Trudeau's Double Rise: The Oven's Warming

 Following up on the earlier post: Trudeau Toast or Toasty? Canada Readies Extradition Of Huawei's Exec  Lots of speculation suggesting Trudeau is toast.- But, he's not going to crumble that easily.Punched down, but, ready to rise to ever greater heights. Trudeau's appeal has not soured.In fact it's ready to ripen.. The oven's warm.  It sure smells as if  the PR is being baked to perfection. Ottawa Citizen

The government has a three-pronged strategy for dealing with the Wilson-Raybould saga: Repeat slogans, rush out a barrage of announcements – and unleash the hounds

Jody Wilson Rayboud

At Friday’s mini-cabinet shuffle – the one sparked by the resignation of Jody Wilson-Raybould from her brief role as Veterans Affairs minister – no one looked more pleased  Maryam Monsef. Demoted as democratic institutions minister in 2017 over the electoral-reform flop, she now finds herself promoted again. She retains her current portfolio as minister of gender equality but adds International Development to her résumé.

 The message to ministers and MPs – in case they somehow missed it – was: If you play ball after a cabinet demotion, you might yet rise again. Wilson-Raybould did the opposite, refusing to glide graciously from Justice to Veterans; instead, she quit cabinet. If she had just taken her lumps, maybe one day she’d be back with the cool kids again. Like Monsef.

I'm ignoring Ottawa Citizen's suggestion that Monsef has credentials at all- She's been long groomed by the Liberals. Going way back to her run for mayor of Peterborough.....Keep reading so we can break bread on the Monsef saga

Maryam Monsef  Maryam Monsef "is also fully capable, like her fellow Friday cabinet appointees – Marie-Claude Bibeau and Lawrence MacAulay – of delivering choreographed government messaging on the Wilson-Raybould affair."At the microphone after their swearing-in, all three ministers deflected questions about Wilson-Raybould, instead repeating the Grit policy agenda: improving the lot of the poor, fighting climate change, strengthening the middle class. Caucus is focused on these vital issues, they insisted, having memorized their talking points well.

At the microphone after their swearing-in, all three ministers deflected questions about Wilson-Raybould, instead repeating the Grit policy agenda.

We can expect more such parroting of the government’s action plan, but the Wilson-Raybould strategy also has two other parts. First, unveil a barrage of fresh announcements – Canada’s going to the moon! We’re tabling legislation to pardon people for pot possession! We introduced a game-changing bill to protect Indigenous children!

And second, unleash the hounds.

To that end, the Justice Committee has invited Gerald Butts, Justin Trudeau’s former top aide, to appear, and re-invited Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick. Butts, a formidable debater, will deliver a no-holds-barred defence of any actions he was involved in. Wernick? We’ve already seen his blunt style at work.

Not invited is Wilson-Raybould’s former chief of staff, Jessica Prince, who would presumably support her ex-boss’s perspective. At the moment, it’s a Liberal-chosen group of invitees.

 Will Canadians realize that these two women are not the same people? Not at a quick glance.. With yeasty glazed donuts jammed in their faces at the local Timmies.

Trudeau- Walking Bread?

Strategists weigh in on SNC-Lavalin affair: ‘I don’t think public opinion is set on this’

So what of the Liberal fortunes? “I don’t know how the story goes away for a long time,” says Penny Collenette, a former Liberal organizer and law professor at the University of Ottawa. “I think people really want the truth. If there’s two truths, then Canadians are smart. They’ll figure it out. They’ll decide. Everybody needs to know what happened and what went on.”For her part, Collenette called Wilson-Raybould’s testimony “very credible, very honest. The detail is what made her very believable.”

But any notions that Wilson-Raybould’s political flame throwing could bring down the government are dramatically premature, political watchers agree.

“Prime ministers are very resilient people, believe me,” said Collenette. Wilson-Raybould “has said she wants to remain. And if the tent is large enough to keep her there, that would be terrific.” One-off incidents like this typically don’t have enough oxygen to support sustained public outrage required to topple a government, said Watt.

