There was a discussion on Twitter over the last few days about the need for Trudeau to hire a PMO staffer to watch over and prevent ethical violations and conflict of interest issues for him.
Let me start by saying this is complete nonsense. There are already more than enough people in the PMO. Every one of them should be looking at protecting the PM from damaging issues.
Let us start with the Chief of Staff. Either the chief is running things or not. If not, why is that person there? If her boss is going to a cabinet meeting, she should know when, where and what is on the agenda. She should also know his position on the cabinet items and have insured he was adequately briefed.
If the Chief of Staff is running things, how could this person not to have intervened and spoken directly to her boss the PM, to both warn him and to keep him away from the situation etc.
Was Trudeau’s comment about pushing back on the WE file a result of Telford cautioning him that he would be stepping over the line?
If she did not step in and caution the PM that is a competency issue. If she did caution Trudeau and he still got involved, then senior staff have a huge problem on their hands with this PM.
Every single staff member in the PMO should be watching out for issues that will damage the PM or hurt the government. I find it impossible to believe that no one on staff saw a problem with Trudeau, his family and WE.
In the end though what really matters is how can this Prime Minister be so blind and so oblivious to ethical and conflict of interest issues? It comes down to knowing right from wrong- something Trudeau clearly has a problem with.
