TORONTO – The post-election Way of the Cross continues for Justin Trudeau and Erin O’Toole. The prime minister in pectore and the leader of the Conservative Party continue to have to deal with the weaknesses and contradictions that have emerged in recent weeks, in view of the swearing-in of the new government on October 26 and the resumption of parliamentary work scheduled for November 22. Today Trudeau visited the Tk’emlúps First Nation, a trip of high symbolic value made to remedy the sensational political gaffe of September 30.
On that date, which coincided with the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation with the Aboriginal peoples, the prime minister had received an invitation from the Tk’emlúps to take part in the ceremonies organized not in Kamloops. The liberal leader, on holiday with his family in the tourist resort of Tofino, declined the invitation, causing a long political controversy that continues to this day. After admitting that he was wrong, in recent days Trudeau had promised that he would soon visit the Tk’emlúps, a promise kept only today.
In any case, the political climate at the federal level is still fiery. The opposition is on a war footing for the institutional roadmap established by the prime minister, which provides for the first session in the House of Commons 63 days after the vote on September 20. A delay judged by the oppositions as unacceptable and which, according to the conservatives and neo-democrats, is part of the overall strategy of compression of the right of oppositions to scrutiny and control of government activity.
Tory leader O’Toole also has to deal with a situation of obvious difficulty. The former Minister for Veterans Affairs, after losing the last election, expressed his willingness to remain at the head of the party and this despite a climate of generalized discontent with him on how the election campaign was conducted and the request, coming from some conservative exponents, to take a step back and resign.
The new problem for O’Toole is represented by the vaccination node. The Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois, backed by the NDP, have called for all MPs to be vaccinated before entering the House of Commons.
The Conservatives have not yet expressed an official position on this, also because – and this is the accusation under the agreement of the other parties – there is still a large group of conservative MPs that are not yet immunized.
There are no official numbers: according to the Canadian Press, only 77 out of 119 Conservative MPs have declared that they have been vaccinated against Covid-19. If the government were to decide by a hard fist, non-immunized deputies would be forced to attend virtual parliamentary sessions, with serious damage to O’Toole’s image. “He wanted to govern the country, when he is not even able to govern his own party” is the meaning of the accusations made against him, who preferred not to intervene on the issue.
