Tasha Kheiriddin: Trudeau’s interference allegations a dramatic act of self-preservation

Love him or hate him, you’ve got to give Justin Trudeau credit. He is the political equivalent of a cockroach. You can spray him with invective, stomp on him with slogans, drown him in bad polls, and still he scuttles along, fighting to survive. And not only survive, but attack, accusing his opponents of the greatest sin in politics: being traitors to their country.

When Trudeau took the stand at the Hogue Inquiry this week, he dropped a political bomb: “I don’t believe in using national security information for partisan purposes, but…” And then he sighed. And then he paused. “I have names of a number of parliamentarians, former parliamentarians, and/or candidates in the Conservative party of Canada who are engaged in or at high risk of foreign interference.”

For the next five minutes, Trudeau lambasted Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s refusal to take a security briefing on these allegations: “The decision of the leader of the Conservative Party to not receive the necessary clearance to get those names and to protect the integrity of his party is bewildering to me … It also means there is nobody there to stand up for those individuals if the intelligence is shoddy or incomplete or just allegations from a single source.”

It was a classic setup: insinuation, accusation and implication that Poilievre isn’t fit to lead. And for a moment, it opened a tantalizing possibility: has Trudeau been hanging in there all this time because he had shade to throw at the Conservative leader? Some serious, career-ending shade that was kept in reserve for the moment close to election-time, when it could inflict maximum damage?

Like many pundits, I assumed Trudeau’s days were numbered. His path to victory seemed all but closed. Unless … he knew something we didn’t. Or had something in his back pocket. Such as proof that the Conservatives are doing the bidding of a foreign power, in this case the now allegedly murderous government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

We have yet to see this proof, because Trudeau has not named any names. But it is no secret that former Conservative PM Stephen Harper has a close relationship with Modi. And in a report tabled in June 2024, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), found “two specific instances where (People’s Republic of China) officials allegedly interfered in the leadership races of the Conservative Party of Canada” as well as an allegation that India interfered in a Conservative Party leadership race — without giving any more detail.

Earlier this year, the left wing press also published allegations of a CSIS investigation into MP Arpan Khanna, installed by Poilievre as the candidate in the Oxford byelection in 2023. The same media also exposed a video posted a few months ago by one Gaurav Arya, a retired Indian Army Major turned YouTuber, who claims that “India will put all their pressure, whether indirectly or directly, so Justin Trudeau’s government will fall and another government will come.”

But Trudeau may have miscalculated. In response to his revelations, Poilievre said the PM is lying, and challenged him to release the names of all the politicians – Conservative, Liberal, or whatever party — that he says are in cahoots with foreign powers. Trudeau testified on cross examination that he knew of Liberal parliamentarians who could also be compromised, but did not say what he was doing about this.

Unless Trudeau really has a grenade in his pocket, and not a damp squib, this story might do little more than buy him time. A group of MPs is supposedly set to ask him to quit next week, and four more ministers have told the PMO they’re not running again. While it isn’t a full-throated caucus revolt, it’s hard to see how the PM can stay on if his team starts abandoning him.

The only thing that would convince them to stay would be a reversal of fortunes — and the only way to get one now is not to build the Liberals up, but to tear the Conservatives down.

Trudeau’s gambit is thus not about sparing Canada from foreign interference. It’s the act of a desperate leader pulling the emergency cord on his own political trainwreck — even if it means derailing the entire political system to survive.

National Post