Bonnie French is the spokesperson for Leaning Left in HKLB – a recently-formed group she says has more than 150 members.
She personally thinks Prime Minster Justin Trudeau should have announced his resignation earlier, but has ultimately done the right thing.
“I can like him, but that doesn’t mean that I have to be so emotionally attached to a politician that I can’t see the clarity that the Liberal party was going to be decimated if he stayed in,” she said Jan. 7. “You’ve got to do what’s right for everybody and not just for one person.”
French added, “it’s certainly going to be an interesting few months,” noting her group will meet in two weeks’ time. She is looking forward to a mini-leadership convention and an “open and honest fair process to pick the next person.”
French blamed the media for much of the “hatred and vitriol” directed at Trudeau. She also accused the public of ignorance of the political process, such as what the federal and provincial governments are responsible for. “Now that Trudeau is out of the picture, who are they going to rage against?”
Asked about internal party turmoil leading to the move, such as the resignation of Chrystia Freeland, French said, “obviously, there was some deep-seated disagreement between her and Justin that led to that because she has been his right-hand person since the time he was elected. I understand some of the fiscal things he had proposed to do did not sit well with her. But for her to have done it in the way she did is interesting… I know he’s had some missteps, name me a politician who hasn’t done stupid stuff.”
However, she said Trudeau and his government had done good things.
“He got us all though a worldwide pandemic… far fewer Canadians died because of the steps that he took. He put money into people’s pockets.”
She added he protected women’s rights and promoted females to his cabinet.
Further, he increased the child tax benefit “to lift more kids out of poverty in the last nine years than any previous government. If the Conservatives are elected, a lot of people are going to lose a lot of these things that they have come to rely on.”
The registered Liberal party member said trade agreements required a carbon tax, and Trudeau’s government provided rebates.
Speaking to a Jamie Schmale Facebook post calling for an immediate election, French said, “having to hold a federal election when a party is leaderless and in shambles, that to me says that they’re the weak contenders if they’re so afraid if they can’t let the political process happen.”
Schmale, the Conservative member for HKLB also called the Liberals a “tax and spend” government but French said, “if you look at our tax rates, and what we get for what we pay, we have a higher quality of life than the United States. People live longer in Canada because we have our socialized health care, which is being strangled, and choked and starved to death by our current provincial parties.
“If we are stupid enough to go with putting an extra $5 a month back into our pocket, then you can say goodbye to a lot of the things we enjoy that give us our quality of life.”
