Yes, the polls are catastrophic for him, but he has been living on borrowed time for several weeks now… Worse still, the House of Commons is paralyzed by the Conservatives, who are happily engaging in systematic blocking. Result: no file advances, no issue evolves, and ideas stagnate like an old forgotten coffee. Meanwhile, the Bloc have promised to vote for the dissolution of the House at the first opportunity, while the NDP is hiding, for lack of position or convictions (or both).
Humiliation
Going into elections on a motion of no confidence, symbolically, is not exactly the same as voluntarily submitting to popular opinion. In the second case, we could even speak of bravery, like a “last act of heroic courage”.
This could also prevent the government from having to wait until the tabling of yet another deficit budget before leaving the scene through the back door, not only chased out by the opposition parties, but also head down, adorned with a whole new label : “repeat deficit creators”.
Ball
Because the challenge is big: Mme Freeland, the finance minister, will have to prepare a budget that she knows in advance is doomed to failure. Of course, it will be electoral, but it also risks revealing the financial hole in which we find ourselves collectively. Imagine: the Liberals would find themselves in the campaign with, from day 1, this reminder that they themselves turned public finances bright red. What better slogan?
Why submit to such a painful, strategically suicidal and tactically useless political exercise? The next budget will undoubtedly be a heavy burden to drag around. Why, exactly, insist on tying it up before launching into the electoral sprint?
So, while betting everything on a poker game, Justin Trudeau should rely on his main strength… which is, let’s say it, not the management of public finances, but rather that of leading a campaign electoral.
