The resurrection of Ralph
He's back!!! Long time Regina, Saskatchewan MP Ralph Goodale lost his seat in the 2019 federal election to newcomer Michael Kram of the Conservatives by well over 10 000 votes. This massive loss sent a wave of devastation through the Liberal party, as Ralph was always beyond loyal to the party over the country. Goodale described himself as a "loyal Liberal" in a post-election interview. "I've been a loyal Liberal in Saskatchewan for a very long time, much longer than a lot of people would have predicted".
Considering Saskatchewan is overwhelmingly a Conservative-voting province, I think we could safely predict your days were numbered. Goodale was the target of gun owners across the country with political action of all kinds: billboards, social media, news stories and of course The Integrity Tour. An incredible effort from stakeholders was put in to finally sending Goodale off to his retirement and away from the firearms file.
After 45 years in politics, gunnies thought they had seen the last of this hyper-partisan, line-toeing career politician.
They were wrong.
In the middle of the Corona Virus global pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invented a position and appointed Ralph Goodale to head up the failed investigation into the shooting of a Ukrainian plane by Iran last year. Iranian officials immediately denied the shooting down of the plane, and have since been accused of tampering with the crash site evidence, failing to provide families with personal belongings recovered and most recently failed to meet the deadline to hand over the plane's black boxes. Goodale is tasked with advising the already massive bureaucracy on how to handle the many missteps in dealing with this tragedy - a task we can assume would be impossible for any of the Ministers, ministries or experts already deployed by this government.
Yesterday, in a Global News piece, Goodale was interviewed about the government's handling of the Covid_19 crisis. "In an emergency situation, Canadians must be able to have absolute trust in their officials and, unless the government is forthright, that won't happen" said Goodale.
The irony of this type of statement coming from Ralph doesn't escape those of us who have felt the sting of his dishonesty. Ralph Goodale served as the Minister of Public Safety for the Liberals during their first term, introducing C-71, a bill solely targeting legal, licensed gun owners, as violent criminals and gangs went largely unchecked under his rule. His consistent twisting of the truth and manipulating of data made him a main target of disgruntled firearms owners and Canadians who value integrity.
While serving as Public Safety Minister, Goodale even hosted the Summit on Gun & Gang Violence - a collaborative meeting of over 300 experts from across the country, on every aspect of the gun debate with the intent on finding concrete solutions to minimize violence. The Summit hosted a large number of law enforcement agencies, none of them calling for more gun control. Public Safety also engaged in public consultation processes on this topic, which also found no call for more restrictive measures for legal gun owners.
No matter. Goodale still forged on with C-71 and testified at committee that although gun owners do not pose a disproportionate risk to public safety, there was some kind of immediate need for the changes within the bill. It is noted that still, at this time, C-71 has never been implemented.
Gang violence still plagues the urban centres and rural crime is on the rise. A lack of focus on the real solutions and the targeting of legal gun owners was a massive contributing factor to Ralph's demise during the 2019 election.
So why the sudden resurrection of Ralph? This writer would wager it is an orchestrated, deliberate attempt to bring Goodale back to the front lines in preparation for the next step … the grooming of Goodale for a seat in the Senate. Trudeau has taken full advantage of the vacancies left by his predecessor, filling them with his hand-picked, leftist appointments and slapping the "Independent Senator" label on them. This type of disguised partisanship was never more evident than during C-71 Senate committee deliberations and the antics of Senator McPhedran. She treated every witness who opposed the bill like criminals, even calling Tracey Wilson "vicious" for all to hear. This kind of behaviour is an injustice to the legitimacy of the Senate, Canadians in general and those of us working hard to ensure the government takes a serious swing at crime over the easy road of gun control.
Regardless of the massive defeat Ralph experienced during the last federal election, a resounding "you're fired!" by the people who previously trusted him, … he's back.
The grooming of Goodale is underway.
