With the terrible damage our current Prime Minister and his cabinet and caucus have done over the past few years, it might come as some relief that they—along with their left-leaning colleagues in the opposition parties—have been frozen in time and unable to “get on with the business of Parliament” for some weeks now. At least, while they are paralyzed into inaction, they cannot advance any more wicked and destructive legislation.

Conservative MPs, meanwhile, have been demanding that Mr. Trudeau and his minions release various documents relating to the sloppy distribution of taxpayer funds through the government agency, Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) . . . what’s become known as the “Green Slush Fund.” In June of this year, the Auditor General determined that STDC had awarded $59 million to 10 projects that were not eligible. Apparently—since the assumption is that some of these funds went to companies connected with Liberal donors and friends of the PM or of his cabinet—the Liberals are very reluctant to make public any documents that could prove them culpable in the fraudulent misuse of taxpayer dollars.

They seem to be shameless in their stonewalling, coming up with excuses like, “If evidence is acquired by an action of Parliament, it may not be usable in court if indeed there are charges laid in the future.” Sort of like searching without a warrant. Except that the Conservative MPs demanding the documents are doing so through official channels and in a most transparent manner. The very fact the Mr. Trudeau does not want to release the documents is seen by many as evidence of guilt. After all, if there’s nothing to hide, nothing to be ashamed of, why not just hand them over and get on with the investigation?

Ironically, this logjam in the House has also hindered Mr. Poilievre’s strategy of repeatedly tabling motions of non-confidence and calling for an early “carbon tax election.” The Conservatives are apparently willing to accept a procedural speed bump for the greater good of holding the Liberals’ feet to the fire on the issue of transparency and the scandalous misuse of taxpayers’ money.

Questions relating to the Green Slush Fund have been compounded by another Liberal scandal that has been brewing; this week it resulted in two significant events in the House of Commons. Conservative MPs have been calling for the firing of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages Minister, Randy Boissonnault; they claim that he and his company have broken the law, that he misrepresented himself as having an indigenous background in order to obtain a government contract for his company, and that he lied in Parliament about his involvement with his business partner in the company during his time in office.

The two things that happened this week are that on Tuesday, Nov. 19, Speaker of the House, Greg Fergus, kicked Conservative MP, Michelle Rempel Garner, out of the House for reading aloud portions of a newspaper article critical of MP Boissonnault’s attempt to falsely identify as indigenous. On Wednesday, MP Boissonnault couldn’t take the heat anymore and resigned as cabinet minister.

There’s something we all feel when a politician denies repeatedly that he or she has done anything wrong and then finally resigns with a half-hearted apology. Yeah, he’s sorry. He’s sorry he got caught. Painful as it may be to give up a cabinet post with its extra perks and pay, Mr. Boissonnault is still a sitting MP and is still drawing an annual salary of over $200,000. It doesn’t put the toothpaste back in the tube to say that he believed “all his life” that his Metis grandmother was 100% Cree. Nobody will believe what he says anymore. It’s one more strike against public confidence in the integrity of elected officials.

Meanwhile, PM Justin Trudeau has survived so many scandals that it’s hard to believe he still occupies the highest office in the land. It’s obvious that if an election were held today, he’d be switching chairs with Pierre Poilievre. But in the strange world of politics, the House of Commons has become a place of barbs and bristle, smoke and mirrors . . . and the future is anything but clear.

The expulsion of MP Michelle Rempel Garner (and apparently two others) from the House on Nov. 9 by Speaker Greg Fergus, raises questions about the ability of this Speaker to act in a non-partisan manner, a minimal requirement if the House is to function at all. In order to establish any kind of decorum and dignity, the PM may have to ask his partisan Speaker to step down and let someone else take the chair.

While it seems a bit too late to call for self-reflection, transparency and humility by all Members, the highly-partisan rancour and rhetoric that now characterizes their conduct and interaction signals that this Government has already lost the confidence of Canadians. While I am not champing at the bit for a winter election, this slow-motion circus needs to end or the months ahead will be nothing but political brawling at taxpayer expense. The sooner the Liberal PM and Cabinet cough up the documents and take what’s coming, the better. One benefit of an early election call would be the sudden death of several terrible pieces of legislation—such as C-293, currently in committee in the Senate. Canadian taxpayers cannot afford another year of Mr. Trudeau’s wild and reckless spending and his destructive social agenda.

The Christian Heritage Party is busy preparing our candidates for that next election, whenever it may be called. If you do not yet have a CHP candidate in your district, we need your help to find and enlist the best person you can find. Contact our head office and send your suggestions or volunteer yourself! We have better solutions and we need your help to bring them to Ottawa!

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