VANCOUVER—People who know former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould well believe she’s unlikely to leave the Liberals and cross the floor to another party in the imminent federal election — an election she told the Star she intends to run in.

Wilson-Raybould initially said in a Jan. 23 interview she is still seeking re-election in Vancouver-Granville, just after her move from justice to veterans affairs ministries but prior to her resignation from cabinet on Tuesday.

Her older sister and fellow lawyer Kory Wilson has spoken to her recently and confirmed her intent to run again.

“She’s a candidate and she’s running,” she told the Star in a phone interview Friday, “but her goal has never been about being re-elected, and she never went into (politics) thinking, ‘I want to do this to be famous or powerful.’

“I think she’s handling it well; she has got a lot of support. We’ve all spent time with her, now she’s back home with our family on the reserve now and is happy to be home.”

In a 2014 interview, just before she first ran for public office, Wilson-Raybould criticized the Liberal Party of Canada for its past policies toward Indigenous Peoples, particularly those of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s father, Pierre Trudeau.

Sources told the Star she was asked the join the Liberal Party of Canada; she didn’t have a long history there, but it was the party she felt would give Indigenous people the best chance of finding a seat at the federal table.

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Her departure from cabinet has marked perhaps the biggest crisis facing the Trudeau Liberal government so far in its three years in office — just months before a federal election that must be held before Oct. 21.

The Prime Minister’s Office has been accused of interfering to stop Wilson-Raybould, once head of the Justice Department, from prosecuting Quebec engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.

Trudeau denied any direction was given to her regarding SNC-Lavalin, and that neither he nor his staff did anything improper in the matter. He alleged she never raised concerns with him last fall, when he said she should have spoken out.

On Friday, the prime minister added to his account, alleging Wilson-Raybould had approached him to ask whether he was planning on directing her on the SNC-Lavalin matter.

Wilson-Raybould has remained silent, retaining a retired Supreme Court of Canada judge for advice. She could not be reached for comment despite the Star’s multiple efforts.

“Jody’s a very strong person and has a very thick skin,” Kory Wilson told the Star in a phone interview Friday. “Not that it’s acceptable to treat someone in this way, but she’s very realistic.

“She went in with very realistic, open eyes. And, not trying to minimize this, but this isn’t the worst thing that can happen to anybody in the world — compared to what happened to our ancestors, this is easy to deal with.”

But while some have speculated Wilson-Raybould may either resign or be pushed from the Liberal Party caucus — rumours that have not been independently confirmed — her father, Kwakwak’wakw hereditary chief Bill Wilson, said it is “very unlikely” she would find a home in another political party.

Her father said she joined the party primarily for pragmatic reasons and unsuccessfully encouraged him to do the same.

“The Liberals offered me a safe riding 50 years ago, but I chose not to go that way,” he said in an interview Thursday. “As I once was, Jody was approached by everybody, but she’ll always be a Liberal.

“One time she mentioned to me a membership in the Liberal Party was probably the easiest way to power, given the possibilities of the other parties.”

However, before Wilson-Raybould’s invitation to the Liberals’ 2014 convention, she’d “never been involved in federal politics at all,” her sister said. “We obviously always voted in every election but were never members of a party before.”

Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation Chief Robert Chamberlin, who is from the same broader Kwakwak’wakw nation on the northern part of Vancouver Island, said Wilson-Raybould wasn’t new to the Liberals when she ran for office but did so as “a First Nations leader,” not necessarily as a partisan.

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He said he didn’t want to guess about her political future but imagined relations are tense within the party currently.

“We’re staring down a federal election,” Chamberlin said. “It would be difficult for her to walk into a room of Liberals at this point — and you’d always wonder who the anonymous ministers or staff saying awful things about you were.”

However, her sister Kory said, “The reality is she’s not going to think about who said, ‘X, Y or Z ... She knows she has a job to do, to do what she was elected for.”

According to a Vancouver source close to Wilson-Raybould’s family, who spoke to the Star on condition of anonymity, while many women — Indigenous women especially — say they’re outraged by her treatment, Wilson-Raybould is known as both principled and extremely pragmatic.

“This shows how dirty politics can be,” the Vancouver family friend said. “But hers is a political family; she knew the deal, I’m pretty sure. She has a lot of support in her riding from lots of people.”

In an interview on Feb. 20, 2014, Wilson-Raybould explained why she was about to publicly enter federal politics — at that time as co-chair of the Liberal Party of Canada’s national convention, before she opted to run for election.

“My approach to political office is, I want to be where I believe I can make a difference,” she said by phone at the time, from the Quebec convention floor. “To put more emphasis on Aboriginal issues into a mainstream political party and convention is a huge opportunity not only for Aboriginal people but for Canadians in general.

“Running for federal politics is a decision I’ll certainly have to have a conversation with my chiefs back home (about).”

At that time five years ago, she admitted the Liberals carried a lot of negative baggage for many Indigenous Peoples across Canada, including her own nation.

She said in particular there was lingering bitterness about former prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s 1969 White Paper of the Government on Indian Policy — created by his Indian Affairs Minister Jean Chrétien — which sparked widespread anger, protests and the launch of many of today’s Indigenous advocacy organizations.

Trudeau and Chrétien’s white paper proposed “to end the legal distinction between Indians and other Canadians” with “the ultimate aim of removing the specific references to Indians from the constitution … Indian people must be persuaded, must persuade themselves, that this path will lead them to a fuller and richer life.”

The 2014 convention passed a resolution distancing the party from the white paper policies, and Wilson-Raybould said more Indigenous people should enter parliamentary politics.

“It’s a challenging endeavour, but we need to have young people, old people and every type of person engaged in our political discussions,” she said. “I got involved because I wasn’t happy with the way things are. If you’re not happy with the way government is running, you have to get involved. Your voice is important and needs to be heard.”

For Chamberlin — who worked with Wilson-Raybould over many years, particularly on the leadership council that brings together the heads of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and the First Nations Summit — the most troubling aspect of the current crisis has been anonymously quoted Ottawa sources suggesting she was “difficult to deal with” or a “thorn in the side” of cabinet.

“It’s no secret she’s very driven. Everyone who’s worked with her in B.C. including myself knows she works very hard and is extremely informed on all aspects of law,” Chamberlin said. “Even though none of us were ever privy to internal discussions at the cabinet level, we had absolute faith that the right directions were being spoken to just by her being there.

“I’ve been around a lot of leadership in my career; I remain in awe of the abilities she has. I’ve never met anyone who works harder then her.”

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