Listen Up! Shame | Commentary

In my Listen Up article last week I wrote in part about my concern that there is more pure anger, nastiness, and misinformation in our politics today than I can remember in decades. This week, all three parties at the federal level in Canada have sadly proven that to be true. 

Let’s start with the appointment of David Johnston as a Rapporteur to investigate alleged interference, primarily by the Chinese, in our Canadian electoral process. In my view, the Prime Minister could not have picked a better individual for this task. 

I have only met David Johnston once when former Conservative Deputy Premier Dr. Bette Stephenson referred me to him. Johnston was president of an Ontario university and I went to him for academic advice related to one of our children. He could not have been kinder, more empathetic, or more helpful. 

I have followed Johnston’s public career and achievements ever since and believe him to be a person of the highest credibility, trust, and honour. I don’t know if he is Liberal at heart, and I don’t really care. There ARE honourable Liberals out there.

 Obviously, former Conservative  Prime Minister Stephen Harper didn’t care either when he recommended the appointment of Johnston as Governor General of Canada. During his tenure in that position, I never saw an inkling of partisanship in his actions during either Conservative or Liberal administrations. 

But some Conservatives,  including their Leader Pierre Poilievre, and many of whom clapped when Harper appointed Johnston Governor-General, are now yelling and screaming and discrediting a man who should only be described as a great Canadian. This is nothing short of mean-spiritedness. They all know what a credible person David Johnston is and should have applauded his appointment. Shame on those who took the opposite tack.  As journalist Andrew Coyne recently commented online, some of these people would complain if Trudeau had appointed Jesus. 

Certainly, Johnston may be a friend of Trudeau’s as he was and may still be with Harper. But that is no reason to disqualify him from an important appointment for which he is eminently qualified both as an academic researcher and a prominent public figure.

 In fact, any prime minister or premier, when appointing someone to any position, would choose individuals who they knew were competent for the role for which they were chosen and did not have an axe to grind against the government in power. By definition, some of these could be friends or certainly supporters.  Who would appoint people to powerful positions who they know would work against them?  Just ask Jean Chretien, Paul Martin, Brian Mulroney, Stephen Harper, Dalton McGuinty, Kathleen Wynn, or Doug Ford. The answer is the same across party lines.

As for David Johnston’s involvement with the Pierre Trudeau Foundation, if he is still on it, I agree that it would have been better to address this up front and take a leave of absence as it would give more clarity to his independence. But I am familiar with the Pierre Trudeau Foundation. It is a charitable organization, not a partisan one, and one that has done good work. People who serve on it are from various walks of life, with differing political views. Those who I know, are honourable Canadians. 

It is important, I believe, to understand precisely what David Johnston has been asked to do.

According to a March 17^th article in the Toronto Star, Johnston “has a wide mandate to look into foreign interference (mainly Chinese) in the last two federal elections and make expert recommendations on how to further protect our democracy and uphold Canadian’s confidence in it.”

I have no doubt that he will do that competently and with whatever resources he needs to accomplish it. He will tolerate no interference and will let nothing get in his way. 

There is, of course, one serious outstanding question in relation to alleged Chinese election interference. That is what did Prime Minister Justin Trudeau know and when did he know it? That is a political question and NOT one for David Johnston nor part of his mandate. Rather, it is an important question for Parliament. And this is where I have trouble with Liberal antics this past week. 

They have done nothing but stonewall Parliament’s legitimate attempts to understand the Prime Minister’s knowledge and response in relation to election interference. At the committee level, Liberal members are filibustering to prevent an appearance before them of Katie Telford, Trudeau’s Chief of Staff. 

Parliamentarians, and indeed Canadians, have a right to know what the Prime Minister and his office knew, when they knew it, and what they did about it. They have a right to know if important information was ignored during the actual elections. No one will know that better than Katie Telford. 

She can refuse to answer some questions on the basis of national security but there are others she is well qualified to fully answer. It does beg the question of what the Government has to hide. It is obstructionist and disingenuous to prevent Parliament from doing its Job. 

The Prime Minister himself has not only supported this filibuster but he has also enflamed the issue with angry, caustic, and inaccurate accusations against those who want to know what went on in his office related to alleged Chinese interference in our elections. The whole lot of them should be ashamed of themselves.

Not to escape this trifecta of poor behaviour is New Democratic Leader Jagmeet Singh. What a hypocrite and purveyor of misinformation. This past week he slams the Governments of Canada and Ontario for providing financial incentives for Volkswagen to choose this country for a new electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in St. Thomas. According to the CBC, it will add “2000-3000 workers and supply chains to feed that plant and may add thousands of workers to the region.”

Any leader of a major political party should be aware, especially in current economic times, of the fierce global competition to acquire large manufacturing entities. Of course, money and other incentives are involved., including the availability of a skilled labour force. These negotiations are key to our economy and always have been. 

The vast majority of new jobs and opportunities that are being created in Western Ontario are for blue-collar workers, the very people Mr. Singh claims so piously that he is fighting for. Instead of hypocritically blasting Ottawa and Ontario for winning the contest of bringing Volkswagen here, he should be thanking them.

As for Mr. Singh’s attacks on profits made by large public companies such as Volkswagen, Loblaws, and Metro, he conveniently forgets to mention that the vast majority of these profits go to millions of shareholders, many of whom are not rich and depend on these profits for badly needed investment income or retirement. They are ordinary Canadians doing what they can to get by. 

I  also know personally, a number of honorable New Democrats. I do not, however, count Mr. Singh among them. I think that he too should be ashamed of himself but sadly, I have come to believe that this millionaire socialist has no shame in him.

Hugh Mackenzie.

Hugh Mackenzie has held elected office as a trustee on the Muskoka Board of Education, a Huntsville councillor, a District councillor, and mayor of Huntsville. He has also served as chairman of the District of Muskoka and as chief of staff to former premier of Ontario, Frank Miller.

Hugh has also served on a number of provincial, federal and local boards, including chair of the Ontario Health Disciplines Board, vice-chair of the Ontario Family Health Network, vice-chair of the Ontario Election Finance Commission, and board member of Roy Thomson Hall, the National Theatre School of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada. Locally, he has served as president of the Huntsville Rotary Club, chair of Huntsville District Memorial Hospital, chair of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, president of Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and board member of Community Living Huntsville.

In business, Hugh Mackenzie has a background in radio and newspaper publishing. He was also a founding partner and CEO of Enterprise Canada, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm established in 1986.

Currently, Hugh is president of C3 Digital Media Inc., the parent company of Doppler Online, and he enjoys writing commentary for Huntsville Doppler.

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