The Prime Minister and the PMO - 2019

[Rifleman62]

Butts is possibly just getting ahead of a JWR statement to be delivered to the public very shortly.

https://army.ca/forums/threads/129826/post-1562379/topicseen.html#new  Are these the ‘answers’ of a Prime Minister who’s done nothing wrong?


JWR may be the only person in the Liberal Gov't, including NDHQ, who took notes during/post meetings. ;D

 

[Fishbone Jones]

I'm waiting for the PM to stand up and start answering his own questions, instead of what Butts dictates to him. Given his gaffes from written instructions, it should be pretty comical watching him try handle things with his own brain, off the cuff. Mind, Telford is still around and Butts has been taking her heat. Now the scope gets trained on her, directly, for a change.

There's little doubt in my mind, Butts will still have the strings, unofficially or not.

 

[Cloud Cover]

I wonder to which country he will be named ambassador.

 

[Remius]

I wonder to which country he will be named ambassador.

Narnia.

 

[Rifleman62]

Pending: Gerald Butts to be named as Canada's new Ambassador to China. ;D

Is that far enough away to make testifying difficult? There is a vacancy for this post.

This is all Scott Brison's fault for resigning.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Let send him to Cuba, so the aliens can fry his brain as well.

 

[Remius]

Venezuela?

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Butts operates with NVGs. Public light to him is like sunlight to a vampire. He'll continue operating behind the scenes, just not in an official capacity as the PMs secretary. This gives him free reign to play with the election. This guy is not going to go quietly into the good night.


Just idle speculation.

 

[OldSolduer]

I wonder to which country he will be named ambassador.

Afghanistan I hope.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Anybody else starting to think that Robert Fife has some sort of superpower to take down governments?

Not bad for a member of what some consider the fake news, bought by Liberal bribe money MSM

Pending: Gerald Butts to be named as Canada's new Ambassador to China.

Interesting tidbit -- any links for that?  I'm not seeing it yet @ the "usual suspect" sites.  Thx!

For what little it's worth, and if you're a tea leaf reader, GB's letter of resignation is attached (source).

 

[Monsoon]

Pending: Gerald Butts to be named as Canada's new Ambassador to China. ;D

Close, but I suspect perhaps something more like: https://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2017/06/27/prime-minister-announces-new-ambassador-climate-change

 

[Jarnhamar]

Romans fell on their swords.  Samurai sliced their stomachs open from left to right.

Exactly. So why would a samurai fall on their sword? Clearly things aren't what they seem 


My guess is the truth is coming out shortly and he's distancing himself. I wonder if he will take the somber 'I made a mistake this is all on me I brought discredit' route , or,  some kind of 'I have a mental ilness/problem I'm seeking help' victim line.

 

[Remius]

One of the pundits yesterday surmised that it would unshackle him and allow him to say more than if he stayed on as principle secretary.  Basically allowing him to better defend himself once JWR says what she has to say. 

 

[Journeyman]

Or...… PMJT's ratings slide points to not being re-elected;  Butts, being free to defend his 'unfairly sullied reputation,' can come back to Ottawa unscathed to continue running the Liberal party from behind the curtains.

        :Tin-Foil-Hat:     

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Or...… PMJT's ratings slide points to not being re-elected;  Butts, being free to defend his 'unfairly sullied reputation,' can come back to Ottawa unscathed to continue running the Liberal party from behind the curtains.

        :Tin-Foil-Hat:     

I think both Butts and even PMJT might be finished in the Liberal Party. This next week will the tale as the internal polls start to hit home and Liberal MPs/party bigwigs begin a game of sauve qui peut.

My assessment is that Butts made no friends amongst the sitting Liberal members of Parliament and therefore, has no allies. This directly calls into question the judgement and wisdom of the PM. It all depends now on what JWR has to say, when she speaks.

 

[Lumber]

The laymen have no damn what the "senior parliamentary secretary" is or does, let alone who Gerald Butts is. Only those actually interested in politics will actually give two whiffs about Gerald Butts.

Quebec will appreciate the PM trying to do a solid for Quebec, and continue to vote LPC.

The maritimes will kowtow, and vote LPC.

Ontario will be split. Some will care enough about this "scandal" to switch to voting CPC. Some will care about the scandal, but not enough to switch their votes. Finally, another, probably larger group, will not care at all and continue to vote LPC.

