Independent MP Jody Wilson-Raybould won’t run in next election
Jody Wilson #JodyWilson
Independent MP and former Liberal cabinet minister Jody Wilson-Raybould says she won’t run again in the next federal election.
In a letter posted online Thursday, Wilson-Raybould said she didn’t make the decision to spend more time with family or to pursue other challenges. Instead, Wilson-Raybould said she has decided to work on issues that are important to her in different venues.
“This was not an easy or quick decision to make,” the letter reads. “It came about through long reflection on and writing about my own experiences in Ottawa, insights others have shared with me, and a growing realization of the depth of the shifts needed in our political culture.”
Wilson-Raybould, a former prosecutor and regional chief in B.C., was first elected as a Liberal to represent the Vancouver Granville riding in 2015. She became Canada’s first Indigenous justice minister in 2015, but resigned from cabinet and was subsequently ousted from the Liberal Party following the SNC-Lavalin scandal.
At the centre of the controversy were accusations that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his office bullied Wilson-Raybould into securing a deferred prosecution agreement for the Quebec engineering firm that would have shielded it from prosecution over corruption charges related to bribes to Libyan officials.
The allegations led to a series of explosive committee hearings that eventually led to the ouster of two cabinet ministers, the resignation of one of the prime minister’s key aides and opposition calls for Trudeau to step down.
Wilson-Raybould was re-elected as an Independent MP in the 2019 federal election.
Her letter includes a blistering critique of the state of Canadian politics. Wilson-Raybould said she has noticed a “regression” in Parliament during her six years as an elected politician, arguing the House of Commons has become “toxic and ineffective” while simultaneously marginalizing individuals from certain backgrounds.
She criticized the excessive power of political parties and unelected officials in the Prime Minister’s Office, as well as the “out-of-date norms” of the first-past-the-post electoral system.
“Federal politics is, in my view, increasingly a disgraceful triumph of harmful partisanship over substantive action,” the letter reads.
She argues that partisanship needs to be reduced and structural changes made to the democratic system in order for the country to tackle major challenges, including recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, reconciliation with Indigenous people and climate change.
While Wilson-Raybould didn’t specify what she plans to do after leaving politics, she said she can better contribute to positive change outside of the House of Commons.
“With others, I fought for change from outside of federal politics for twenty-five-plus years, and I fought for change within federal politics for the past six years. Both inside and outside of government, I know the fight continues. And others will be there. At this time in my life, though, I realize there is work for me to do outside of federal politics,” she said.