WILSON-RAYBOULD: THE ONLY ADULT IN THE ROOM

Rex Murphy:  It was the trusty Wilson-Raybould who stood alone last week to deny the Bloc Quebecois’ motion to have the House recognize Quebec’s right to alter the Constitution on its own. Wilson-Raybould, though I’m not sure how many recognize this kept us off a constitutional precipice.

The Constitution is the fundamental law. It is the law on which all other laws derive their integrity. It is the law that sources all other laws. You do not fiddle with it. You do not play pat-ball with it for political gain — in this case to pick up votes in Quebec. The constitution is larger than politics. And yet here they were, our parliamentary sentinels on a late spring afternoon breezily about to give unanimous support for a separatist resolution granting one province and one province alone, the authority and right to change that constitution.

Is it perpetual kindergarten in Ottawa? Is there an adult in that otherwise great Chamber? Yes. But there is only one: Wilson-Raybould. And she has shown herself to be that twice. Once, when under the wrathful eyes of the PMO and Justin Trudeau, she refused to bend the criminal justice system to accommodate the wishes of the “high-ups” in her own government.