In House - ISIS, mea culpas and the first 100 days
It's been just over 100 days since Justin Trudeau got the keys to the Prime Minister's office. In House panellists Susan Delacourt, senior writer for the Toronto Star and iPolitics, and Joël-Denis Bellavance, parliamentary bureau chief for La Presse, discuss the new government's early days, the future of the ISIS mission, as well as Tom Mulcair's mea culpa.
Chris Hall: Let's start with the debate next week on Wednesday on the government's motion to change the mission around ISIS. Susan, what are you expecting to hear.
Susan Delacourt: What I think you'll hear from the other side, and what I would like to hear too, is how do you measure success in a battle like this ? How do you say okay that worked ? Because they've now defined what was going on is not working, but I think the onus is on them (the government) next week to say "we're doing this, this, this and this, and we will report in at some stage and say here's how it worked".
Joël-Denis Bellavance: And what's the exit strategy once everything is done, and do we prolong this mission after one year or so. But, what I'll be watching also is do all the Liberals will be speaking one voice because this issue in the past has divided the Liberal Party. Whether they are MPs in the House of Commons or elder statesmen or former MPs like Lloyd Axworthy who's been expressing "let's go after them more vigorously than we have in the past", so if some Liberals express different opinions on this new mission, that will be something to watch in the debate.
CH: On another front, Tom Mulcair on Wednesday releasing a letter accepting responsibility for the campaign...
Joël-Denis Bellavance: I think that was the "frontrunner syndrome" that Mr. Mulcair ran with in the last election. He thought he would be safer by being too cautious, and he could protect his lead in the polls. Well, the NDP were caught by surprise with the platform that the Liberals presented. And I'm a bit surprised that Mr. Mulcair keeps making some mea culpas in a crescendo, whereas the NDP Convention is approaching in April, and I think maybe he's hearing some noises that maybe this is not a done deal for him to keep his job.
Susan Delacourt: I was expecting that he was going to issue a letter like this maybe closer to the election campaign. I thought that he would be sending this kind of message and signal when he met the caucus in January. That's not that long ago, but it does seem kind of late to say "oh, yeah, I do want my job" or "I want to keep my job", and a couple of months before the convention and while I think we've all heard from New Democrats - not all that happy with the way the campaign went - it does seem strange timing.
CH: A hundred days in office (for the Liberal government) took place this week. What stands out the most ?
Joël-Denis Bellavance: How quickly the image of Canada has changed abroad. It's fascinating. We saw Ban Ki-moon in Ottawa this week. We saw him this week celebrating Canada's re-engagement with the United Nations. And Mr. Trudeau, now he's being invited to a State Dinner in Washington by Barak Obama. First time since 1997 that a Prime Minister has been invited to the White House for a State Dinner a President, so it's remarkable the switch of the image has abroad has changed.
Susan Delacourt: Maybe it's not a surprise about the Liberals. I'm surprised how much we've forgotten about Stephen Harper. There's the unconscious unraveling of his legacy, but Stephen Harper, even by his own party has kind of disappeared, and that's only a hundred days ago he was Prime Minister.