateurs. The Enquiry Into Murdered And Missing Aboriginal Women was always doomed which is why Harper wouldn't touch it. The families of victims want justice but that's the prerogative of courts, not commissions. If Morneau wants tax reforms he needs to change the laws which allows the super rich to hide their money overseas. After his threats to cancel the Super Hornet if Boeing didn't stop lobbying against Bombardier but Trudeau has gone silent; we expect him to actually stand up and do it. Refugees have shown that Canada cannot defend our borders. Fortunately, most of the refugees are harmless but imagine a band of armed wackos determined to move north. Less dramatically, we can't even stop the movement of illegal guns across the border. It has been shown many times (including in this blog) that the Trudeau government has done nothing to even ameliorate the effects of climate change. All hat and no cattle.
Justin risks being known by that moniker, Toby. Time is running out for him to stand up and deliver.
Trudeau has one foot in the boat, the other on the dock. He cannot reconcile his commitment to the neoliberal order with his progressive aspirations. When they conflict he stays true to the neoliberal path. That leaves those of us who have rejected neoliberalism looking at an empty suit stuffed with wet cardboard, wondering if Trudeau's progressive promises were ever more than a ruse. Unlike his father, Justin is incapable of formulating anything visionary at a time when we need that so badly. He's a technocrat in the neoliberal mold. His is an administrative approach that rarely strays far from the centre-right. On some issues, such as the assisted dying ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada in the Carter decision, he pushes back against his father's signature legislation, the Charter of Rights. And then there is the trail of solemn promises broken that litters his path.
That's the thing with neoliberalism. It turns all those who embrace it into conservatives. Even Britain's Labour Party was Blairified. The future, we must hope, lies with the Jeremy Corbyns of the political left.
It's possible that there could be a Renaissance on the Left, Mound. It appears that Brexit may be the catalyst in Britain. Perhaps Trump will spur the same kind of movement in the U.S.
Some of us thought that Stephen Harper might be the spark that lit the fire here. Unfortunately, we're still waiting to see what develops.
Post a Comment