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Photo by Chris Wattie/Reuters

On that front, It’s pretty ugly. An Ipsos poll published Wednesday found Scheer just barely beating Trudeau and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh as “someone you can trust,” and just barely losing to Singh and Trudeau as “someone who will provide open, responsible and ethical government.” On “someone you can trust,” Scheer “won” at 19 per cent. But when 30 per cent answer “none of the above,” no one wins.

“(Trudeau’s) ongoing scandals and coverups have caused Canadians to lose faith in the integrity of their government and their democracy,” Scheer told Windsorites. “Canadians expect accountability when their leaders break the law. … They expect strong democratic institutions that have the power to investigate corrupt politicians to the fullest extent and they expect appropriate punishments who get caught.”

Canadians certainly have a right to demand all those things. But do they still expect them? And what’s real “accountability,” anyway? Surely it can’t be cutting a cheque for $20,000, saying sorry and carrying on. Surely in politics, accountability is when you get caught, you resign. No British PM would even attempt to survive a scandal like Lavalin. But Canadian media treated calls for Trudeau’s resignation as essentially ridiculous.

If they’re all bums, you might as well vote for the bum you think will help you out

Considering how spectacularly and how recently Trudeau authored one of the more notable scandals in Canadian political history, it might seem odd that it hasn’t played a more prominent role in the election campaign. But it’s not odd if people just assume his competitors are all bent to one extent or another, or will bend once they’re elected. An Ipsos poll published last month found just 12 per cent of respondents placed “corruption and ethics in government” among their top-three issues. Top of the table was health care, at 35 per cent. If they’re all bums, you might as well vote for the bum you think will help you out.