Jody Wilson-Raybould’s father is encouraging his daughter to run as an Independent candidate in the upcoming federal election.
Bill Wilson spoke with CTV News on Wednesday from his Campbell River home, where he affirmed his pride in the former attorney general’s handling of the SNC-Lavalin affair.
“It isn’t just a native reaction,” Wilson said of his daughter’s refusal to bow to apparent pressure from the Liberal government to reach a deferred prosecution deal with the Quebec engineering firm over charges of corruption.
“It’s the reaction of someone who stands up, even to commit a crime, to protect the rule of law,” he said of Wilson-Raybould’s decision to secretly record and release audio of a conversation with Privy Council clerk Michael Wernick, in which he warned her of a “collision” with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over her handling of the case.
“That it happens to be a woman, that it happens to be an Indian, is to me amazing,” Wilson said.
Wilson said he hopes his daughter, who was thrown out of the Liberal Party caucus Tuesday, doesn’t join another party before the October election.
“I hope that she will run in Vancouver Granville as an Independent if that’s necessary,” Wilson said.
“I hope she doesn’t cross the floor to any other party,” he added, because “they don’t represent any kind of moral suasion in any way.”
Wilson said he believes that running independently, his daughter “will get more of a majority than she had last time.”
Wilson-Raybould was a first-time federal candidate in 2015, when she won the newly created Vancouver Granville riding with 43 per cent of the vote.
Wilson also made a dire prediction about the Prime Minister’s political future in the wake of the SNC-Lavalin scandal and his subsequent dismissal of both Wilson-Raybould and former health and Indigenous services minister Jane Philpott from caucus.
“In four years from now, five years from now, the Liberals will have gotten rid of the young Trudeau, who didn’t seem to learn anything from his father,” he said. “And maybe Jane Philpott or Jody Wilson will be the prime minister.”
The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs slammed Trudeau's decision to kick Wilson-Raybould, Canada’s first Indigenous attorney general, out of the Liberal caucus, calling it a blow to Indigenous relations on Wednesday.
Grand Chief Stewart Philip said the UBCIC is "absolutely disgusted" at the move, arguing Wilson-Raybould and Philpott were both punished for refusing to cave to pressure from the government.
"Apparently, this equates to being 'untrustworthy' in the shifty eyes of Justin Trudeau, who is clearly committed to propping up cronyism and the old boys' network," Philip said in a statement.
