Gerry Butts
Gerald Butts on the election so far: ‘A tie game with a lot of hockey left to play’
Justin Trudeau’s former principal secretary talks to Shannon Proudfoot about why the Liberals ran into trouble, what the early polls missed, and how Canada sees Trudeau
The Prince of Lightness returns
Andrew MacDougall: The return of Gerry Butts offers a hint at the tone of the Liberal offer in 2019: a return to positivity. Tories beware.
Bring back Gerry Butts
Andrew MacDougall: Why did the PM’s ex-principal secretary go, while others are allowed to stay? Either nobody did anything wrong, or everybody did.
It’s time for Justin Trudeau to put his cards on the table
Andrew MacDougall: Until everyone involved in the scandal testifies—not just Gerry Butts—this looks like a cover-up, not a transparent process
In Trudeau’s PMO, what exactly is a principal secretary?
The job of principal secretary is a flexible one in Canadian politics, and the PM’s old friend Gerry Butts played it in an unusually visible and vocal way
Butts is gone, but #LavScam rolls on
Andrew MacDougall: The Liberals might be hoping Gerry Butts will be the firebreak between them and the SNC-Lavalin scandal. It’s wishful thinking.
Gerald Butts: If thy right hand offend thee, pluck it out
Paul Wells: The Prime Minister will now have to find out if he can work without Butts. In a crisis, in an election year. The timing isn’t great.
The hole that Gerry Butts leaves behind
Stephen Maher: The second act of l’affaire SNC-Lavalin could be devastating for Trudeau, and it’s not clear he’ll be better off without his trusted advisor
Are these the ‘answers’ of a Prime Minister who’s done nothing wrong?
Andrew MacDougall: Sloppy misdirection, anonymous hit jobs. The response to the Lavalin affair shows a PMO that’s scrambling and caught.
The incredible miscalculation by Trudeau and co.
Stephen Maher: Trudeau and his inner circle turned a completely manageable concern into a scandal. And one of them will need to take the fall.
In the Trudeau government, what’s a cabinet shuffle for?
Paul Wells: Like the shuffle before it, today’s won’t change anything about a government that’s chronically stage-managed by a tiny cadre of staffers
When Trudeau called Trump: The story of the call that saved NAFTA
Was it normal diplomatic scheduling that led to Trudeau dissuading Trump from trashing NAFTA? Or was it all Jared Kushner’s doing?