Chrystia Freeland just changed the game

Chrystia Freeland has only just begun to fight. That’s one of the many possible conclusions you can draw from her remarkable resignation letter. It clearly points the blame for her government’s recently announced (and widely criticized) GST holiday and $250 rebate cheques — that she describes as “costly political gimmicks” — back at the Prime Minister. It also clearly signals her intention to stick around, whether that’s as the Member of Parliament for University-Rosedale or a contender for Justin Trudeau’s job. 

Trudeau pretty clearly had this coming. Despite being one of his longest-standing political allies and the first female finance minister in Canada’s first self-professed feminist government, he was reportedly trying to replace Freeland at finance with Mark Carney. Worse, despite that rumour flying around Ottawa, which Freeland at least partly confirmed in her letter, he was still talking up his government’s feminist credentials. “I want you to know that I am, and always will be, a proud feminist,” he said at a Dec. 10 dinner promoting women’s involvement in politics. “You will always have an ally in me and in my government.” 

With allies like these, they might have wondered, who really needs enemies? 

Then again, his reported attempts to swap out Freeland for Carney isn’t exactly surprising. If anything, the disconnect between his stated ambitions and actual choices is consistent with an approach to governing that defines Trudeau’s nine years in power. Where former prime minister Jean Chretien believed in under-selling and over-delivering, Trudeau is guided by a fondness for over-promising and under-fulfillling. From electoral reform and Indigenous reconciliation to his pledge to govern in a more open and transparent way, Trudeau’s words keep writing cheques his deeds can’t cash. When it comes to being Canada’s first feminist prime minister, the cheque just bounced — hard. 

At this point, Freeland being the one in cabinet to finally turn the knife inward almost feels predictable. It wasn’t that long ago, after all, that Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott ran afoul of their leader — and were tossed out of caucus as a result. He and his government barely survived the ensuing fallout, thanks in large part to Andrew Scheer’s utter lack of charisma and talent, but this seems like a far more grievous political wound. The question now is whether his government has any blood left to bleed — and if Freeland can provide the political transfusion it needs to survive. 

It’s not clear yet that she’s running for anything other than her own dignity and self-worth. I’ve been critical of her work as Finance Minister in the past, and I remain unconvinced that she has the ability to connect with people that’s required to win an election. Her history of verbal gaffes, from the failed attempt to relate to Canadians and their cost of living concerns by talking about her household’s Disney Plus subscription to her more recent pronouncement that the economy was merely in a “vibecession” have been easy fodder for Conservative attacks. Her background as a financial journalist with global connections and relationships, meanwhile, is a poor fit for the populist moment we’re in. 

Then again, maybe she’s a perfect fit for what the Liberals really need right now: a chance. As pollster Kyla Ronellenfitsch’s data shows, Freeland is in a far better position right now to offer that than Trudeau. “Chrystia Freeland is not overwhelmingly disliked. About 1 in 3 Canadians have an unfavourable impression of her, and her ‘very unfavourable’ have actually declined since the spring.  The most common perception of Freeland is… nothing. Twenty six per cent of Canadians have a “neutral impression” of her, and 1 in 5 don’t know who she is at all.”

Freeland might be trying to change that. By spelling out her differences with the prime minister on economic policy, and making it clear that the recent attempts to bribe Canadians with their own money was his idea, Freeland is creating space to articulate a different option for voters. She could, at least in theory, present herself as the face of a more centrist Liberal party, one that takes things like jobs and investment more seriously. No, it might not work — but at this point, with the party 20 points down in the polls, almost anything is better than the status quo. 

This is an eerily similar setup to what happened in the United States last summer, when Joe Biden finally succumbed to reason and reality and stepped aside. And yes, like Harris, Freeland’s opponents would weigh her leadership down with the most unpopular aspects of her government’s track record. In other words, she might want to break more visibly from them than Harris did.  

I don’t think she can actually beat Poilieve at this point, mostly because I don’t think anyone can. But if Freeland could deliver the same bounce that Kamala Harris provided for the Democrats then she would be remembered as a saviour of the Liberal Party of Canada — one who, ironically, would have saved it from its last saviour. If she could somehow defeat prime minister Pierre Poilievre in the election that followed? Well, she’d be fulfilling the political destiny that Trudeau could have laid out for her back in 2021. You know, if he’d actually practised the political feminism that he preaches.