Exciting federal political news today: it looks like Justin Trudeau tried to demote Chrystia Freeland in favour of another rich white dude and she, after years as his closest political advisor and heir apparent to the Liberal throne, said “no, fuck you.”
To be clear, she said “no, fuck you” in the most Liberal status quo way possible: focusing entirely on the economic situation, making dibs on the Team Canada brand, and posting a bilingual resignation letter on what was formerly an important network for breaking news but is now a Nazi bar.
What I assume happened is that she, too, lost patience with Justin Trudeau, notably re: wasting money to buy votes in a desperate attempt to not lose the next election. Rather than listen to the expert advice of the woman who has been his Deputy PM since 2019 and his Finance Minister since 2020, Trudeau brought in a special financial advisor on economic growth, former Bank of Canada white finance guy Mark Carney, and then attempted, it seems, to demote Freeland in an upcoming Cabinet shuffle, advising her of this mere days before she was expected to present the fall economic update on his behalf.
I assume Freeland was unwilling to be quietly glass-ceilinged when she thought the proper course was for Trudeau to resign so she could take over, so she instead quit publicly in the hopes others would be inspired to join in ousting him and installing her. It is very dramatic.
Is Trudeau finally unpopular enough to be ousted? Maybe. There’s a lot of private dissatisfaction, and this is a pretty public stunt compared to grumbling behind closed doors and signing what may or may not be a secret petition.
Is she popular enough to become Liberal leader? Maybe. She’s extremely pro status quo, which apparently appeals to many Liberals. But lots of people don’t like women in power, and there seems little reason to believe she’d be any better at actually fixing things than Trudeau proved capable of.
Is she likely to be more successful than Kamala Harris at convincing people to vote for a pro status quo brand over raging populists? I doubt it. She does not scream charisma to me, or compassion below the middle class, or genuine concern for the planet and future.
But we’ll see what happens. I personally would be extremely interested to hear from Jody Wilson-Raybould and Célina Caesar-Chavannes today. Like they said years ago: Justin Trudeau doesn’t like when women challenge his mistakes, even in private.
An advisor resigns
Exciting federal political news today: it looks like Justin Trudeau tried to demote Chrystia Freeland in favour of another rich white dude and she, after years as his closest political advisor and heir apparent to the Liberal throne, said “no, fuck you.”
To be clear, she said “no, fuck you” in the most Liberal status quo way possible: focusing entirely on the economic situation, making dibs on the Team Canada brand, and posting a bilingual resignation letter on what was formerly an important network for breaking news but is now a Nazi bar.
What I assume happened is that she, too, lost patience with Justin Trudeau, notably re: wasting money to buy votes in a desperate attempt to not lose the next election. Rather than listen to the expert advice of the woman who has been his Deputy PM since 2019 and his Finance Minister since 2020, Trudeau brought in a special financial advisor on economic growth, former Bank of Canada white finance guy Mark Carney, and then attempted, it seems, to demote Freeland in an upcoming Cabinet shuffle, advising her of this mere days before she was expected to present the fall economic update on his behalf.
I assume Freeland was unwilling to be quietly glass-ceilinged when she thought the proper course was for Trudeau to resign so she could take over, so she instead quit publicly in the hopes others would be inspired to join in ousting him and installing her. It is very dramatic.
Is Trudeau finally unpopular enough to be ousted? Maybe. There’s a lot of private dissatisfaction, and this is a pretty public stunt compared to grumbling behind closed doors and signing what may or may not be a secret petition.
Is she popular enough to become Liberal leader? Maybe. She’s extremely pro status quo, which apparently appeals to many Liberals. But lots of people don’t like women in power, and there seems little reason to believe she’d be any better at actually fixing things than Trudeau proved capable of.
Is she likely to be more successful than Kamala Harris at convincing people to vote for a pro status quo brand over raging populists? I doubt it. She does not scream charisma to me, or compassion below the middle class, or genuine concern for the planet and future.
But we’ll see what happens. I personally would be extremely interested to hear from Jody Wilson-Raybould and Célina Caesar-Chavannes today. Like they said years ago: Justin Trudeau doesn’t like when women challenge his mistakes, even in private.