Secret recording by Jody Wilson-Raybould threatens to derail Trudeau’s prime ministership even further

Australian Prime Minister

scott Morrison

is not the only embattled leader of a Commonwealth country who tries to use

Budget Day

to regain the political initiative particularly ahead of federal elections. Just recently, embattled Canadian Prime Minister

justin trudeau

whose government is embroiled in a unexpected and certainly untimely

major corruption scandal

went down a similar road, producing a

Federal Budget

which went far beyond any other pre-election budget, clearly signaling that the government was hoping to change the political narrative coming out of

Ottawa

just 7 months away from a general election. Prior to the breaking of the scandal which now causes the government such political headaches, most political observers believed that Trudeau was on-route to win a second term later this year; this certainty has vanished, and daring predictions are largely absent from political discourse at present.

If there was any hope that the political strategy employed by the government would work, recent events have dealt the Prime Minister another serious blow, making it even harder for him to overcome his political woes ahead of polling day. The

release

of a secret audio-recording by former Attorney General

Jody Wilson-Raybould

will reinforce the negative perceptions Canadians already have regarding the inner-workings of their federal government and may compromise if not derail the entire government strategy to change the nature of the political debate before the elections. If, and I think this is still unlikely, Trudeau will be undone politically in a few months time, this audio-recording will be seen as the beginning of the end of his prime ministership. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to this, since the Liberal government deserves better than this, and Canadians surely deserve better than a return to Conservative rule after only one term of progressive politics in the country. Whatever happens, if the government falls later this year, Trudeau and his team have only themselves to blame.

More on this blog on Canada and Australia can be found

here

and

here.