Kelly McParland: If no one did anything wrong why two resignations and a PMO in crisis mode?
                                                                                
                                                                                When Gerald Butts resigned as Justin Trudeau’s closest and most  important adviser Monday, quitting the job that made him the most  powerful man in Ottawa other than the prime minister, he offered an  official (and somewhat lengthy) explanation.
                                                                                
                                                                                “The Prime Minister of Canada’s Office is much larger  and more important than any of its staff,” he said. It was “in the best  interests of the office and its important work for me to step away.”
                                                                                
                                                                                He noted he has been accused by “anonymous sources”  of having put pressure on former justice minister and attorney general  Jody Wilson-Raybould over SNC-Lavalin’s efforts to escape prosecution on  corruption charges. He categorically denied the allegations: “Any  accusation that I or the staff put pressure on the attorney general is  simply not true.”
                                                                                
                                                                                Which raises the most intriguing aspect of Butts’s departure. He is, it  has been widely reported, one of the prime minister’s closest friends.  They’ve been pals since university days at McGill. A lot of people  believe Trudeau would never have entered politics if not for Butts, and  might not have succeeded in winning Canada’s highest office without his  support and advice.
                                                                                
                                                                                And yet he’s quitting, not over some egregiously misappropriate decision  or action, but over something he, Trudeau and the Liberal party insist  never happened. Butts not only dismissed the suggestion he acted  inappropriately, but maintained the opposite.
                                                                                
                                                                                “We honoured the unique role of the attorney general. At all times, I  and those around me acted with integrity and a singular focus on the  best interests of all Canadians.” Not only that, but he thought his  relationship with Wilson-Raybould was fine. “From my perspective, our  relationship has always been defined by mutual respect, candour and an  honest desire to work together.”
                                                                                
                                                                                That echoes Trudeau’s own assessment of the situation, which he admitted  had left him perplexed. He said he was “surprised and disappointed” by  her resignation. In no way did he put pressure on her to act against her  will. If she felt otherwise, she should have come to him with her  complaint. “The government of Canada did its job and to the clear public  standards expected of it,” Trudeau maintained. “If anyone felt  differently, they had an obligation to raise that with me. No one,  including Jody, did that.”
                                                                                
                                                                                All of which raises a very curious question. If Butts did absolutely  nothing wrong; if neither he, the prime minister nor anyone else acted  improperly in any manner; if this whole thing is, in essence, a figment  of the imagination of Jody Wilson-Raybould, why is Butts stepping down  and leaving the prime minister flailing for a solution to the worst  crisis he’s faced since becoming prime minister?
                                                                                
                                                                                Wilson-Raybould, remember, hasn’t said a word about the expanding  disaster. When demoted from one of cabinet’s top posts, she kept her  mouth closed about the reason, though she was clearly unhappy. There was  no indication she planned to quit the new, lesser post as veterans  affairs minister until Trudeau more or less forced her hand, suggesting  that her continued presence in cabinet indicated she was OK with the way  things were working out.
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
		
		
	
	
                                                                                Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s chief of staff Katie TelfordPhoto by: L
                                                                                
                                                                              All the allegations, as Butts attested, have been anonymous whispers.  There has been a growing growl of dissent among admirers of the former  minister, and near-universal agreement in the media that the prime  minister has badly mishandled the situation, alienating women and  Indigenous Canadians, some of the voter demographics he’s worked hardest  to please. But from the individual at the centre of it all, we still  have yet to hear directly. 
Wilson-Raybould  says she is getting legal advice on what she can say. Meanwhile, people  close to her say she still plans to seek re-election in October, and as  a Liberal.
                                                                                
                                                                                Given the absence of anything resembling a smoking gun, it would seem  sensible, therefore, to wait and hear what she has to say before  breaking up the partnership that largely put the Liberals in power. The  question of why Butts isn’t doing that, and why Trudeau agreed with his  decision, remains dangling over the whole odd affair even as Butts packs  his bags.
                                                                                
                                                                                It usually takes governments several mandates to stumble into the sort  of trouble the Liberals are in. Usually it comes from age, exhaustion  and the accumulation of political baggage. Jean Chretien won three  majorities before the sponsorship scandal caught up to him, and he had  retired before voters eventually removed his successor from office.  Stephen Harper was prime minister for nine years before voters decided a  change was in order. Trudeau has been in power for just three-quarters  of a mandate, and the Lavalin controversy is just the latest in a string  of serious missteps. A determined optimist might note that Lavalin has  at least diverted attention from the furor over the detention of Huawei  executive Meng Wanzhou, but it’s difficult to see much comfort arising from that fact.
                                                                                
                                                                                Meng continues to await a Canadian judge’s ruling on whether to  extradite her to the U.S., a decision seemingly certain to spark a new  eruption from either China or the U.S., the two forces between which  Ottawa is being squeezed. That will be followed by a decision on whether  to exclude Huawei from Canadian 5G networks, which, again, will upset  either Washington or Beijing. Meanwhile, the independence of the  director of public prosecutions has been raised in yet another case with  potent political implications: Kathleen Roussel’s office issued a  statement denying it was directed by the Privy Council Office in the prosecution of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, who asserts  he was railroaded by allegations involving a $668 million naval supply  ship, and is due in court in August, just as federal election  campaigning picks up speed.
                                                                                
                                                                                It’s a daunting tally of challenges the Liberals face  as they gear up for the election that’s just eight months away. And  Trudeau must now confront it without the man rightly or wrongly  considered his Svengali. All over something the prime minister and his  friend insist never happened.
                                                                                
                                                                                Even for Canada, it’s a strange sort of scandal.
                                                                                
                                                                            
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/ke...why-two-resignations-and-a-pmo-in-crisis-mode