Canadians don’t want a cabinet shuffle. We want a new government.
According to a recent Globe & Mail report, there is growing ‘tension’ between Deputy Prime Minister/Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and the Prime Minister’s Office.
The report indicates the PMO is concerned that Freeland has “not been effective” when it comes to “delivering an upbeat economic message.”
There are further indications the Liberals are looking to try and recruit Mark Carney, with speculation Trudeau would want to appoint Carney to the Finance Minister role in Freeland’s place.
Here’s the thing.
While Freeland is indeed quite unpopular, and while she is a terrible retail politician, the Liberals aren’t trailing in the polls because of her.
And unless she was dipping into some of the Liberal government’s ‘safe supply,’ it’s hard to imagine how she – or anyone else for that matter – could think Canada has anything to be ‘upbeat’ about on the economic front.
Canada’s economy is in a terrible state, with our standard of living dropping fast.
We are in a per capita GDP recession, and huge immigration increases are the only thing stopping the country from entering an ‘official’ recession.
Investment is fleeing, entrepreneurial people are heading elsewhere, an entire generation feels locked out of housing and opportunity, and we are falling further and further behind peer nations.
Nobody could positively spin this.
Was Freeland acting against Trudeau’s wishes? Of course not.
If Trudeau is attempting to throw Freeland under the bus and pin the blame on her for Canada’s economic decline, he runs into a serious problem:
He’s the one who appointed her as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister.
In Trudeau’s judgment, Chrystia Freeland was the right person to manage the economy and exercise a significant amount of power.
In appointing her to the Finance Minister role, Trudeau moved away from the more fiscally responsible/pro-business mindset of people like Bill Morneau, and shifted towards a more interventionist mindset.
Freeland was imposing Trudeau’s agenda, not the other way around.
So, unless Trudeau plans to claim that Freeland went rogue – which would also speak poorly of Trudeau’s leadership skills – he can’t separate himself from the state of the economy on his and Freeland’s watch.
Of course, what’s really happening here is that the Liberal Party has been transformed into a quasi-cult of personality built around Justin Trudeau. Everyone else – except the ‘great leader’ is expendable.
As Jody Wilson-Raybould notes, this is not how a healthy government is supposed to work:
“The liberals being willing to sacrifice anyone, even the most blindly loyal, to try to protect and save a leader, makes it clear it is no longer a healthy or functioning political party….not to mention govt.””
https://twitter.com/Puglaas/status/1811468701843226742
After all this time, after all the damage done to our country and the ongoing Liberal slide in the polls, Justin Trudeau still seems unwilling to accept that he is the problem here.
Canadians don’t want a cabinet shuffle.
We don’t want a ‘new message’ from the Prime Minister.
We want a new government, a new party in power, and a new Prime Minister.
Spencer Fernando
