J.P. Tasker Profile picture
Mar 18, 2019 11 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick is retiring after 38 years of public service. He will replaced by the current Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ian Shugart. #cdnpoli Image
Of course, he will be known to the wider general public for recent role in the SNC-Lavalin affair. JWR said she felt like a conversation with him in Dec. 2018, on a DPA, was akin to the Watergate-era "Saturday Night Massacre." He has denied undue pressure. cbc.ca/news/politics/…
He's our first writethru on the story from @cattunneycbc — Michael Wernick retiring as clerk of the Privy Council. CBC.ca/1.5060834 #cdnpoli
In letter to the PM, Wernicks says: "Recent events have led me to conclude that I cannot serve as Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to Cabinet during the upcoming election campaign. Therefore, I will be taking steps to retire from the public service well before the writ."
"One of the key roles of Privy Council Office is to be ready to assist whichever government Canadians elect in October ... it is now apparent that there is no path for me to have a relationship of mutual trust & respect with the leaders of the Opposition parties," Wernick says.
"Furthermore, it is essential that during the writ period the Clerk be seen by all political parties as an impartial arbiter of whether serious foreign interference has occurred," Wernick says.
"The timing of my retirement is something we should discuss, as your Government will have a busy Cabinet agenda until the end of the Parliamentary session, and you will want to seek advice on how best to address succession," Wernick says.
"I will have more to say later, but I would be remiss if I did not use this letter to thank you for the confidence you have placed in me over the past three years & the opportunity for extraordinary personal & professional experiences in the service of my country," Wernick says.
PM scrums quickly before #QP on Wernick. "He will be missed but we look forward to working with (inaudible)." (I think he said the new clerk's name, Ian Shugart.)
PMO says Trudeau did *not* ask for Wernick's resignation but rather says it was the clerk's idea. (As the letter pretty clear indicates, he simply couldn't work with a possible Cons/NDP PM after the fractious relationship he's had with opposition amid SNC-Lavalin affair.)
PM announces former Liberal deputy minister and attorney general Anne McLellan will examine the bifurcation of the justice/AG roles & "provide independent recommendations to us." #cdnpoli

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More from @JPTasker

Jul 6, 2022
NEW: The @CPC_HQ leadership election organizing committee has *disqualified* @patrickbrownont from the race, citing “serious allegations of wrongdoing.” #cdnpoli
“We regret having to take these steps but we have an obligation to ensure that both our Party’s Rules and federal law are respected by all candidates and campaign teams,” LEOC chair Ian Brodie says in a statement. conservative.ca/statement-by-i…
Brodie says there are allegations that the Patrick Brown campaign violated financial provisions of the Canada Elections Act.

CPC will be “sharing the information it has gathered with Elections Canada, who is responsible for ensuring compliance…”
Read 14 tweets
May 25, 2022
Good evening from Laval, Que.! We're 15 minutes away from the CPC French-language debate.

All six candidates will be on stage. Three of them can't speak the language.

The seating capacity for this room is about 1,000 — still some empty chairs as people trickle in from the bar.
The seats are all full and it's standing-room only at this Laval banquet hall.

Valerie Assouline, the vice-president of the party, tell us that this is the first time the French-language debate has been held in the Montreal area.
Assouline also announced the election results will be unveiled in Ottawa on Sept. 10. (We knew the date but now we know the city and the venue — it's the Shaw Centre.)
Read 6 tweets
Nov 17, 2021
Just off the phone with a Conservative caucus member who's hopping mad about Denise Batters getting the boot.
"For Erin, this is the beginning of the end," this Conservative told me. "It's a position of weakness. A real leader would say, 'Let's have a vote,' and trigger a caucus vote to see just how much support he really has."
This person says the more O'Toole tries to "suppress" dissent, the bigger anti-O'Toole movement will be — comparing O'Toole to Wojciech Jaruzelski, Soviet puppet leader in 1980s Poland who imposed martial law to silence opposition only to be toppled by invigorated anticommunists.
Read 7 tweets
Nov 16, 2021
NEW: Senior Conservatives say MPs who back anti-O'Toole petition could face expulsion vote. cbc.ca/news/politics/… #cdnpoli
UPDATE: O'Toole kicks senator who questioned his leadership out of the Conservative caucus. cbc.ca/news/politics/…
Sen. Batters said she learned she was out of the Conservative fold through a telephone message from O'Toole.
Read 4 tweets
Sep 23, 2021
Just off the phone with a Conservative caucus member who spoke very frankly about Monday's election.

They're not happy with O'Toole. Biggest issue? Campaigning as a "true blue" in the leadership and then abandoning many promises in the general. Carbon tax. Guns. Fiscal prudence.
"He campaigned as a Liberal. He wasn't even Liberal lite — he campaigned as a Liberal in this campaign with no input from caucus or the party or anybody else," the caucus member said.
The caucus member also said they and others were caught off guard by what was actually in the party's platform.

"I didn't even know what we were running on until I saw him on TV," the Tory said of O'Toole's platform launch on day two of the campaign.
Read 7 tweets
Sep 21, 2021
The CBC Decision Desk has not made projections in 15 ridings.

They will likely need to wait until all the ballots are counted in some of them.

Trois-Rivières
Sault Ste. Marie
Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley
Edmonton Centre
Brome-Missisquoi
Kitchener-Conestoga
Vancouver Granville
Davenport
Fredericton
Coast of Bays-Central-Notre Dame
Hamilton Mountain
Richmond Centre
Nanaimo-Ladysmith
Parkdale-High Park
Spadina-Fort York
Poll workers are still counting special ballots. "We expect the vast majority of those counts will be completed by tomorrow," an Elections Canada spokesperson says. "That will give a better picture of overall turnout."
Read 9 tweets

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