Opinion
Surviving SNC-Lavalin? Parliament Hill or Galilee?
By Ken Grafton August 5, 2019
Even acknowledging the growing difficulty that many people have separating rhetoric from realty in this digital age of post-truth and alternate facts, the Liberals’ continuing rise in the polls seems uncomfortably preternatural.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer. Although Angus Reid still predicts a Conservative win in October (CPC 38 per cent, Liberals 30 per cent), the Liberals are also gaining. The Nanos poll, on the other hand, predicts a Liberal win in October (Liberals 36 per cent, CPC 30 per cent), writes Ken Grafton. The Hill Times photographs by Andrew Meade
WAKEFIELD, QUE.—“Good Lord! Who can account for the fathomless folly of the public,” Rudyard Kipling once famously declared. Recent polls suggest that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has again miraculously managed to walk upon the fetid waters of political scandal. Although Angus Reid still predicts a Conservative win in October (CPC 38 per cent, Liberals 30 per cent), the Liberals are also gaining. The Nanos poll, on the other hand, predicts a Liberal win in October (Liberals 36 per cent, CPC 30 per cent). Divine intervention or desperate crisis management? According to Nanos, women account primarily for the Liberal recovery; most likely because of Trudeau putting the abortion issue on the table and committing $700-million of taxpayer money to women’s health and abortion in developing countries. Ignoring the fact that the two polls forecast opposing election results, which should raise other questions, it remains difficult to rationalize the Liberal gain in the wake of the SNC-Lavalin controversy just four months ago.
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