🇨🇦 Julie Payette Was Trudeau's Vanity Appointment — And He Fired Her When the Embarrassment Got Too Large

Justin Trudeau told Julie Payette she was an amazing woman who would make Canadians proud, handed her the viceregal office without due diligence, and then terminated her appointment by Royal Letters Patent when the scandal became politically inconvenient. The Toronto Star had already reported three months before her swearing-in that she had accidentally struck and killed a pedestrian with her car and had faced allegations involving a dangerous weapon during a marital dispute. Nobody in the PMO apparently checked. Or they checked and didn't care.

This is the Trudeau appointment model in miniature: prioritize the optics of the choice over the fitness of the person, then distance yourself when reality intervenes. Payette was selected because she was a female astronaut from Quebec — a symbolism trifecta. The job required patience, deference, ceremonial discipline, and collaborative instinct. She had none of those in the context of Rideau Hall. The wreckage was predictable and predicted. Trudeau moved on to his next photo opportunity. Payette is left, reportedly still insisting she was lynched. The constitutional office took years to recover. Nobody in the PMO faced any consequence whatsoever.

🍁 Maple Chronicles