Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/12/2016 (1378 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Editorial

It would seem Canadians are now finally getting the whole truth from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Yes, government business was discussed at Liberal party fundraisers. Hands up: who’s surprised? Because frankly, it’s not surprising that those with a policy bone to pick with government are willing to pay $1,500 or so for rubber chicken and bland potatoes in order to bend the ear of a sitting cabinet minister or, even better, the PM. Of course it’s against the rules, but that’s how politics works, right? Those who are well-heeled are well heard.

On Tuesday, the prime minister came up with a new line, after weeks of being asked by the opposition, to explain what he used the fundraisers for. Are you ready for this? Mr. Trudeau talks to the elite to lobby the causes of the middle class. During Question Period, he told MPs he used the fundraisers to tell the wealthy that they won’t be getting any tax breaks because of his government’s commitment to champion the middle class.

The fact that he can say this with a straight face is a tribute to his skills as a drama teacher.

In the United States, the Nov. 8 election underscored what can happen when voters feel that the political elite isn’t interested in the common guy or gal. President-elect Donald Trump won the electoral college votes by appealing to those who felt disenfranchised and ignored.

In Canada, the 2015 federal election was to some degree driven by the same sense of exclusion. The Conservatives, under Stephen Harper, were viewed as being too exclusive and out of touch. Enter a young, dynamic Liberal leader who says he wants to do politics differently, and voter cynicism appeared to wane. An EKOS Canada poll from October 2016 suggests that Canadians responding "most/all of the time" to the question: "How much do you trust the government in Ottawa/Washington to do what is right?" spiked to just over 40 per cent in 2015. For Americans, that percentage dropped below 30 per cent between 2000 and 2006 (the last year those numbers were available).

Numbers such as these often translate into low voter turnout, with people so turned off by politics that they no longer bother to vote.

The Harper Conservatives certainly took it on the chin for their inability to right the ship in terms of accountability, having seized power following a long and, near the end, increasingly scandal-ridden Liberal run. And rightly so. But Mr. Trudeau said he was going to be different, and his actions on the issue of Liberal fundraisers suggest that it’s still the same-old, same-old. At least this PM and his office responded to the questions on this debacle. That’s something the Conservatives should have learned, but instead, they stuck to obfuscating information to the detriment of the Canadian public. Let’s hope Mr. Trudeau doesn’t follow suit.