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A few weeks ago, when the SNC-Lavalin scandal was only 42 days old, I wrote here in the Post, “The Liberal response to the entire affair has been almost unfathomably bad, counterproductive at every turn.”

We’re now 60 days into this. The above is truer than ever.

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Set aside the core issues of political and accountability and transparency that were so exhaustively and effectively explored by Andrew Coyne this past weekend. Let’s just look at the SNC-Lavalin scandal purely as politics: the Liberal response has been terrible. They have not been able to answer the public’s questions about the affair, they have not been able to change the channel and they have not been able to simply move on, weathering the attacks. In fact, almost everything they’ve done has had the opposite effect of what was intended. Like I said 18 days ago, their every effort has been counterproductive.

Their every effort has been counterproductive

Consider this weekend’s revelation by the Conservative party that Justin Trudeau is threatening to sue Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer over statements made during the scandal, statements the prime minister claims are false and defamatory. In fact, consider just one specific element of this: consider above all else the timing.