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    • Don Martin: Too much smoke not to have a fire somewhere inside the PMO or Liberal Party

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    After Liberal MPs wasted days to save her from a Commons committee appearance, Justin Trudeau’s office brain finally showed up Friday for a much-anticipated inquisition over foreign interference in Canadian elections.

    It was a spectacular fizzle in terms of fresh revelations, which is precisely how Trudeau chief of staff Katie Telford wanted it as she set out to smother her testimony with a national security blanket.

    The setup for this appearance before a Commons committee, which is stacked in equal measure with Conservative pitbulls and Liberal poodles, was ingenious. Coronations take less choreography.

    It started last month with a foot-dragging filibuster which ultimately failed to deliver a no-show pass for Telford. That was followed by the prime minister finally revealing he was indeed regularly briefed on interference allegations with her.

    The Prime Minister’s Office then primed its media friends to brace for low expectations from Telford’s two-hour appearance and the national security adviser set the stage by releasing a list of briefings on the controversy she promised in early March but delivered just two HOURS before Telford took her seat.

    Then the real choreography started. Liberal MPs on the committee, who need Telford’s support for cabinet or parliamentary promotions, filled their allocated time with drawn-out PMO-approved puffball questions while the Liberal chair ran interference to cut off the witness when questioning became uncomfortable.

    The desired result was achieved: It was a Seinfeldian show mostly about nothing.

    To be fair, Telford is a great witness if news-avoidance is the objective, being calm, polished and respectful even when snark and cynicism are thrown in her direction.

    She ducked questions about the merits of an inquiry into foreign interference. She declined comment on reported secret memos from security sources and refused to say who received and read them. And she labelled Global stories on Chinese money flowing to candidates as inaccurate while refusing to reveal which part of the much longer story wasn’t true, thus casting doubt on all the facts.

    Surprises? Perhaps a couple.

    We learned from Telford that Trudeau is a voracious reader of reports and briefing notes that flood across his desk. I figured he was, at best, an executive summary sort of leader reader who would probably settle for a two-minute verbal briefing from staff.

    And Telford ensured plausible deniability will no longer provide cover for Trudeau’s often-feigned ignorance on issues. After all, she insists, she never ever keeps any secrets from the boss.

    But to the bottom line: What did Trudeau know about foreign interference aiming to secure Liberal minority election wins in 2019 and 2021? When did he know it? And what did he do about it? Well, blank, blank, blank thanks to Telford’s blah, blah, blah.

    The one thing Telford’s appearance proved beyond any doubt, as she hummed through can’t-say obfuscations and gagged over national security limitations, is that the only way to find the bottom in this dark rabbit hole of foreign interference is to order up some sort of inquiry for a closer look.

    There’s just too much smoke not to have a fire somewhere inside the PMO or the Liberal Party of Canada.

    As for Telford, the Liberals should trot her out more often to take the political oxygen out of burning issues.

    Chiefs of staff like Telford, who are the politically brilliant and willing to serve as their leader’s dark lord, keeper of the secrets and undertaker to the closeted skeletons while appearing in public as soothing credible figures, are impossible to find.

    But now that she’s told us Trudeau reads everything and she holds nothing back, there’s going to be a higher price if any big political lies come out in future Chinese interference probes: They’re both going down together.

    That’s the bottom line…

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