It was just over three years ago in Ottawa the new Liberal federal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau heralded its first cabinet, with a first-ever true gender balance symbolizing Canada's commitment to be a model of fairness and equality for all.
Women would hold 15 of the 31 cabinet posts, compared to 12 of 39 under the previous Conservative government.
Gender equality was critically important for Trudeau. And so too was rebuilding the nation's relationship with Indigenous people. To underscore both, Jody Wilson-Raybould, a lawyer and former regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations, was sworn in as attorney general and justice minister. She is the first First Nations citizen to be appointed to those lofty positions.
Fast-forward to today and we have what must be called an incredulous irony. Wilson-Raybould could be the first woman and First Nations citizen of this country to be single-handedly responsible for bringing down a federal government.
Trudeau has to now wonder how his good intentions ever turned to be his ultimate undoing. But that, as every reader knows, is exactly what the beleaguered prime minister faces today, a once promising future turned to disgust for millions of Canadians over the sordid SNC-Lavalin controversy.
It's all shocking stuff and once we get through the stench of it all there is good news most Canadians from coast to coast can fully embrace. Finally, there is a politician in this day and age citizens can truly look up to, one that takes their calling seriously.
While under incredible pressure, Wilson-Raybould did not bend from her professional legal opinion that SNC-Lavalin had to face the music over alleged wrongdoings. She would not yield from repeated protestations that an unfavourable decision would hurt her party's fortunes in Quebec. She was considering what was best for all Canadians from coast to coast. She was determined to do that with moral integrity.
And this proud First Nations woman stood her ground. She said no to the big shots in the Prime Minister's Office, and to Trudeau himself. Their values from what they wanted did not speak to her of what Canada should be, and what it can and always must be.
As this scribbler told a Tory friend the other day, Canada may finally have a hero in the land that is worth emulating and saluting, worth regaling to our friends south of the border who are fed up with Donald Trump, but mostly perhaps, worth telling and inspiring our grandchildren some day.
All of this, however, is sure something Justin Trudeau never imagined for his legacy back at Rideau Hall three years ago.
– Johnnie Bachusky is the editor of the Innisfail Province, a Great West newspaper
