Women Who Left Trudeau’s Cabinet Will Run Again as Independents

(Bloomberg) -- Two lawmakers who left senior posts in Justin Trudeau’s cabinet amid allegations the Canadian prime minister’s office interfered in a legal case will run for re-election this fall as independents.

Former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and ex-Treasury Board President Jane Philpott announced their plans Monday in back-to-back press conferences in their home districts.

While there had been speculation the pair -- both high-profile recruits to politics in the 2015 election that vaulted Trudeau’s Liberals into power from third place -- would run for the Green Party, they each struck a non-partisan tone in their remarks.

“This system seems dysfunctional,” Philpott told reporters in the Toronto suburb of Markham. “It seems like all they’re doing up there in Ottawa is fighting each other.”

A medical doctor, Philpott quit cabinet in March on the heels of her friend and colleague. Wilson-Raybould resigned a month earlier, before delivering bombshell testimony in which she accused Trudeau’s office of a “consistent and sustained effort” to persuade her to help quietly end a corruption and fraud prosecution again Montreal-based construction giant SNC Lavalin Group Inc.

The prime minister expelled both lawmakers from the Liberal caucus in a bid to cauterize the worst scandal of his time in office. “It’s been a challenging five months,” Wilson-Raybould told reporters in Vancouver. “I find myself in a place that I never expected to be for doing my job and speaking the truth.”

Trudeau’s team is still suffering. Aggregate polls maintained by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. show the Liberals with 30% support, compared to 36% for Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives ahead of an election scheduled for October. The left-leaning New Democratic Party has about 16% support, while the Greens are polling at 10%.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Wicary in Ottawa at swicary@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Theophilos Argitis at targitis@bloomberg.net

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