LESLYN LEWIS -- Canadians deserve answers and not the deflections that Justin Trudeau can get away with -- there must be consequences, including consequences for not telling the truth

Politicians don’t ultimately represent their parties, and they don’t represent merely themselves. At the end of the day Members of Parliament represent their constituents and they should be answerable to them.

That is not happening and it needs to change.

What the WE scandal has proven once and for all is that the Prime Minister and many of his Liberal colleagues do not think that they need to answer to anybody.

They make this clear by not giving answers about anything to anyone, not in the House of Commons, not in parliamentary committees, not even to their friends in the media.

As a Canadian, watching the last few Finance Committee hearings with the Prime Minister, the Finance minister and the other witness speaking to the WE charity fiasco was deeply disturbing.

We had half a billion dollars being sent to a shell company and nobody is actually having to answer for it.

The Liberal MPs didn’t even seem that interested in getting answers from the Kielburger brothers, choosing to use much of their time to praise them for their work instead of digging into how they could operate as highly influential lobbyists without registering as such.

This is incredibly insulting to the Canadians whose tax dollars pay the MPs' salaries. The base salary of each MP $178,900.00 and is paid by the taxpayers. As such, all MPs owe it to us not to let Trudeau and his ministers get away with their corruption.

Here is what I am proposing to ensure we don’t have to watch another embarrassment unfold like this scandal ever again. 

First of all, we need to call a public inquiry into this scandal.

The Prime Minister’s family received half a million dollars from a charity that he was trying to give half a billion dollars to. Members of his cabinet have deep ties with WE charity and there are many concerning questions how this, now obviously deeply unethical charity, was able to operate as essentially a youth wing of the Liberal party.

Canadians deserve answers and not the deflections that Justin Trudeau can get away with under parliamentary privilege. There must be consequences, including consequences for not telling the truth.

Second, we need to consider better ways to deal with future conflict of interest and ethical scandals.  

Stephen Harper’s Director of Public Prosecutions Act was designed to prevent repetitions of the Sponsorship Scandal and ended up being a key factor in catching Justin Trudeau’s unethical behavior in the SNC-Lavalin Scandal last year.

Like Prime Minister Harper, who changed laws in the wake of Chretien’s Sponsorship Scandal, we need to learn from the scandals of Justin Trudeau, and close the loopholes he has used for the last five years to get away with corruption.

No government lasts forever, and a Lewis Government won’t either. But my promise to you is that by the time I complete my service as Prime Minister...

I will leave behind a set of ethics laws that will prevent all future governments of any stripe from being able to avoid their obligation to answer to Canadians. 

Politicians need to answer to the Canadians they represent. And that includes the obligation to actually give truthful answers when asked.

LESLYN LEWIS ... is running to be the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada