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Roy Green: Justin Trudeau’s dilemma is whether he should call a snap election

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

The political opportunist in Justin Trudeau must be screeching to engineer a snap federal election.

The bruised Trudeau is having none of it.

Opportunist Trudeau views dozens of daily national camera and microphone commanding appearances as a 24-karat opportunity to dispatch the yet again bumbling Conservative Party of Canada to the political sidelines.

Bruised Trudeau, though, remembers too well the brush with electoral disaster a mere seven months ago when, ironically, only the aforementioned Conservative Party of Canada, with its election campaign mode set on permanent amber, rescued this prime minister from relegation to a new career path.

As it is, the Liberals’ split decision victory last Oct. 21 saw them emerge with the lowest national winning popular vote percentage in the history of this nation, trailing the Conservatives in total popular vote numbers.

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What to do?

Count on the Conservatives to continue to torpedo their own lifeboat by indefinitely pausing an already sputtering national party leadership campaign by leaving the exiting Andrew Scheer at the helm to explain to Canadians why the Liberals cannot be trusted?

While the CPC, by the admission of leadership candidate Peter MacKay, has perfected the art of failing to score on an open net, the party surely must recognize the need to formalize its leadership succession whereupon Justin Trudeau will (or perhaps may) be pressed for answers on questions concerning the Liberals’ relationship with the government of China.

The questions are many and pressing. See Global News journalist Sam Cooper’s investigative pieces on Beijing’s acquisition and hoarding of 2.5 billion pieces of international personal protective equipment (PPE), and well before the World Health Organization finally declared COVID-19 pandemic.

Click to play video: 'Report says China hoarded Canadian PPE in early days of COVID-19 outbreak'
Report says China hoarded Canadian PPE in early days of COVID-19 outbreak

Why did Trudeau and the Liberals deliver 16 tonnes of Canada’s limited PPE supply to the regime of China’s President Xi Jinping at a time the WHO was urging governments to consolidate their national supplies?

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Why did Trudeau and the Liberals vigorously resist criticism of Beijing’s delay in informing the global community of the scope of the coronavirus epidemic inside China’s borders?

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Why is the government of Canada-acquired PPE arriving defective and unusable for front-line health-care professionals? Does Ottawa not have this procurement thing worked out yet?

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney informed us on-air just weeks ago that his government offered Alberta’s international procurement expertise to Trudeau’s Liberals. The reply from Ottawa: no thank you.

Why has Justin Trudeau only incrementally and slowly committed to the roll-out of more than $200 billion in deficit spending, albeit financial support for beleaguered Canadians, when fewer big picture announcements would have been far more encouraging, particularly to small business, which employs the majority of working Canadians and is increasingly on the ropes, as Canadian Federation of Independent Business President/CEO Dan Kelly has described weekly on my program?

Might the daily and televised Trudeau miniseries have everything to do with an attempt to rebuild a prime minister’s tattered personal and professional image and record?

So, shall we expect a return to the voting booth prior to the end of the calendar year?

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Likely not. The Conservatives haven’t remade their bed, New Democrats have no appetite to face the electorate after staggering to the Oct. 21, 2019, finish line in fourth place behind the Bloc Québécois, which ran a slate of candidates only in Quebec, and the Greens remain not nearly ready for national prime time.

Roy Green is the host of the Roy Green Show on the Global News Radio network.

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