Easy to Dislike Government

...at all levels.

Whether it's the B.C. Legislature's scandalous and fraudulent misdeeds by senior bureaucrats, or the current foibles of Justin Trudeau's Liberal government in Ottawa, many people have "had enough", and simply tune it out.

But there's a fellow named John Feldsted in Winnipeg Manitoba who refused to do that.  He's a political consultant and strategist, and his email was forwarded to me today by an acquaintance.

Here's John's take on the current situation in Ottawa.

"Questions for and about Gerald Butts 

Mr. Butts’ presentation to the Commons Justice Committee was predictable, pedestrian and useless. His point was that the 9,000 Canadian SNC-Lavalin workers had a ‘right’ to expect the federal government to act to protect their jobs.

Mr. Butts commentary in respect to Ms Wilson-Raybould was arrogant, inappropriate and insulting. She made a detailed, factual presentation with appropriate evidence and was entirely credible. She was under no illusions respecting events.

Mr. Butts is an employee of the PMO; Mr. Trudeau is the decision maker. Mr. Butts cannot answer for the government and is not accountable to the electorate. One has to wonder why he was interviewed. 

The attempt to showcase Mr. Butts and Ms Wilson-Raybould on an equal plane is preposterous. Mr. Butts and Mr. Wernick are employees on a different strata than Ms Wilson-Raybould. At best they can carry messages to the Attorney General’s chief of staff, but direct contact with a Minister is inappropriate. It seems that rules of protocol do not apply to Butts and Wernick which is why the PMO is in the mess it is in. Minions have exceeded their authority or been given authority they should not have. 

         

Where were Butts, Trudeau and Wernick when 12,000 Sears Canada employees lost their jobs in the fall of 2017, were denied severance pay and were left without pensions they had contributed to, sometimes for decades?

Why has the government not acted to protect workers by preventing a recurrence? 

Where were they when the oil patch was shedding tens of thousands of jobs? No one in the oil patch was under criminal investigation or criminal prosecution.

Five times the number of SNC-Lavalin workers lost employment. The ‘protecting jobs’ scam is dead on arrival. We are not all fools.

    

Why did Butts and Trudeau, aided by Morneau enact legislation aimed specifically at allowing SNC-Lavalin to escape criminal prosecution? Are there deals in the works that we do not know about yet?

      

We want to know with certainty that we are all treated equally by our government and that there are no favourites when our jobs and livelihoods are at risk.

We are tired of the snow jobs, hair-splitting and claims that telling the Attorney General over and over that she should consider alternatives to prosecution is not “pressure”. Butts’ comment that Ms Wilson-Raybould did not put her decision is writing is ridiculous. The Attorney General is required to publish her decision if she intervenes in a prosecution. Lack of publication is a declaration of intent.

Mr. Butts is casting aspersions that will be misunderstood by those unfamiliar with the Attorney General’s duties and responsibilities. The comment is poisonous, unfair, deliberately misleading and business as usual for this government.

  

Millions of Canadians who take responsibility for their actions know better. Most of us have been pressured to cut corners or otherwise compromise our principles at work or in social settings. It is infuriating that the miscreants applying pressure manage to evade sanction most of the time. 

Claiming an obligation to save some jobs while ignoring others is a weak position; a sign of desperation. Avoiding clear, truthful answers and befogging SNC-Lavalin issues with nonsense from unaccountable minions is not working. The stench of cronyism is too strong to make Butts believable.   

John Feldsted"

"No wonder most of us tune out anything to do with government," Kia would've said.

Yes, it's easy to dislike government.

This isn't the way we raise our children.

Governments are terrible role models.