A different take...

My younger daughter and I commute to and from downtown together every day, and lately many of our conversations have been about politics.

Yesterday, I told her what I thought about Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott remaining Liberals in the wake of all that's happened. I was surprised that she a had a completely different take, and it's shifted my perspective some.

My daughter doesn't believe these two MPs should be chased from their chosen vocation by men in authority trying to push them around. She believes that they showed their principles and integrity when they resigned their cabinet posts and elected to sit as backbenchers on the basis of their convictions.

She believes that if they had quit the Liberal Party, despite identifying with the tenets of their policies, they would be depriving their constituents of the representation they deserve, and undermining their own futures.

She believes this scandal will pass, and should these women remove themselves from the Liberal Party at this stage, they would have no standing going forward. By forcing Trudeau to either put up with them, or kick them out, they have asserted their voices as moral compasses of the team, and despite some lingering animosity in the short-term, the party will need to renew, and it's people like Wilson-Raybould and Philpott with their positive images, and their moral fortitude that will be the force to drive that change. If they leave now, they lose out on that opportunity and it won't come around again.

My daughter believes that by persevering in what must be a very uncomfortable environment, these woman are forcing a mouldering party to take stock. Every Liberal MP will at some point, face a reckoning about the events of the past few months, and will be forced to stand with the status quo, or step away. Whether the Liberals get re-elected or not, the behaviour of individuals during this time will matter - if only as part of the historical record. Honour matters.

So, despite my own concerns about Wilson-Raybould and Philpott appearing to try to serve two masters, I see where perhaps the only masters they are trying to serve are their own consciences.

canadianna

Team players

Paul Wells' interview with Jane Philpott left me with the same feeling as Jody Wilson-Raybould's statement to her constituents. Nice sentiments, but conflicting.

Put in terms of a personal relationship, since this scandal broke, the behaviour of the PM and his closest people, toward Jody Wilson-Raybould (and frankly, many other women in his sphere) parallels an abusive partnership. I don't think it's a stretch.

• there's denial (haven't a clue what she's talking about - didn't happen at all)
• incredulity (I didn't realize - if only she had told us how she felt)
• rationalization (only happened because Scott Brison resigned)
• minimizing the problem (20 times over four months? That's nothing)
• calling the accuser a liar (the people accused are too good to have done what she said)
• blaming the accuser (she could have said 'no' and if it really happened, she would have quit)
• resentment about going public (we're like family, this should have been handled internally)
• suggesting the accuser had ulterior motives for her accusations (didn't want to lose her dream job)
• promises to be better (this is a learning experience)
• shutting down the conversation (we've heard as much as we need to hear. It's over)

All of the above behaviours are how abusers manipulate their accusers. People use the term gaslighting far too loosely these days, but when you look at the consistent efforts of the Liberals to discredit the accuser and shut her down, I think it applies here. Just because Wilson-Raybould hasn't backed down, doesn't mean that isn't the goal of the efforts.The mastery of the Liberal at the techniques of abusive partners is really quite astonishing.

It makes me wonder how anyone who has been on the receiving end of this sort of behaviour can continue to be around, and more suprising -- to represent the brand that is inflicting it on them.

I can't imagine still stumping for a team I felt was cheating, or manipulating or interfering -- and yet these women are. Why? One bad apple does spoil the lot if it's not purged. It hasn't been - and worse, every effort is being made to sustain the status quo and to undermine the testimony, opinions and public statements of these women. Why are they still willing to play on the team? Especially when both women contend that we only know part of the wrongdoing -- that there's more (and, my inference) worse to be heard.

None of this makes sense to me. The political interference part, I could forgive on a personal level. The people surrounding the PMO felt they were doing the right thing, maybe didn't feel they were crossing a line -- okay -- let's give them that -- but everything they've said and done since this became public has been done with the aim of maligning Wilson-Raybould, and now Philpott by extension. On a personal level, how do you just shrug off the ongoing campaign to shut you up and to paint you as hysterical and vindictive?

I don't get it. Most of Liberal team has backed Trudeau on this one. I don't know how these women can reconcile their decision to stay on that team.

canadianna

Fizzle

So, I guess it's pretty much over. It's hard to sustain outrage without coming off as unhinged.

Much as the Conservatives were right to be outraged during AdScam, their reactions to the scandal hurt their leader and their brand, causing the then, unknown entity of Stephen Harper, to be labeled 'angry' -- a perception that stuck amongst a lot of average Canadians.

They're facing the same dilemma here. Some of their strongest and most talented voices are going to be painted in a negative light. Doesn't matter if they are justified. It only matters how it's framed.

Again, I believe Jody Wilson-Raybould, but her silence right now is a little eerie. She's letting the opposition parties do the dirty work of stirring things up on her behalf. Maybe she feels there's little else she can do, but after the show by the Liberals at the Justice Committee, wouldn't she feel even more indignant about their response, and have some sort of response herself? I don't believe she's just saving it all up. I don't know what to think anymore... but whatever momentum there was to find the truth, it's waning.

Justin Trudeau now says he's looking forward to working with both Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott in the future, so it would appear that bygones are bygones as far as he's concerned -- and the messaging Wilson-Raybould sent out to her constituents? I guess that just means she's satisfied for injustice to be done.

Between the breezy way the Liberals have effectively shrugged away this scandal, and the idea of the upcoming election being based more on identity politics, I think a lot of us are bracing ourselves for the prediction made last year by Justin Trudeau, that this campaign will be the nastiest in history.

I'm not looking forward to it.

The 'us' against 'them' rhetoric has already started, aided in part by the timing of Friday's terrorist attack on the mosque in New Zealand.

What better way to respond to a tragedy than to exploit it.

And then there's that sly way the Liberals have of just dodging anything unpleasant. The Mike Duffy scandal lasted forever -- and it was a true 'nothingburger'. It was a drop in the bucket compared to what governments of all stripes waste, daily -- and the scandal was that someone felt obligated to give it back??????

All of this is why people tune out of politics. You give up half your paycheque to pay for it all, and for what? For a budget that makes promises it won't keep, or if it does keep them, will bankrupt us and where a good half of us are too young, too old or too something to benefit from any of the largess if it ever found its way to where it's supposed to go anyway.

Maybe this is what they all want. Exasperate us to the point where we just turn off the tv, close twitter, and walk away.

canadianna

It matters where it happens

For all those conservatives bleating on Twitter, how the mainstream media, politicians etc. have made a big deal over the New Zealand mosque terror attacks, and have not shown similar emotion for Christians slaughtered in Nigeria -- you already know the reason.

Whenever anything horrible happens in a western democracy, we watch, we weep, we grieve alongside -- because we see ourselves there. It doesn't matter the race or religion of the victims or the perpetrators, we are the same society. Things like that shouldn't happen here, because we deem our world, the 1st world, to be civilized. When terror strikes in our 'peaceful' nations, it strikes us in a way that brings the devastation home, even if it happened across the world.

It isn't that deaths in Nigeria don't matter, or that Christians matter less that Muslims, and no sane, rational person would ever suggest such. But terrorism, brutality and all manner of violent racism, religious persecution and inhuman treatment of 'the other' is still the norm in countries and regions where society still has a mindset of the ancients. We expect no better. There is no shock in its occurrence. These people share our world, but the expectation of civilization does not exist from us, for them.

If you live in and function as part of a modern society, we expect that regardless of who you are, your race, your religion, your country of origin -- you will not take up arms against your fellow citizens based on their race or religion -- it's that simple.

For people to try to make this a big deal of who gets the most outrage for their victimhood -- shut up. You know better.

canadianna