Once upon a time, in a frosty northern land, the Liberals and Conservatives were engaged in trench warfare.
The Conservatives, always clever tactically, obtained a quantity of grenades and tossed them into the Liberal trenches.
The Liberals were startled by the spectacle of the incoming grenades. They quickly gathered the grenades, pulled the pins out and threw them back, which confused the Conservative trench. Heck, they couldn’t figure out where all the pins were coming from.
For the last couple of years, the Trudeau Liberals have reinstated trench warfare with a bit of a twist. They are tossing the grenades into their own trench. Specifically, the highest-ranking members of the government have been tossing bombs at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on their way out the door.
Former finance minister Bill Morneau abruptly left politics and aired his considerable grievances with Trudeau in his book, Where To From Here: A Path To Canadian Prosperity. That path, it seems, does not include Justin Trudeau.
Former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould quit when she felt pressure from Trudeau and his office to interfere with the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin. She tossed a book, Indian in the Cabinet, at Trudeau.
Trudeau dumped former treasury board president Jane Philpott when she supported Wilson-Raybould. Gosh, it might have been nice to have her around during COVID. Instead, she is doing great work at Queens University.
This week, the bomb tossing continued when former minister-of-everything and close confidant of the avowed feminist Justin Trudeau, Chrystia Freeland, quit cabinet and posted a poison pen statement on X. There is, we are told, a book coming.
By all accounts, it was a great day for Freeland and a bad day for Trudeau. Tossing grenades at the leader is popular with Liberals. I suspect in the coming weeks, Freeland will find that tossed the pin and is still holding the grenade.
Freeland almost certainly wants to replace Trudeau as Liberal party leader and prime minister. She and her team no doubt calculated that a highbrow resignation would help this effort, more than being a team member delivering a dismal fall economic statement and then being shuffled off to a non-ministry.
Freeland’s letter made note of the serious times. The United States, our largest trading partner, is no longer going to tolerate virtue signalling over military spending. She said it’s time to abandon political gimmicks and get our fiscal house in order.
Fair enough. Heck, I’ve been saying stuff like that for years. But Freeland only came to this startling revelation after she was told by the great feminist Justin Trudeau that she was going to be demoted from minister of finance and deputy prime minister.
Before that revelation, Freeland was prepared to tell Canadians that all was well. Yes, the promised cheques that would have given a family of four the tidy sum of $1,000 next spring had been cancelled, replaced by an additional debt of $8,000 for that same family. But what’s another $61 billion in debt among friends?
Before Monday, Freeland had been busy lecturing Canadians on how prepared her government was to win the coming trade disputes with Trump. Everything was rosy in Freeland’s world and Canada.
Until, of course, she got the same treatment Trudeau gave Morneau, Philpott and Wilson-Raybould. Obviously, that changed everything.
Freeland and the Liberals are about to leave us leaderless as President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office.
Well done, Chrystia.