Macleans - Jul 22, 2019   
      
   The return of Gerry Butts offers a hint at the tone of the Liberal offer in   
   2019: a return to positivity.  Tories beware.   
      
   Well, well.   
      
   It turns out you can come home again. And so welcome back Gerry Butts,   
   Canada’s top Trudeau whisperer, who this weekend returned to the Liberal   
   fold following his spell in the doghouse of political radioactivity.   
      
   Twitter climaxed with the news, with experience varying depending on side of   
   the political divide.  For Conservatives it was a chance to (once again) spit   
   the name SNC Lavalin with zeal.  For Liberals it was a chance to thank their   
   lucky stars they    
   wouldn’t be going into the upcoming campaign deaf, dumb and blind.   
      
   “We’re fortunate to have positive, forward-thinking people (including   
   Gerry Butts) who stay focused on what we can do to make life better for   
   Canadians,” tweeted Liberal Party President Suzanne Cowan.  “Because   
   that’s what matters,” she added    
   for good measure   
      
   What actually matters, of course, is winning elections, which is why the   
   Liberal Party brain trust decided to risk opprobrium by reacquiring their   
   brain.  One can quibble over the exact level of Butts’ influence, but Justin   
   Trudeau wasn’t a thing    
   until Gerry Butts signed onto the project to make it a thing and the Liberals   
   desperately need their thing to be firing to 2015 specifications.   
      
   However inadvertently, Cowan did make solid contact with one nail in her   
   statement: the Liberals need to discover their positivity after months of   
   salting the earth with abortion.   
      
   Enter Butts, a.k.a. the Prince of Lightness.   
      
   While Butts has a well-deserved reputation as a partisan gunfighter on   
   platforms like Twitter, his true value to the Liberal cause is his optimism.     
      
   He is a believer in the power of big government to solve big problems, whether   
   that’s climate change or middle class woes.  His return is the strongest   
   hint we have yet at the tone of the Liberal offer in 2019.   
      
   The 2015 Trudeau offer of more spending, middle-class tax breaks, and   
   increased child support was driven by a relentless optimism, a tone that was   
   meant to jar with the public perception of Stephen Harper’s nearly 10   
   year-old government.   
      
   By going positive again the Liberals could build on the best of Trudeau while   
   goading the Conservatives into the kind of behaviour that fits the public   
   narrative about their party.   
      
   The early returns are encouraging. A fair number of Conservative MPs are   
   already foaming at the mouth, using Butts’ return to resuscitate the   
   now-dormant SNC scandal along with the circumstances surrounding Butts’   
   departure from government.   
      
   Of course, there is some risk that Butts’ return prompts a reopening of the   
   SNC wound. But reopening it will be Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott’s   
   prerogative, not the Conservatives’.     
   [ - - - ]   
   ______________________________   
      
   PS:     
      
   Liberal party has slight edge ahead of federal election: Poll   
      
   https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/liberal-party-has-sligh   
   -edge-ahead-of-federal-election-poll   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)