Wilson-Raybould won't say she wants to see Liberals returned to power
'I would be committed to working with all members of Parliament,' former Trudeau cabinet minister says
Former Liberal cabinet minister Jody Wilson-Raybould would not say today whether she wants to see the Trudeau government re-elected.
"Do I want the Liberals to win the next election?" she said in an interview CBC News Network's Power & Politics on Tuesday. "I want voters to decide the best member of Parliament to represent them in every riding across the country.
"I would be committed to working with all members of Parliament regardless of their political stripe."
Wilson-Raybould, who announced this week she'll run as an Independent in the coming election, said she there are "lessons" to be learned from the course of federal politics since the SNC-Lavalin controversy broke — but she still doesn't regret her actions.
"I regret the place that we're in now and that it had to come to this place," she said. "I don't regret actions that I took ... I think that there are many lessons that can come from the last five months."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expelled Wilson-Raybould and Philpott from the Liberal caucus on April 2, saying trust with the two former cabinet ministers had been irreparably broken as the government worked to beat back allegations that officials inappropriately pressured Wilson-Raybould to intervene in the SNC-Lavalin criminal case.
Soured relations with the two MPs came to a head when Wilson-Raybould released a secretly taped audio recording of a conversation she had with Michael Wernick, who has since retired as clerk of the Privy Council.
Wilson-Raybould said that had the prime minister not kicked her out of caucus, she would still be running as a Liberal candidate in October.
Wilson-Raybould said she still identifies "closely with the ideology of the Liberal Party, in terms of equality and justice and addressing issues of inclusion.
"That's still who I am. I am hopeful that voters will be engaged will be informed and will vote for the individuals that will best represent the significant challenges that we have."
Wilson-Raybould said she doesn't necessarily identify with Conservative ideology, but she rejected the suggestion that running outside the Liberal banner could hurt her former party and help elect the Conservatives.
"I think it is problematic when we consider voting and vote-splitting, or we consider people's votes and putting them into different boxes, or that the vote of a Canadian or Canadians is owned by three parties," she said. "I really want to do everything I can to provide the voters in Vancouver Granville with an option."
Watch the full interview with Jody Wilson-Raybould here:
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