LILLEY: Infighting shows Liberals can't run their party or country

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The infighting within the Liberal Party is spilling out into the public just as the party released a new attack ad claiming they will look after your family. If they can’t look after their own family affairs, why should we believe they can look after the rest of us?

It’s been a week since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saw Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland quit his cabinet in a spectacular if self-serving fashion. Freeland, who had served as finance minister for just over four years and implemented the economic policies that have been so disastrous for this country, criticized Trudeau’s economic priorities on the way out.

It’s like the arsonist being critical of how the fire is burning.

We haven’t heard from Trudeau since then save for a few breathless comments as he rushed past reporters on Friday to claim he had just had a great cabinet meeting with the people he had just appointed to cabinet complete with titles, raises and limos. Less than 24 hours later, one of those new cabinet ministers was whining on a conference call that Trudeau should really be stepping down as PM.

On Saturday, the Ontario Liberal caucus held a virtual meeting to discuss Trudeau’s future and, according to the Toronto Star, 51 of 75 MPs from Canada’s biggest province were calling for Trudeau to go. According to Global News, newly minted housing minister, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith was among those saying Trudeau should step down before the next election.

He reportedly then complained in a group chat to his fellow MPs about his comments being leaked to the media.

Trudeau doesn’t even have the full support of his cabinet ministers. Trudeau just gave Erskine-Smith a raise of $96,800, plus a car and driver and large staff to look after every need and he’s not even fully onside.

It’s amazing that all these MPs suddenly have the courage of their convictions after the Freeland implosion last week. The Liberals have been behind the Conservatives by 15-20 points for the last year and none of these MPs had the courage to stand up and say it was time for a new leader but suddenly, they found a collective spine.

But don’t worry, the Liberals are there for you and they understand what really worries Canadians.

The one-minute ad, released online, doesn’t even mention or feature their leader, Trudeau. Instead, the ad features soft, muted music as a family gathers for a generic celebration — couldn’t be Christmas — as they worry about the future.

As if we can hear their inner thoughts, family member after family member laments that Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives might cut child care, health care, housing supports and pensions. The only way you might gather that this ad, completely based on falsehoods, is from the Liberal Party is from a small wordmark in the corner with the Liberal L and a maple leaf symbol.

They know their leader is so toxic that they can’t feature him, and they know their brand is too toxic to even use the colour red.

While the Liberal caucus, and some in cabinet, plot Trudeau’s departure the PM is showing he has no plans to leave. Don’t expect him to step down over Christmas because he only plans on taking a vacation on your dime and coming back well rested to keep governing over this horrible mess he has created.

There is plenty of talk that Trudeau will try to prorogue to avoid having to face not only opposition MPs abut his own MPs in Ottawa.

Meanwhile, Canada is facing the massive threat to our economy of 25% tariffs from the incoming Trump administration. We need real leadership right now and we aren’t getting it from the clearly self-serving Trudeau.

We need an election now.

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