For once, Chrystia Freeland did the right thing. She had been told by her boss Friday that she would be taken out to a foreign-affairs-related pasture after releasing one last fall economic statement. On Monday, she quit before the press lockup could even begin, making public her concerns about the government while sending the government scrambling for a plan B.
Freeland’s franker-than-usual statement yanked another block from the dangerously wobbly Jenga tower that is the Liberal government: she and Trudeau were “at odds,” she wrote, and she was on the side of working with “good faith and humility” with the premiers and opposing “costly political gimmicks.” A welcome move, yes, but it doesn’t whatsoever make up for her poor record as finance minister. Freeland should not be venerated by conservatives.
The temptation to make the scorned former minister into a tragic sympathy sponge is strong, however, and on Monday, a good number of critics surrendered to its pull. Conservatives were quick to tack her onto the list of female former Liberal ministers who were previously ousted from the Trudeau cabinet. Namely, former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould and former health minister Jane Philpott.
Addressing the House of Commons Monday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre characterized Freeland as a woman scapegoated for the poor decisions of Trudeau and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, who became an economic adviser to the Liberals in just September.
“Instead of taking responsibility, the prime minister told her that she should take all the blame,” Poilievre said. “The good old boys in the back room would protect themselves and make the then-finance minister take all the blame.”
He went on to draw parallels between Freeland and Philpott and Wilson-Raybould, who he described “brave,” and challenged the prime minister’s feminist credentials for removing women from his cabinet.
Poilievre was one of many to take this line. MP Blaine Caulkins did the same, as did Shuv Majumdar, as did Jasraj Singh Hallan who decried this “slap in the face to women — not just parliamentarians, but all women.”
“They used her, and they wanted to blame her for the finances of the country going over the cliff, only to disregard her afterward.”
Conservatives don’t need to sanctimoniously rewrite the legacy of every female Liberal minister who resigns in a fit of icy rage. Sometimes, women are removed from their jobs, just like men. That doesn’t mean their bosses are necessarily sexist, or even non-feminist.
And yet, every time one of Trudeau’s leading ladies bows out, the retcon is the same: downplay her bad policies, praise her bravery and accuse Trudeau of mistreating women.
Wilson-Raybould did the right thing by eventually quitting the Liberal cabinet after it came out that she experienced pressure to violate her ethics as a lawyer in the prosecution of Quebec company SNC-Lavalin (now AtkinsRéalis). Trudeau later kicked her from the party.
But this unfortunately now overshadows Wilson-Raybould’s more substantial record of weakening the justice system: she began the work of repealing mandatory minimum sentences; she made it easier for offenders to receive bail. She even expanded Gladue rules, which previously only allowed race-based sentencing discounts, to apply to bail decisions as well.
The former justice minister’s bail reforms have widely been accused of letting crime run even more rampant in Canada — Edmonton police, Manitoba municipalities and even B.C.’s NDP attorney general have all made complaints.
Philpott, former Liberal health minister who quit cabinet in solidarity with Wilson-Raybould (and was later ousted from the party by Trudeau), is little different. She simplified the law to get more drug consumption sites up and running, stripping away guardrails that once protected communities from attracting dangerous drug-related activity. Post-politics, she continues to push for more drug decriminalization and, as the dean of Queen’s University’s med school, has developed race-based admissions policies.
Freeland is much the same. She owed her job to her finance predecessor, Bill Morneau being pushed out for being unwilling to overspend at Trudeau’s preferred levels. Freeland was willing, and as finance minister, she presided over some of the highest debt-to-GDP ratios Canada has ever seen. While she can blame some of that on COVID, it must be remembered that nearly half of the federal deficit in the COVID years was unrelated to the pandemic.
During the pandemic, mind you, Freeland notoriously ordered the seizure of bank accounts of convoy protesters. Whether one agrees with their cause or not, the move violated their constitutionally protected rights and set a dangerous political precedent. And for every unpopular decision, Freeland has done her best to evade accountability. She is famous for delivering long-winded, substance-free answers in the tone of a scolding elementary teacher to eat up the time of journalists and MPs looking for answers. Conservatives shouldn’t be concerned about Freeland being “used” by Trudeau — they should be concerned about how much of their precious committee time she used up as deputy prime minister.
For the most part, these women all have valid grievances against their former boss, of course (as do the male cabinet ministers who were ousted in a similar undignifying fashion). Freeland was dumped over Zoom. Wilson-Raybould was pressured to violate her professional code of ethics. It’s bad, but it’s not woman-hate, nor is it worthy of saintly status among Conservatives.
These ladies should absolutely not be made into martyrs on the right. Each was part of Team Trudeau, believed in his legislative agenda and worked to see it come to life. Eventually, each came to disagree with her boss in unreconcilable ways, and was being pushed for the door. They aren’t victims of sexism — they’re victims of politics. It’s that simple.
National Post