“You have to have a pattern. Will it reduce the majority? Almost certainly. And if this becomes a pattern or triggers a series of leaks and brown envelopes, that’s much more problematic. That’s when you’ve got a problem.”

Monsef-  Monsef is or should be considered an embarrassment. The Liberals should be more ashamed of her promotion then of Wilson-Rayboud's testimony. Rayboud was honest. Monsef hasn't been close to honest. Ever. The Monsef problem  got swept under the rug right quick because the Trudeau Liberals had a plan for her... She was groomed. Like any good show dog. Or race horse. That's just the fact of it.Touted by both Trudeau and Obama. What are the odds? Think about it?Her story was brought to my attention by a Peterborough resident... She was not at all what she seemed. Though she was a twitter star....promoted by the 5 eyes media (Much like the Arab Spring myth)Heralded as Canada's first Afghan-born MP, Maryam Monsef shocked to discover truth of roots

"the Liberals have championed as this country's first Afghan-born MP, says she was actually born and lived most of her early life in Iran"This revelation contradicts a key narrative that Ms. Monsef has built ever since she entered public life as a local politician in Peterborough, Ont., and when she ran for Parliament in the 2015 election. When U.S. President Barack Obama was in Ottawa in June, he highlighted her Afghan roots in an address to Parliament.The Prime Minister's Office said it had no idea that such a fundamental feature of Ms. Monsef's life story was wrong. Officials scrambled to put together a detailed timeline of her family's life in Iran and Afghanistan and the journey to Canada.When asked why security vetting for cabinet posts didn't uncover this error, an official said "we learned of this information about Maryam Monsef's place of birth when it was brought to us recently by the The Globe and Mail."

For years, Ms. Monsef's mother allowed her daughter to misrepresent her birthplace as she built a political base in Peterborough, including a failed run for mayor in 2014 and her successful win in last year's general election. Her mother was in the House of Commons in January when Ms. Monsef delivered her maiden speech in which she spoke about being born in "a place at war, where human rights were not respected, where educating women was not allowed."

Abdul Samad Monsefzadeh, a trader in car parts who was killed between the Afghan-Iran border in January, 1988 in a raid by either bandits or Soviet troops.

Her father was a "trader in car parts"? In 1988. Killed by either bandits or Soviet troops. Think about the area and what was going on at that time..... I have very big doubts her father was a trader of car parts...Just my feeling. But her story doesn't add up. In fact it's highly dubious.

On the 1982 wedding of her mother to her father in Herat, against the backdrop of the then-recent Soviet invasion..

"He is caught in a crossfire across the border and he's killed.

Suuuuure!National Post Thunderbird Rising- Lloyd Fournier- [Did She (Monsef) and Family Obtain Citizenship Status by Fraud???]Maryam Monsef's Reform Process Lies and Demotion

• Monsef lying about the electoral reform process and demoted

Appearing before reporters after Tuesday's cabinet shuffle in Ottawa, Maryam Monsef was asked whether she had been "demoted." "I will leave that for you to decide"

It is unquestionably the case that Maryam Monsef is no longer responsible for fronting the Liberal commitment to electoral reform.

Sending her to the backbench might have only confirmed every criticism of the past year, but keeping her in cabinet also suggests she is not considered a lost cause.

• Maryam Monsef Tries To Use Math Formula To Mock Electoral Reform Committee

 The committee recommended that the Trudeau government design a proportional voting system and hold a national referendum to determine support from Canadians. Liberal MPs on the 12-member group, however, urged the government not to change the voting system in time for the next election so that more Canadians can be consulted.

Conservatives pressed Monsef in the House of Commons to commit to holding a referendum before any changes are made to the voting system.

New Democrats urged her to implementthe committee’s recommendations to move beyond the first-past-the-post system to one that is proportional. 

 In response, Monsef bemoaned that the group failed to provide a “specific” alternative system.