This article must have been missed by our left-leaning friends...anyway, here we go:
Still, this Trudeau has been busy cultivating an image of himself as a politician with “sunny ways,” and it remains to be seen how he squares that story with his list of exiles. It’s probably safe to say that the weather on the island of Liberal castaways at the end of 2014 is anything but sunny.
OTTAWA—By now, it should be clear that it’s perilous to get on the wrong side of Justin Trudeau, at least for members of the Liberal leader’s own party.
Suspended MPs Scott Andrews and Massimo Pacetti, at the centre of the still-murky harassment case on Parliament Hill, are only the latest Liberals to be sent to Trudeau’s island of castaways.
In the past year, in fact, that island’s population has grown exponentially. A list of the most notable follows:
The senators formerly known as Liberals:
In retrospect, we can now see that Trudeau was establishing a pattern for 2014 when he walked into the Liberal Senate caucus without warning in January and dispatched 32 senators, metaphorically, to a political ice floe.
Unsentimentally, in an interview with me a couple of days later, Trudeau declared these longtime loyalists to be replaceable. “Yes, there are some good organizers who won’t be active anymore . . . But we’re getting in so many more that it’s not something I think about too much.”
Former candidates and MPs:
The leader’s open-nomination rule threw a cold bucket of water on the hopes of many veteran Liberals who expected to be welcomed with open arms into Team Trudeau just because they had served as MPs before or ran multiple times as candidates.
In March, this harsh truth was driven home when former Trinity-Spadina candidate Christine Innes learned that she would not be allowed to run in the June byelection. The reason for Innes’s ouster is at the centre now of a legal dispute — Trudeau’s officials allege that her campaign team, namely her husband, former MP Tony Ianno, was behaving badly. Innes alleges that she got the boot because she wouldn’t agree to a deal on where she was running in the 2015 election. Whatever the reason, Innes is out.
Former Toronto mayor Rob Ford:
OK, Ford probably wouldn’t call himself a Liberal, but in case anyone’s forgotten, that’s how the whole conversation started in the Commons foyer last May, when Trudeau summarily announced that pro-life Liberals would not be allowed to run as candidates in the next election.
Trudeau tossed off a remark about how Ford wasn’t welcome on his team, but then went on to explain, no joke, that people who were at odds with the Liberals’ embrace of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms would also not pass muster. Did that include people who were anti-abortion? “I have made it clear that future candidates need to be completely understanding that they will be expected to vote pro-choice on any bills,” he said.
more shiny pony island:
Justin Trudeau’s island of Liberal castaways: Delacourt | Toronto Star
Still, this Trudeau has been busy cultivating an image of himself as a politician with “sunny ways,” and it remains to be seen how he squares that story with his list of exiles. It’s probably safe to say that the weather on the island of Liberal castaways at the end of 2014 is anything but sunny.
OTTAWA—By now, it should be clear that it’s perilous to get on the wrong side of Justin Trudeau, at least for members of the Liberal leader’s own party.
Suspended MPs Scott Andrews and Massimo Pacetti, at the centre of the still-murky harassment case on Parliament Hill, are only the latest Liberals to be sent to Trudeau’s island of castaways.
In the past year, in fact, that island’s population has grown exponentially. A list of the most notable follows:
The senators formerly known as Liberals:
In retrospect, we can now see that Trudeau was establishing a pattern for 2014 when he walked into the Liberal Senate caucus without warning in January and dispatched 32 senators, metaphorically, to a political ice floe.
Unsentimentally, in an interview with me a couple of days later, Trudeau declared these longtime loyalists to be replaceable. “Yes, there are some good organizers who won’t be active anymore . . . But we’re getting in so many more that it’s not something I think about too much.”
Former candidates and MPs:
The leader’s open-nomination rule threw a cold bucket of water on the hopes of many veteran Liberals who expected to be welcomed with open arms into Team Trudeau just because they had served as MPs before or ran multiple times as candidates.
In March, this harsh truth was driven home when former Trinity-Spadina candidate Christine Innes learned that she would not be allowed to run in the June byelection. The reason for Innes’s ouster is at the centre now of a legal dispute — Trudeau’s officials allege that her campaign team, namely her husband, former MP Tony Ianno, was behaving badly. Innes alleges that she got the boot because she wouldn’t agree to a deal on where she was running in the 2015 election. Whatever the reason, Innes is out.
Former Toronto mayor Rob Ford:
OK, Ford probably wouldn’t call himself a Liberal, but in case anyone’s forgotten, that’s how the whole conversation started in the Commons foyer last May, when Trudeau summarily announced that pro-life Liberals would not be allowed to run as candidates in the next election.
Trudeau tossed off a remark about how Ford wasn’t welcome on his team, but then went on to explain, no joke, that people who were at odds with the Liberals’ embrace of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms would also not pass muster. Did that include people who were anti-abortion? “I have made it clear that future candidates need to be completely understanding that they will be expected to vote pro-choice on any bills,” he said.
more shiny pony island:
Justin Trudeau’s island of Liberal castaways: Delacourt | Toronto Star
