On Parliament Hill

Justin Trudeau wants an election so bad he just can’t keep it to himself.

As recently as last week, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told CBC’s Power and Politics that Trudeau reportedly told him in a phone call that he was planning for a spring election.

This is not the first time the Prime Minister has let the cat out of the bag.

Back in December, he reportedly told the Liberal Party’s National Board of Directors that “it looks like” the election will happen in the spring.

In January, he more publicly teased the possibility of an election on a Montreal radio station.

The Liberals’ shameless attacks on firearms owners and billions pledged to public transport and electric cars are transparent love letters to Trudeau’s largely eastern, urban base, and the looming spring budget – an easy election starting gun if ever there was one – all point to a spring election.

As former NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, recently, wrote in the Montreal Gazette:

“Anyone who entertained doubts that Justin Trudeau is doing everything he can to clear the runway for a spring election only had to look at events of last week to understand that he’s going to go to the polls as soon as he decently can. From gun control to language rights, Team Trudeau has been checking the boxes on unfulfilled promises and making new ones on the pandemic front.”

Then there was a recent cryptic Tweet by Trudeau confidant Gerald Butts – who resigned over the SNC Lavalin scandal but has remained in the PM’s inner circle – stating that concerns over the Liberals (botched) vaccine rollout “is going to seem like a distant and transparently partisan artifact by the May 24 weekend, if not Easter”.

Given that the consequences of Justin Trudeau’s short-sighted decisions (and his government’s incompetent execution thereof) will soon come to bear, I can’t blame Justin Trudeau for wanting to go to the polls.

What I do blame him for is playing political games while (on his watch) Canadians have been rocked by a year of unprecedented hardships. While Justin Trudeau plays partisan games, Canada’s Conservatives are focussed on the needs of Canadians.

Justin Trudeau may think he holds all the cards but he should not be under any illusion of an easy victory. He has a long track record of self-inflicted wounds, the worst economic record of any G7 country, and he can be assured that if he calls a snap election, Canada’s Conservatives will be ready – and we plan to win.