Former Liberals openly criticize Trudeau

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Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau faces a growing chorus of formerly loyal voices who are now unhappy with his tenure — with some vowing to vote against his party.

The most recent dagger comes from former justice minister Jodi Wilson-Raybould whose new book, Indian in the Cabinet: Speaking Truth to Power, is making a splash on the campaign trail.

An excerpt Saturday in the Globe and Mail detailed Wilson-Raybould’s account of how she was ultimately pushed from cabinet after refusing to interfere in a criminal prosecution and help SNC-Lavalin.

In her book, she detailed a February 2019 meeting with Trudeau in Vancouver to discuss media reports that he allegedly had pressured her to break the law and interfere in the criminal case.

“In that moment, I knew he wanted me to lie,” Wilson-Raybould wrote.

Campaigning this past weekend, Trudeau countered: “I did not want her to lie. I would never do that. I would never ask her that. That is simply not true.”

Wilson-Raybould is not alone as a former Liberal lashing out at Trudeau.

“So familiar. So incredible. So hurtful. So powerful,” former Whitby MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes tweeted Saturday about her impression of what Wilson-Raybould wrote.

“I really think that rewarding bad behaviour is not something Canadians should do,” Caesar-Chavannes added when appearing Sunday on Global’s The West Block.

“I’m very much a Liberal at heart, but I would say that in this particular instance, in 2021, I don’t mind voting for my local representative, Maleeha Shahid, who is a Conservative,” Caesar-Chavannes told Global’s Mercedes Stephenson.

“I’ve never done that in my life. But at this particular time, maybe we have to think about doing things differently.”

Her declaration elicited a response from former Liberal MP for Scarborough Southwest Michelle Simson.

“Trust me, she’s likely not the only one,” she tweeted Sunday.

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And Monday, former Liberal cabinet minister Herb Dhaliwal included Trudeau in criticism of how leaders have avoided criticizing a Quebec law banning religious symbols.

“How can anyone in that province, or anywhere in Canada … seriously explain, or convincingly avoid condemning, the enactment of the Quebec National Assembly which restricts minorities’ job opportunities because of their religious convictions?” Dhaliwal wrote. “It is more than disappointing to witness how O’Toole, Trudeau and Singh have carefully avoided risking Quebecers’ votes by choosing to dodge the truth with lame platitudes and diversionary comments.”