For the gambit to pay off, the Trudeau team had to exceed previous expectations of ineptitude. Never let it be said that they were not down to the challenge
The early reviews of Justin Trudeau’s threat to sue Andrew Scheer for his comments on the SNC-Lavalin affair have not been kind: an “unfathomably stupid move … absolutely bonkers … the most ill-advised defamation suit since Oscar Wilde sued the Marquess of Queensbury.”
When Liberal insiders started attacking the former attorney general, anonymously, in terms that appealed to crude sexual stereotypes, backfiring so badly the prime minister was forced to denounce his own party’s handiwork, even I was fooled. It looked so real — like a simple, ordinary galactic-level public relations fiasco.
That fantastically weird performance by the clerk of the privy council, opening with a lengthy tirade about online trolls and peppering the rest with comments that would seem overly partisan if they came from a backbencher introducing the PM at a Liberal fundraiser? Could they have done a better job of advertising “we’ve got something to hide” if they had bought a spot on the Super Bowl?
How do you get them on your side? How do you, as the pros say, game-change the narrative? By approaching the scandal with such pitiable cack-handedness, such heart-rending incompetence, that you become the victim, and Wilson-Raybould the bully. Who doesn’t want to root for the underdog? The idea of politicians suing each other for practising their trade — slandering each other — will admittedly strike many as absurd, rather like hockey players charging each other with assault. Stephen Harper looked like a fool when he tried it. But by this point the inanity of merely repeating his mistake would have been priced in. For the gambit to pay off, the Trudeau team would have to exceed previous expectations of ineptitude.
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