Politics doesn’t have to be the cruellest game, but that’s usually the way it is played. Right now, for instance, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland is definitely being played.
Three weeks ago, the political pressure was on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Would he quit after the Liberals lost the ultra-safe seat of Toronto-St. Paul’s? Former Liberal ministers openly called for new leadership as did one current backbencher, Wayne Long.
What is needed in these circumstances is a distraction to take the heat off the prime minister. And nothing says distraction better than the possibility of a minister — the deputy prime minister, say — being thrown under a bus (a note for the unimaginative: that’s a figure of speech and not a call for homicide by public transport.)
Earlier this month, the Globe and Mail reported that within the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), there were worries that Freeland was not selling the government’s economic policies as well as she should. Trudeau had also acknowledged courting former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney to get him to join the government.
The implications were clear: Freeland was on the way out and Carney on the way in.
However, such feverish and uninformed speculation must have been laid to rest last week when the prime minister gave Freeland a full-throated endorsement: “I have full confidence in her abilities, and the work we’re going to be doing together,” he said.
Indeed, when rumours swirled in August 2020 about the fate of the last finance minister, Bill Morneau, Trudeau was equally assured in his conviction.
“The prime minister has full confidence in Minister Morneau and any statement to the contrary is false,” Trudeau’s communications director said at the time.
Less than a week later, Morneau resigned because of irreconcilable differences with Trudeau.
A coincidence? Perhaps.
In February 2019, as the SNC-Lavalin scandal reared its head and questions were raised about the integrity and ethics of the prime minister, Trudeau gave a strong backing to Jody Wilson-Raybould, then the veterans affairs minister and formerly the attorney general.
“I continue to have full confidence in Jody,” he told a press conference.
Wilson-Raybould quit the next day. It is tempting to cite “irreconcilable differences” again but that might not be an accurate description of their relationship, since, according to her book, Indian in the Cabinet, Wilson-Raybould once told Trudeau, “I wish that I had never met you.”
When Trudeau expresses full confidence in a minister, rest assured the PMO is checking the bus timetables.
One of the problems when the Liberals do this sort of back-stabbing — call it the night of the long knives, the short knives or the kitchen knives, whatever — is that it detracts from their ability to govern.
Policies, new directives and important government announcements are all ignored as the prime minister grapples with the optics of a given situation. It is one of the things Morneau complained about in his book about his time in government, Where To From Here: A Path to Canadian Prosperity.
“Policy rationales were tossed aside in favour of scoring political points,” he wrote, adding that recommendations from the finance ministry were ignored “in favour of winning a popularity contest.”
Marc Garneau, former minister of foreign affairs and transport, tells a similar tale in his upcoming autobiography, A Most Extraordinary Ride: Space, Politics and the Pursuit of a Canadian Dream, slated for release in October. The government was too reactive, he says.
“It is not sufficient to pay attention only when a concern arises, something this government has made a habit of,” writes Garneau, who said he was “blindsided” when he was dropped as foreign affairs minister after 10 months.
Both men have noted Trudeau’s distant relationship with his cabinet. Morneau said Trudeau “had an inability, or lack of interest, in forging relationships with me, and as far as I could tell, with the rest of his cabinet.” Garneau references the prime minister’s “aloofness.”
Maybe Trudeau has problems forming attachments with people who are intellectually, and educationally, superior. Does he feel threatened by the Harvard- and Oxford-educated Freeland?
Morneau and Garneau were very capable ministers, but that didn’t matter. Once Trudeau had tired of them, or once scapegoats were needed, they were out. Freeland has been loyal to Trudeau, but she serves at the pleasure of the prime minister. When he is displeased, careers tend to implode.
On Tuesday, Freeland was in Markham, Ont. talking about low-carbon energy networks, but the press conference was dominated by questions about whether she still had a future as finance minister and deputy prime minister. Had Trudeau raised concerns about her, she was asked. Better ask the prime minister, she replied.
Pushed again, she replied, “To serve as minister in a cabinet, you do need the support and confidence of the prime minister…. I do have to feel that I have that confidence.”
There we have it, Freeland is confident that she has the confidence of the prime minister.
Meanwhile, the no. 32 to Parliament Hill will be along any moment.
National Post