It all seemed so straightforward last summer.Sensing a souring of public opinion around the sanctimonious tone of their progressive agenda, and approaching an election year, the Liberals started sharpening their emphasis on pocketbook issues. First, there was the August cabinet shuffle, then the growing focus on middle-class rhetoric throughout the fall. When members of Parliament returned from their Christmas break, all three parties turned their attention to needling each other on how best to help Canadians improve their standard of living.The Liberals were taking every opportunity to tout their approach to economic growth: spending on social programs and infrastructure, while simultaneously pumping up Canada’s corporate profile at home and abroad. Enter the SNC-Lavalin controversy.Just days before the Liberals’ pre-election budget, half of their storyline on economic growth is suddenly in upheaval, the Liberals’ embrace of corporate champions now fraught with suspicion.Read more:Opinion | Susan Delacourt: What Trudeau needs to do to get past the SNC-Lavalin affairJody Wilson-Raybould says she was target of ‘veiled threats’ over SNC-Lavalin prosecutionSNC-Lavalin affair: We answer your most pressing questionsThis will no doubt encourage a more populist approach from a government that has spent billions of dollars on a strategy of picking winners, and ensuring they kept on winning.The Liberals started up the Invest in Canada hub to promote Canadian competitiveness and bring in foreign investors. They developed so-called superclusters of business innovation to augment and encourage growth in promising sectors, at the cost of almost $1 billion. They lent Bombardier Inc. $372.5 million during a time of financial trouble. And they set up the $35-billion Canada Infrastructure Bank to attract big private-sector money to infrastructure ventures that would normally have to be fully funded by government or put off for another day.The first, ...
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