On January 11, 2020, Navdeep Bains – the former Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry – resigned his cabinet post. Bains also announced he would not run in the widely anticipated spring pandemic election.

With no election officially in sight and a Liberal Party actively seeking candidates to run in the next campaign, why would Bains bow out now?

My guess is Navdeep Bains was forced out by the Prime Minister so Bains’ growing legal and ethical challenges can’t tarnish the Trudeau brand.

 

A Little History

In late 2018, former Liberal MP Raj Grewal (currently facing 5 counts of fraud and breach of trust) and Navdeep Bains allegedly used their positions of power to enrich themselves in a land deal that bilked the City of Brampton out of $1 million.

The results of a City of Brampton investigation into a real estate transaction that cost taxpayers $1 million extra has been sent to the RCMP, after councillors learned Brampton East MP Raj Grewal and Mississauga MP Navdeep Bains were given confidential details about the pending deal—including the agreed price—by Linda Jeffrey’s chief of staff, Hasneet Singh Punia.

The provincially owned property, needed to fix a traffic bottleneck at a railway crossing on Goreway Drive, was instead sold to private investors, who flipped it back to the city months later well above the price the city and province had agreed to.

Bains denied the allegation and both Bains and Grewal denied soliciting information from Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey or her chief of staff, Hasneet Punia.

Bains was implicated in a scandal surrounding three priests from India who were granted special visas after being sponsored by a Fort Erie Gurdwara. According to The Pointer, “the Gurdwara was not even operating and the three men disappeared after arriving in Canada.”

Tom Blackwell, in his article titled “How phoney Sikh temples are taking advantage of religious immigrants”,  highlights the fact the Fort Erie Gurdwara was a long-abandoned property.

“They serve food all time with good flavoured chutney and the taste is superb,” says an August 2019 review on the Fort Erie Khalsa Darbar’s Facebook page. “The place of god to relax and calm your mind. “

The social media page and the temple’s website reinforce the pleasant image with photos of devotees and succulent-looking food.

What actually exists at its address in Fort Erie is something else: A long-abandoned motel surrounded by scrub land overgrown with weeds, and fronted by a no-trespassing sign.

There is no temple.

“There are so many gurdwaras registered but they are not existing any place. They are fraud,” said Amarjit Singh Mann of the Ontario Gurdwaras Committee.

“They rent a place in the plaza or somewhere else, and they say this is a gurdwara … but there is nothing.”

These are some of the questionable activities swirling around Navdeep Bains. They are probably the reason why he was forced out of government before the growing scandal growing around him could do permanent damage to the Trudeau brand.

 

Falling on Their Swords for the Emperor?

Like Bill Morneau, it appears Navdeep Bains fell on his sword for Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada.

Bill Morneau, the finance minister who step down in the middle of the largest financial crisis to face Canada in a century, wasn’t forced out, say Liberal insiders.

Navdeep Bains, the sitting Minister of Science, Innovation and Industry who stepped down in the middle of a pandemic without end, wasn’t forced out, say Liberal commentators.

Neither resignation passes the smell test.

These men were forced out by their boss, the most narcissistic Prime Minister in Canadian history, yet Justin Trudeau skates out from under both announcements smelling like, well, the Teflon-coated, media-protected  politician he is.

 

Pandemic Election Coming

There will be a spring pandemic election.

Justin Trudeau will engineer the fall of his own government. That’s assured.

He will heap responsibility for his pandemic election on the shoulders of that evil Erin O’Toole and his deplorable Conservative Party, then ride the Blame Wave to another majority Liberal government.

Trudeau’s been laying the foundation for months. Every time anyone asks if there is an election coming Justin Trudeau says the exact same sound bite.

“I don’t want a pandemic election. Canadians don’t want a pandemic election. But if the Opposition wants one, I do what I’ve always done. I will fight for Canadians.”

That’s brilliant political framing on Trudeau’s part.

So far, it’s a frame Erin O’Toole and the Conservative Party have not found a way to counter.

Unless and until the Conservative Party finds a way to place him at the centre of the pandemic election frame, Justin Trudeau will remain Emperor of Canada.

If that thought isn’t motivation for you to get involved with the political party of your choice today, I honestly don’t know what will.

Connect with your chosen party’s electoral district association today. Get involved. Help defeat The Emperor in a few months when he announces his longed-for pandemic election.

The alternative is to continue sitting on the side-lines while Trudeau destroys what’s left of our once-great country.