Andrew MacDougall: The PM needs to realize the SNC-Lavalin scandal isn't going anywhere—not with two former ministers who refuse to play by the old rules
Andrew MacDougall is a London based columnist, commentator and consultant. He was formerly Director of Communications to Stephen Harper.
But Justin Trudeau isn’t in control of all of the things he needs to shut down in the SNC-Lavalin scandal. That’s his problem. You can’t shout “nothing to see here” when the chorus is free to pop up behind you and shout “look over here” at the top of their lungs. But Canadians have an endless attention span when it comes to the exotic, like when the New York Times decides to weigh in on our politics. Or when the OECD gets a little snippy about our treatment of corruption. And then there’s the catnip of scandal: friendly fire.Whatever hope Justin Trudeau had of using his last budget to lever SNC off the nation’s front pages died when Maclean’s hit publish on Paul Wells’ cannonball of an interview with Philpott, Trudeau’s former favourite minister .
Because until Philpott’s interview, it was widely assumed the broad strokes were known re: SNC. But Philpott appeared to be hinting at something much grander. Something much more sinister. “Whether there is one attempt to interfere or whether there are 20 attempts to interfere, that crosses ethical and constitutional lines,” Philpott said of the Prime Minister and his office’s repeated intrusions into Wilson-Raybould’s jurisdiction.
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