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For starters, the Trudeau government has latterly hit a rough patch, one of its own making, over issues critical to its credibility; ethics and basic honesty. This has yet to show up as a pattern in public polls but can be expected to in the New Year. The first marker was a survey last week by Forum Research that showed Liberal support plummeting nearly ten points nationally in a month.

The cause of this disturbance in the Force was evident in the Commons foyer Thursday, as the prime minister fielded questions about his cash-for-access problems from reporter Robert Fife. Fife asked repeatedly how Trudeau could possibly continue justifying his habit of selling access to himself for a $1500 individual contribution to the Liberal party. Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson has called the practice “unsavoury,” and is investigating. Would there be a change in policy?

But as in his formal year-end news conference earlier this week, Trudeau wasn’t for turning. He responded with the same mystifying word salad we have heard from him and from Government House Leader Bardish Chagger in question period for weeks on end; an ode to the toughness and transparency of federal fundraising rules, and assurances the Liberal party’s integrity is above reproach. In other words, “trust us.”

Although Trudeau has conceded he is lobbied at these events – in violation of his party’s own stated rules – and although his own guidelines for “open and accountable government” preclude even the appearance of trading access for donations, neither he nor any other minister has attempted to address the question, though they’ve had weeks to do so. Rather than re-visiting the policy, or scrapping the guidelines and explaining themselves, they’ve trotted out messaging so repetitive and nonsensical it verges on contempt.