During the Alberta Relaunch 2022 conference in Calgary, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's former top aide Gerald Butts told the audience he was "not a fan" of Trudeau calling an election last year. .The conference, hosted by New West Public Affairs, featured several keynote speakers and panel discussions on topics including "energy, climate policy, technology and innovation, public health, politics, and government.".Speakers included the former Governor of the Bank of Canada Mark Carney, Hon. Lisa Raitt, vice-chair of Global Investment Banking, CIBC and former Conservative cabinet minister for Transport, Labour, Natural Resources, and Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers CEO and president, Lisa Baiton. .Butts, along with former prime minister Stephen Harper's chief of staff, Ian Brodie, held a panel discussion moderated by Vassy Kapelos, host of CBC News' Power & Politics. The two spoke on their past experiences working in the Prime Minister's Office..During the panel, the results of a recent Abacus nationwide survey was discussed. The May survey of 1500 Canadians revealed more than half of those polled have lost trust in the government and institutional sources. .Butts said he finds it "worrisome" to see that "erosion of faith" in government and public institutions. ."I wouldn't blame any one person, party or the media for it, but it's slipping, and you see what's happening in the United States," he said.."I thought the last bastion of common agreement in the United States would be that the Supreme Court was above politics and it clearly has become the locust of politics in the United States, and that stuff really concerns me — it really worries me.".Brodie said the government's handling of the pandemic, in his opinion, contributed to the drop in faith in the country's institutions. ."Confidence, at least here in Canada, that governments were, by and large, handling the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic well, and then at a certain point that slipped," said Brodie adding he has his own views as to why, but suggested it is worth "going back and rethinking." ."You know, I don't know anybody in the public health community that thinks vilifying people because of their health choices is a good way of getting people to take vaccines and so forth. And yet, political leaders across the spectrum decided to make that an issue, and I think that was a missed opportunity." ."The job of leadership in moments like this is to find the things that everybody aspires to and the positive outlook for the country that everybody can agree about," said Butts. .The Western Standard asked both Butts and Brodie their thoughts on how the government has contributed to this loss of trust. .Butts pointed to former prime minister Harper's attack of the Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin in 2014. ."I think that Mr. Harper did an excellent job when he was in power, of making his most radical critics look foolish by continuously investing his time and effort into public institutions," said Butts. ."And I thought he perilously put that brand in jeopardy when he attacked the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court." .Butts said he "thought that was a huge, huge mistake" and said he believed it showed Harper had "forgotten what got him to where he was in the first place." .Brodie said he thought the prime minister's comment that some Canadian citizens had "unacceptable views" and thus "had to be organized out of politics with regulation of the internet, you know, disinformation campaigns and so forth — that was bad. That was really bad." .Butts interjected to add he was "not a fan of having an election last summer."."You can't ask people to make these extraordinary sacrifices in their personal lives for two years, and by extraordinary, I mean never before in any of our lives have we made the sacrifices we've made," said Butts.."I think the government didn't have a great answer when you guys asked them on day one why we were having an election, and I think that led to a lot of the problems you had described.".Butts said he believes the next election will be a "change election" adding the country is in a "disruptive period" geo-politically with an "enormous energy dimension." .Brodie said he anticipates Trudeau will run again to lead the Liberal Party in Canada through the next federal election. ."I can't see any reason why he'd leave," he said. .Butts added he feels the Liberal's greatest vulnerability is "arrogance." ."I've said this publicly, I said it internally all the time — the Achillies heel in the Liberal Party is arrogance," he said.."The longer you're in power, the easier it is," he said adding he believes it's "in particular, a danger for the Liberal Party." .Brodie said the Conservative Party of Canada's greatest vulnerability is to focus on the "37% victory mindset" and suggested it would be better if the party focused on working towards a "broader coalition."