The prairies will continue to vote CPC.

BC may see a loss for the LPC, but likely it will go to the NDP.

So, some sliding for the LPC, possibly even a minority government if the NDP make enough gains in BC and the CPC make more gains than expected in Ontario, but overall the PM stays the PM.

 

[Rifleman62]

Reading comments to articles from multiple media sources, it appears Butts is friendless.

Question Period should be interesting today on CPAC. Trudeau should show up today, but you never know if he will have hastily arranged meeting at some high school or college. If Trudeau does turn up, his replies (not answers)will be scripted, if he replies at all.

Got a feeling that JWR has by now been advised by her lawyer what she can state publicly, the Liberals know whats coming , and Butts resigned to get ahead of her presser which I expect to be very shortly.

Butts will probably still be around, unless there is a RCMP investigation, paid by the LPC.

Who is going to pay for his severance/moving costs? Amt? Remember his costs to move to Ottawa, some of which he had to pay back.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/butts-telford-moving-expenses-1.3774979

 

[Remius]

The laymen have no damn what the "senior parliamentary secretary" is or does, let alone who Gerald Butts is. Only those actually interested in politics will actually give two whiffs about Gerald Butts.

Quebec will appreciate the PM trying to do a solid for Quebec, and continue to vote LPC.

The maritimes will kowtow, and vote LPC.

Ontario will be split. Some will care enough about this "scandal" to switch to voting CPC. Some will care about the scandal, but not enough to switch their votes. Finally, another, probably larger group, will not care at all and continue to vote LPC.

The prairies will continue to vote CPC.

BC may see a loss for the LPC, but likely it will go to the NDP.

So, some sliding for the LPC, possibly even a minority government if the NDP make enough gains in BC and the CPC make more gains than expected in Ontario, but overall the PM stays the PM.

Possibly.  But how did that work out for Stephen Harper when they managed the whole Duffy affair and his COS allegedly making a pay off?  most Canadians had no idea what the PM's COS did or who he was really.  But that scandal dogged them up until the election.

Canadians don't need to know who Gerald Butts is or what his job was.  They just need to be convinced that sunny ways was a lie and doing politics differently for PMJT is the same way as doing politics for Stephen Harper.  They just need to know that something bad was done and that JT isn't the knight in shining armour he pretends to be.  Three key resignations in a month with more to come I bet and a trial no one really cared about (Adm Normand now seemingly way more important in the grand context that will coincide with the election. 

I'm a centrist Lumber.  My vote can go either way and the Liberals are giving me every reason to lean away from them.  And I'm not the only one.

 

[Kirkhill]

Another possibility is that people who were activated in the last election decide "Oh, screw it! Where's my beer?"

They then join the increasing number of the disengaged and leave politics to the partisans.  And develop an attitude seen in a number of "mature" societies of letting the politicians make whatever laws they like and cheerfully ignoring them.

It just doesn't matter.

And by the way, on JWR, I think that the best thing JWR can do is continue to say nothing if she wants to bring the greatest harm to Trudeau.  The longer she stays quiet, and the more speculation there is, the worse it is for Trudeau and Telford.  Before long Trudeau will be begging her to speak - if only to give him a solid target to punch.

 

[TCM621]

They just need to be convinced that sunny ways was a lie and doing politics differently for PMJT is the same way as doing politics for Stephen Harper. 

Or more accurately, it was the exact same Liberal Party BS that got Harper elected in the first place. Harper's government only really strayed into scandal towards the end and it was pretty tame stuff really. Duffy is a pretty good comparison because, although he acted unethically, Duffy never really broke any rules and/or laws.  By having his COS pay, whether directed, hinted or on his own accord, Harper didn't break any rules either. However, it was handled poorly which was the real problem. If they had come out and said straight up said Wright had loaned Duffy the money, it would have gone away quickly. The same for the Liberals, if they had just said, "We asked her if there was anything she could do, she said no." Problem would have gone away in a week.

However, this is multiple ethics scandals/violations all poorly handled in less than 1 mandate. Almost all of Trudeau's issue have pointed to either naivety/stupidity/or complete disregard for rules. With a couple exceptions, most of Harper's issues were policies people disagreed with, typical "hidden agenda" BS or people with terrible personalities like Julian Fantino.