AGAR: Can a Trudeau successor overcome the stench of the Liberals?

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Polls show Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals hanging on a cliff, facing oblivion, with the real possibility of the NDP or Bloc giving them the final push.

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But everyone loves a good comeback story. Do liberals deserve one? I would say no.

Recovery begins with big changes, including admission of guilt and apologies, but Trudeau seems immune to self-examination beyond a pat on the back.

Anonymous complaints from within the party have been reported, but so far no blows towards the marginalization of Joe Biden; a move that could work for Democrats.

Would a change at the top work for the Liberals? That's impossible to say. In Ontario, when things were looking a little touchy for the provincial Liberals, Premier Dalton McGuinty stepped down, Kathleen Wynne won the leadership, and went on a “It Wasn’t Me” digression that worked pretty well…until it didn’t. But it saved liberal political bacon for a while.

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The stench is so strong for liberals right now that it seems only a true outsider – an unelected individual – could credibly make the claim so falsely made by Wynne.

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What stench you ask?

Let me count the ways. Multiple ethical violations; false feminism and an attempt to interfere in an investigation of a Quebec company, both exposed by the treatment of Jody Wilson-Raybould; interfering with fire mitigation to the point of devastating fires in BC; plans to increase a carbon tax that the vast majority of Canadians want eliminated entirely; fails to appear concerned about the explosion of anti-Semitism; appointing an anti-racism czar who turned out to be racist; refusal to tell the public who they suspect of cheating, while appearing to do nothing to stop it and obstructing an investigation; a massive increase in the size of the federal government with no discernible benefit to the public; almost nothing done with big promises to the indigenous community, which includes mocking and removing from a liberal fundraiser natives who had the temerity to ask for clean water; Liberal ministers giving lucrative contracts to friends and family; the WE scandal; the confusion of immigration and refugee programs, to the point where refugees are living on the streets in Toronto, while also putting upward pressure on the city's already high housing prices; invoke emergency powers and close bank accounts to combat noise and parking violations in Ottawa; etc., etc., etc.

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Should I have included blackface and run around the world embarrassing ourselves by playing Mr. Dressup?

So far, the only credible name touted as a successor – who is not yet deeply involved in elected liberal politics – is banker Mark Carney.

A profile in the National Post says: “To conservatives, Carney embodies an out-of-touch banker, a global elite who can't understand the struggles of ordinary people. But Liberals who want the party to return to the political center could be swayed by his economic experience and business acumen, plus the fact that he comes without the baggage of having served under Trudeau.”

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre calls him “Carney of the carbon tax” and he has been called a human calculator. Hardly inspiring.

But then, he hasn't campaigned yet.

So, unlike the rest of them, he doesn't have liberal stink.

But who would want to save this group if not someone who only cares about power?

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