Chantal Hébert: It´s crunch time for the lead players in the SNC-Lavalin affair
(The Star Fashion & Style)

MONTREAL—As the SNC-Lavalin affair enters its second month, its protagonists are at the crossroads. From the main opposition parties to the prime minister and including the ex-attorney general at the centre of the ongoing crisis, all have strategic decisions to make on the way forward. Start with Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives. Polls show that even as Justin Trudeau’s personal brand has taken a hit — at a cost to the Liberals in voting intentions — Scheer’s political persona has not grown on voters.If prosecuting government scandals was a fast track to winning federal elections, Brian Mulroney would never have secured back-to-back majorities in the ’80s and Thomas Mulcair would be prime minister.Over his first four years in power, the former Tory prime minister lost seven cabinet members to a succession of controversies. Fast forward from the Mulroney era to Stephen Harper’s last years in power and to former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair’s stellar performance in the role of prosecutor-in-chief of the Conservative government over the period of the Senate spending scandal.In the closing year of the Harper decade Mulcair consistently eclipsed Trudeau in question period — only to find his former junior partner in opposition sitting on the government side of the House after the 2015 election.If the electoral past is any indication, it is debatable whether the best way to win more voters over to the notion that the Scheer-led Conservatives offer a desirable alternative to the Liberals is to double down on SNC-Lavalin.In the process, Scheer might end up auditioning for the job he already holds in opposition rather than for that of prime minister.And then what of the NDP? Its leader Jagmeet Singh desperately needs his maiden appearance in the House of Commons next week to be a turning point for his flagging party. From that angle, the crisis that has engulfed Trudeau’s government could be construed as an unexp ...