The Wascana MP has not just survived but flourished in Liberal leadership machinations and mutinies, holding trusted positions in the governments of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin. He has also served as a trusted lieutenant during the brief tenures of failed Liberal leaders Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff.
But in the current Justin Trudeau government, something about Ralph Goodale has seemed off kilter and out of step. Besides often seeming to be the only adult in the room, Goodale has been more a quiet stalwart than star performer.
Just as his uncomfortably long and nuanced “politician answers” now seem quaint in a world of snappy, seven-second soundbites, he has also morphed from Saskatchewan’s guy in Ottawa to an Ottawa courier reciting talking points to a skeptical audience back home.
From trying to defend the Trudeau brand of identity politics and the most left-wing government in Canadian history, Goodale struggles making the case for an unpopular carbon tax, laws that seem patently anti-Western resources and even his own role in approving the payment of $10.5 million to admitted terrorist Omar Khadr.
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