As the growing number of members of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party publicly express their desire for him to resign, one has to wonder if they have any clue at all about their own culpability in bringing the Liberal Party to the brink of electoral extinction. Current polling numbers indicate the Liberals may only win six or seven seats in Parliament if an election were held in the next few months. Such a result could assign the party to the political dustbin for at least four years, if not longer. But is, Justin Trudeau really the only one to blame for this predicament, and only him alone?

These same Liberal MPs now calling for his resignation, eagerly endorsed all of Trudeau’s policies through it all. Anthony Housefather, René Arseneault, Patrick Weiler, Helena Jaczek, Chad Collins, Wayne Long, and Ken Hardie – to name a few – now say he’s got to go, yet they can’t seem to hoist on board that party’s current political downfall is not just about Trudeau – it is about them too.

They all seem to have forgotten that they backed the Prime Minister, and sang from the same song sheet when it came to implementing and justifying everything from crippling carbon tax hikes and other economically strangling green energy regulations to lax immigration and asylum policies that let over two million people into the country in the last five years over burdening our health system and social safety networks. Additionally they turned a blind eye and allowed thousand upon thousands to enter the country illegally or by claiming refugee status via Roxham Road — many of them unchecked and undocumented.

Liberal MPs had no problem voting for policies to take an increasing number of legally owned guns away from law- biding citizens while ignoring the criminals smuggling illegal guns into the country. They backed Trudeau’s catch and release bail reforms that put murderers and violent repeat offenders back on the streets to commit more crimes sometimes only hours after their arrest. Police are so overwhelmed that in some cities, like Toronto, they advised car owners to leave their keys at the front door to avoid being assaulted in their homes by car thieves. They have loosened the criteria for their Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program to the point where Veteran Affairs is offering MAiD to Canadian veterans suffering from PTSD, instead of providing them treatment they need and to which they are entitled.

They have backed an increasing number of censorship bills such as bill C-11, which essentially gave the government more control over what people can see and do online and has crippled news sharing online. They also seem intent on pushing through bill C-63, the so-called On-Line Harms Act that, while under the guise of protecting children, would create unprecedented government run censorship agencies to investigate citizen’s online posts, and impose hate speech restraining orders and even jail people for simply saying what they think if these new speech police deem it hateful. They supported a new capital gains tax that will hurt small businesses and have readily endorsed a string of bloated budgets, with unprecedented deficits, along with a monumental debt that has resulted in soaring inflation rates that have increased the cost of everything from housing to groceries — such that millions have found themselves lining up at food banks just to make ends meet.

They have defended, obfuscated, filibustered, denied, deflected and defied an ever growing list of Liberal ethical lapses and corrupt spending scandals from the Trudeau’s own wrongdoing in SNC Lavalin deferred prosecution deal and the We Charity funding fiasco to the gross overspending and mismanagement of the ArriveCan scandal, now known as ArriveScam. This involved the development of an onerous border crossing application that was was never even needed in the first place. And even now, Liberals allow Parliament to remain in state of limbo as they refuse to hand over documents involving what has become known as the Green Slush Fund scandal, to allow the RCMP to further investigate the matter. This involved serious conflict of interest breaches within Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), resulting in the gross mismanagement of over $150 million in public funds which were doled out to Liberal insiders.

They seem oblivious to the fact that while Canadians may be targeting Trudeau because he is the party figurehead, in doing so they are expressing their frustration and anger with his entire government, its corruption, and the direction it has taken the country. They are expressing their dissatisfaction with each and every Liberal MP who has backed Trudeau to the hilt. These MPs, either to further their own careers, or perhaps even advance their own ideologies, let Trudeau take the Liberal Party, once viewed as a centrist party, farther left than the socialist NDP.

This embracing of far-left policies by the Trudeau Liberals was underscored by the way in which Trudeau and his entire government have supported and endorsed extreme transgender ideology. For example Liberal MPs all nodded in unison when Trudeau, and his Health Minister Mark Holland, expressed their dismay with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith when she introduced legislation to ban gender affirming care for minors in her province, and to keep men who identify as women out of women’s sports. They also had no issue with Trudeau accusing former New Brunswick Premiere Blaine Higgs of being a “far-right political actor inflicting cruelty and isolation on vulnerable people” when he enacted a law requiring schools to inform parents if their under age children were changing their gender, name or pronouns at schools. Yet recent polls indicate that the vast majority of Canadians are in favour of such policies.

So, when the likes of BC MP Ken Hardie says, "The Canadian people have been telling us for some time — the street has been talking to us — and they are saying this leader cannot be supported. The prime minister just doesn't have the confidence of the Canadian people.” — he, like most of his colleagues, haven’t seemed to figure out that it is not just the prime minister the Canadian people have lost confidence in, it is the entire Liberal party! It is just so happens the Trudeau is the face of the Liberal party, and his caucus members were more than happy for him be that face, as long it kept getting them re-elected.

After the resignation Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Liberal MP Wayne Long went so far as to say in a media interview , “The prime minister is living in a, you know, world of delusion if he thinks we can go on this way.” He may be right about that, because Trudeau’s narcissism has evolved to such a degree that it seems he does believe that he, and only he, can still lead the Liberals to an election victory in 2025, despite what the polls are telling him.

But, Wayne Long and the rest of his Liberal colleagues are equally as delusional if they think that Trudeau and Trudeau alone is the cause of their woes. They share in this mess together, and if they think that a new leader, particularly if that leader comes from the current or former cadre of Liberal Cabinet Ministers, can save them they are sadly mistaken.

Every last one of them with aspirations to take Trudeau’s place be it – Chrystia Freeland - the bank account freezer, — Philippe Champagne - who was going to stabilize food prices, but didn’t — Melanie Jolie - who as Foreign Minister can’t seem to make up her mind on whose side she is one when it comes to Israel or Hamas — Dominic LeBlanc – who is known as Trudeau’s fixer upper, but does have his own ethics violation. They all appear to the front runners for the Liberal leadership should Trudeau step down. But all have vigorously defended Trudeau at every turn and in every scandal — save for Freeland’s recent little hissy-fit rebellion and resignation last week.

They are all cut from the same cloth, tarred with the same brush and they all readily embraced the Trudeau brand as their own. A brand — they wore like a shiny new badge that gained them all entrance into the hallowed halls of Parliament and the reigns of power, which they all abused time and again. Now that badge is so badly tarnished – with broken promise after broken promise from a tone-deaf, smug scandal ridden government that no amount or polish will make it sparkle again – not even with the help of Mark Carney.

This situation reminds me of an old adage that the Liberals need to heed. That being that while it is true that the captain must go down with the ship, in most cases the rest of the crew goes down with him too — save for a very few survivors. And while we’re using sea-faring analogies the entire Liberal caucus needs to hoist that on board too and recognize their own guilt in the sinking fortunes of the Liberal Party.