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OTTAWA — Gerald Butts has returned to help re-elect the Liberals — but his reappearance has also ignited the flames of the SNC-Lavalin scandal.

“Gerald Butts is back, the Lav-scamsters are reunited, and nothing has changed,” said Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre at a news conference at Ottawa’s National Press Theatre Monday. “If Trudeau and Butts are returned to power, we will see more SNC-Lavalin scams. The modus operandi that we saw in this scandal will continue and it will worsen.”

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For the Liberals, bringing back Butts — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s long-time friend, confidante, and indispensable adviser — for the election campaign is a gamble that his political skills are worth the cost of giving the opposition parties the gift of resurrecting the scandal.

It may also be a bet that the scandal no longer resonates as deeply with Canadian voters, or at least that voters won’t much notice if it’s revived in the dog days of summer but fades again by the time the campaign kicks off in September.