“Unlike Trump, Trudeau Is In Real Trouble” reads the headline for an article regarding the SNC Lavalin affair: https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBUcBch?m=en-ca&referrerID=InAppShare

Whatever the outcome for Prime Minister Trudeau and the Liberal government, there is one overlooked fundamental: the nature of government and the exercise of political power.

The criminal trial of “SNC” was a civilized action to resolve a serious problem. The means is an established justice system. This is part of what is expected of a proper government.

Unfortunately, the justice system exists within a political structure of the welfare state, where lobbying by competing interests is a dominant feature.

The pressures to influence former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould did not occur in a vacuum. The entire apparatus of the modern mixed economy and welfare state is a political power structure. The kind of influencing claimed by Wilson-Raybould undoubtedly occurs every day in every level of government to some significant degree.

The objective of the attempt to influence the Attorney General was to maintain and expand political power for the Liberal government, a government concerned about the political and economic consequences of a ruling against the Quebec-based SNC Lavalin.

That was quite clear from the content of Raybould’s statement and in particular her naming of eleven individuals involved over a prolonged period. The pressures included “veiled threats,” she stated.

This is politics as usual in a welfare state. To meet the competing demands of special interest groups requires coercion, that is, raw force backed ultimately by a gun. The same force is behind the looting of resources from all productive members of the society.

Solving the problems of a proper government are not even secondary. They are not on the radar.

The only priority is maintaining and expanding power.

Edward’s Post