Jody Wilson-Raybould appears to have written a whole new manual on how to lose your job in politics. Maybe there have been other politicians who turned a cabinet demotion into a three-month-long crisis for their governments, though none spring to mind. Perhaps there are other ministers who have spent days warning their bosses not to move them out of their jobs. But no one in Canada, until Wilson-Raybould, appears to have done this so publicly and with such bridge-burning tenacity — up to and including Tuesday’s fiery warning to fellow Liberals against ejecting her from caucus. None of the warnings worked. In the space of three months, Wilson-Raybould has become the former justice minister, the former veterans affairs minister, and as of Tuesday night, a former Liberal MP and no-longer candidate for Vancouver Granville in the next election. “More to come,” Wilson-Raybould said in the tweet announcing her ejection from Trudeau’s caucus. No doubt that’s true — for a minister who was notoriously media-shy while in cabinet, she’s been a magnet for controversy and attention since leaving it. Regardless of what one thinks of Wilson-Raybould — and her story has polarized politics, even friends and families — her long-running exit from Trudeau’s fold is unprecedented in terms of the damage it’s done to all sides of her dispute with the PMO. Read more: Texts between Gerald Butts and Jody Wilson-Raybould show mounting anger, frustration over shuffle Wilson-Raybould and Philpott ejected from Liberal party, Trudeau announcesDefiant and unbowed, Wilson-Raybould ‘absolutely ready’ for next salvo in SNC-Lavalin affairWhy Trudeau let it go on so long is one mystery of this saga — the prime minister is well-versed in ejecting troublesome colleagues, be they appointed Liberal senators or errant MPs. His speech to Liberal caucus on Tuesday night, his fans and critics will say, is one he might ...
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