Trudeau ‘stacking the deck': Scheer
OTTAWA • Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says the Liberals’ decision to name an anti-Conservative union to a panel that will decide which media outlets receive government funding is the latest example of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “stacking the deck” in his favour to get re-elected in October.
In an interview with The Canadian Press Sunday, Scheer said he believes the decision to include Unifor on the panel — which will determine eligibility for a $595-million bailout package — undermines the credibility of the panel’s work.
“There’s no reason for Unifor to be on this panel. They are a very aggressive, partisan group with very aggressive and partisan goals, even as late as a couple of days ago attacking Conservatives and me personally, and yet Justin Trudeau has decided to put this group on the panel,” Scheer said.
“That is completely unacceptable.”
Unifor has campaigned against the Conservative party and, in November, published tweets calling itself Scheer’s “worst nightmare.”
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has defended Unifor’s place on the panel, saying the union has been included among other groups that represent journalists to ensure broad representation from the industry.
“Unifor is the single largest media union representing over 13,000 workers coming from a wide diversity of newspapers. We feel that putting the voice of journalists on this panel is essential,” said Rodriguez’s spokesman, Louis Belanger.
Belanger also noted the panel will not decide which organization gets what, but rather will advise on criteria that would be applied by a second panel, which has not yet been created.
But Scheer said he believes this move is indicative of a broader strategy by Trudeau in making decisions to give himself an upper hand in advance of the Oct. 21 election.
He pointed to changes made to the amounts of money political parties can spend in the run-up to a federal election — changes Scheer says mainly affect the Conservative party — while no limits have been placed on government spending or travel in advance of the writ period.
“They’ve only applied that to opposition parties,” he said. “So we expect to see ministers flying around and making announcements and government advertising continuing at a time when political parties won’t.”