Article content continued

But he’s yet to be completely forthcoming with the public and opposition. On Monday, Prime Minister Trudeau ran interference for his key minister at a Stouffville, Ontario, press conference, insisting on answering questions put directly to Morneau, who stood beside the PM, about his undisclosed villa in France.

“You have to ask a question of me first – because you get a chance to talk to the Prime Minister,” Trudeau bizarrely said.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

Almost from the get go, the Liberal finance file has been plagued with trouble. While the Liberals got off to a decent start early in their term by lowering one of the middle-class tax brackets, they quickly veered off track by massively breaking their promise to keep the deficit to an allegedly modest $10 billion.

But even when Canadians were upset at Liberal fiscal blunders, it was usually Trudeau who wore the bad PR and social media ire – after all, he’s the guy who talked about sunny ways, how the budget will balance itself and the need to grow the economy from the heart outwards.

Finance minister Bill Morneau rarely faced the blow back. That’s because he played the straight man to Trudeau’s fiscally-challenged idealism. Morneau, we had it in our heads, was the good cop who’d come in to clean up the books after Trudeau was done throwing them about.

Canada needs someone like him up there steering the ship, above reproach. But this past week has seriously called Morneau's judgment into question.

Back when the cabinet was announced in November 2015, fiscally conservative onlookers (this columnist included) applauded the appointment of Morneau to finance. He was going to be the adult at the table to serve as a check on Trudeau’s increasingly leftist agenda.