The Insiders: Looking back on India and ahead to the budget

It was a busy week in international politics as Justin Trudeau made headlines with his trip to India, but it was also a busy week in domestic politics, with the 2018 budget set to be released on Tuesday.

To help put these events into perspective, we asked our expert political panel, the Insiders, to weigh in.

Question: The prime minister's trip to India was supposed to be a trade mission, and yet it made headlines around the world for entirely different reasons. How did this play out and what impact do you think it has as the Liberals look ahead?

David Herle: I don't know that it has lasting impact. I sort of divide the trip into two components, one of which is the pre-Atwal situation and post. Pre, people ... criticized what he was wearing. I think that there was a little bit of a pile-on on that part of the trip. The thing took a turn the other day with the convicted Sikh man that was invited and was seen photographed with the prime minister's people. That's just sort of an inexplicable error.

Kathleen Monk: International travel for prime ministers and elected officials are high-risk, but they can also be high-reward. We've seen different prime ministers over the decades approach these trips differently. It's the first time this prime minister has suffered from some really bad international press. I think, frankly, coming back to Ottawa and going into budget week next week I think is going to be a welcome relief for this prime minister and his communications team.

Jamie Watt: It reminds me of the old adage about the faults of your strengths and I'm wondering if something is at play here. It's a little early to say, but all of a sudden all of the things that Trudeau not only got a free pass on but worked well for him, are now causing him problems. And all the things that would have been just swept aside are all of a sudden starting to cause problems. One wonders if what has been Teflon is turning into Velcro and these things are actually beginning to attach to him.

Question: The statement from the budget seems to be that this is going to be a gender-analysis budget, that they will make inroads on parity and equality. What do you make of that?

Kathleen Monk: First, I think before they need to get to those specific policies, they also have to do three other things. They have to grapple with the uncertainty this government is facing surrounding NAFTA, around the tax changes in the U.S. and how they might affect us here in Canada. They also have to grapple with growing inequality in the country and people feeling a bit more uncertain about their futures. They also have to check a lot of boxes, they have to get that 'deliverology' stuff right. Thirdly, they really have to manage the communications rollout to avoid the blowback they've had on other policy rollouts.

Jamie Watt: The extent that something has been telegraphed with this budget, it's a pretty thin gruel. That's not to say that some of these issues aren't important — important they are, but they are a pretty thin gruel and I don't see anything that's been telegraphed that is going to be muscular enough to reassert the government's dominance of the agenda. I think they've been very lucky with the state of the opposition thus far.

David Herle: They should not get distracted from middle class economics. They were elected because they convinced people, middle class and working class people, that they would be in their corner. They'll get re-elected if those people still believe that, but if those people think they've taken their eye off that ball and are off on a number of what might be more downtown urban liberal agendas, they might be in trouble.

Answers have been edited for length and clarity.