In the year of a federal election, the most recent Liberal turmoil has many believing it’s time to sound the alarms.
Jane Philpott announced on Monday she has resigned from cabinet as the Liberal government’s crisis over the SNC-Lavalin affair deepens.
It grieves me to resign from a portfolio where I was at work to deliver an important mandate. I must abide by my core values, my ethical responsibilities, constitutional obligations. There can be a cost to acting on one’s principles, but there is a bigger cost to abandoning them. pic.twitter.com/EwO5dtdgG6
— Jane Philpott (@janephilpott) March 4, 2019
Her resignation comes less than a month after Jody Wilson-Raybould stepped down.
In the case of Wilson-Raybould, her resignation came just days after a Feb. 7 Globe and Mail report that said she was pressured as attorney general to overturn the decision to prosecute SNC-Lavalin.
Gary Wilson, a Political Sciences Professor at UNBC, says that he believes there’s more to what’s being communicated to the public, adding that he believes the most recent resignations are more a difference of opinion than a lack of confidence in the Liberal Party.
“In the case of Wilson-Raybould, I think she’s just taken a stand on the ethics of it, which is admirable in some ways. But in other ways, you kind of expect those differences of opinion — shades of grey are going to happen.”
Wilson states that what’s going on with the Liberals really isn’t black and white, pointing out that the Liberals also have a history of scandals with Quebec-based companies like what has been unraveling with SNC-Lavelin.
The Liberals were associated with the sponsorship scandal which involved the misuse and misdirection of funds disbursed through the Liberal government’s 1990s sponsorship program. The program ran from 1996 until 2004, when broad corruption was discovered in its operations and the program was discontinued. Illicit and even illegal activities within the administration of the program were revealed, involving misuse and misdirection of public funds intended for government advertising in Quebec.
“That sort of adds to the controversy — that the Liberals aren’t quite able to shake this, it reflects poorly on them,” Wilson said.
Despite many believing the Liberal support is weakening, Wilson believes it’s still fairly early to be raising the red flags (or lack thereof) quite yet.
“It’s only March, and the election doesn’t happen until October,” Wilson said. “There’s still time, six months or so, for the government to get its act in order and try to turn things around, but certainly, it’s a problem that Justin Trudeau is facing right now and could very well mean that he would lose that election.”