This past week was a bonanza for political junkies. It doesn’t get better than this!
On Friday of the week before, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fired Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland as Minister of Finance. On Monday, just before she was scheduled to table the government’s Fall Economic Statement, which in itself was a disaster, Freeland basically told the Prime Minister to shove it where the sun doesn’t shine in an open letter of resignation that went viral in minutes.
I am no fan of Chrystia Freeland. She spent too many years coveting her position as Trudeau’s right hand when she knew that many of his policies, especially economic ones, were wrong. As well, I became tired of her always wagging her finger at me every time she spoke. I had the feeling she was talking down to Canadians as if only she knew better.
But, what she did on Monday was nothing less than a takedown and likely a public launch of her own leadership campaign. Many in the Liberal Party will see it as the ultimate act of disloyalty.
Others, however, believe what she did was simply telling it like it is and opening the door for so many others in the Liberal Party to express their belief that it is time for Justin Trudeau to go. What Freeland accomplished was to release an avalanche of bottled-up discontent that increased throughout the week.
Toronto Star columnist Athia Raj summed it up pretty well when she posted online, “The Liberal Party is collapsing, Budget exploded, Finance Minister fired, Liberal members demanding Trudeau’s resignation, Sean Fraser (Minister of Housing) resigning and a Cabinet Shuffle. …………And Prime Minister Justin Trudeau does not address the Nation. UNBELIEVABLE!”
Clearly, the past week has shown that in relation to the leadership of Justin Trudeau, the rats are leaving the ship. It has actually been kind of fun to watch Liberal-leaning columnists and commentators who have been vigorously defending Justin Trudeau suddenly changing gears, a sure sign that the writing is on the wall. Even some of my Liberal friends, staunch supporters of Trudeau, are now, instead, talking about who the next leader of their party should be.
So, what happens now? It seems pretty clear, after this week, that if Trudeau does not get out, he will be pushed out. Anita Anand, Minister of Transportation and Internal Trade, recently suggested that the Prime Minister may soon announce his intention to leave and will stay as Prime Minister until his successor is chosen in a leadership race. She may be right.
It is in the Liberal Party’s best interest for a leadership race to take place in the near future. Their constitution requires that a leadership contest lasts three months. That would take them at least to early Spring, with media coverage of that race overshadowing everything else, including the Conservatives. Mainstream media love political leadership races.
National elections, to my knowledge, are never, or almost never, held during a leadership race. That is why the announcement by NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh that he is opting out of his commitment to prop up the Trudeau government is little more than posturing because it doesn’t matter, and he knows it. He is simply playing games.
The Trudeau Government, in my view, will not face Parliament again, knowing that they will lose a motion of confidence. They will set the agenda, and unless they are suicidal, they will find themselves in a prolonged leadership race with a result that will give them a chance to lower the distance between the Conservatives and themselves.
Who might become the new Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and, therefore, (for whatever short period of time), become the next Prime Minister of Canada is a very interesting question.
The front runners, of course, are very well known. Chrystia Freeland has already made her intentions known by pillaring Trudeau and saying she would stay in the Liberal Party and run in the next election. There was really no reason to commit to that unless she was after the top job.
Other front runners appear to be Mark Carney and Dominic Le Blanc and possibly Anita Amand and Jonathan Wilkinson. If those were the four, and if I were a Liberal, (which, let the record show, I am not) I think Dominic Le Blanc would be the best choice.
But I think there is a dark horse out there, one that few people will think about at this point, in terms of a national leader. Her name is Christy Clark. She is a former two-term Liberal Premier of British Columbia in a province where the Liberal Party has always been closer to the centre right than the far left.
Clark is well respected for her time as Premier and has maintained a national presence through media appearances. She has also made noises lately that she would consider running for the national Liberal leadership.
Why would she have a chance? She would be the only viable candidate who is completely outside the fence of the current Liberal government in Ottawa. Not even Mark Carney can claim that. On top of this, she is camera savvy and easy to like. She carries no baggage from the Trudeau era and is well-versed in both domestic and international issues. In my view, dark horse she may be, she is one to watch.
A friend of mine asked me, after last week’s shenanigans, if the government had fallen. It had not, but it had certainly been weakened, especially with the Prime Minister virtually in hiding.
In an opinion piece last week in the Toronto Star, Andrew Phillips wrote, “Canada at the close of 2024 isn’t in a great position. It hasn’t done what is needed to meet the challenges of a more dangerous world. It’s let a lot of problems slide and is now rushing to fix them only under the whip of Trump’s threats.”
After events of last week, few can now credibility deny that Canada has a significant leadership problem. Can new blood at the top of the Liberal Party change this? Maybe.
But it would be a long row to hoe with an election staring them in the face and the Conservatives with a lead of 15 to 20 points.
On top of that, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, unlike the Prime Minister, showed signs of statesmanship last week when, without Trump-bashing, he made it crystal clear that while Canada had some issues to address, we would never bow to Donald Trump. Canada, he said, was a proud sovereign nation and would always remain so. So much for the 51st state.
Clearly, the next year, both in Canada and the United States, is going to be full of challenges and, likely, more than a few surprises. Even those of us who are political junkies need to fasten our seatbelts.
It is going to be quite a ride.
Hugh Mackenzie
Hugh Mackenzie has held elected office as a trustee on the Muskoka Board of Education, a Huntsville councillor, a District councillor, and mayor of Huntsville. He has also served as chairman of the District of Muskoka and as chief of staff to former premier of Ontario, Frank Miller.
Hugh has also served on a number of provincial, federal and local boards, including chair of the Ontario Health Disciplines Board, vice-chair of the Ontario Family Health Network, vice-chair of the Ontario Election Finance Commission, and board member of Roy Thomson Hall, the National Theatre School of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada. Locally, he has served as president of the Huntsville Rotary Club, chair of Huntsville District Memorial Hospital, chair of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, president of Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and board member of Community Living Huntsville.
In business, Hugh Mackenzie has a background in radio and newspaper publishing. He was also a founding partner and CEO of Enterprise Canada, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm established in 1986.
Currently, Hugh is president of C3 Digital Media Inc., the parent company of Doppler Online, and he enjoys writing commentary for Huntsville Doppler.
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Big changes might be coming, but who’s to say they will be desirable? I for one, look forward to better border security. Maybe then the guns will stop migrating! That would be an improvement.
Trump soon takes office and Canada’s government remains gripped in drama and chaos. The latest rushed ‘border plan’ to try to change Trump’s mind on tarrifs, at just 1.3 billion over 6 years, won’t do it. For comparison, the temporary 2 month HST tax hollliday and now defunct $250 rebate gimmicks together would have cost over 6 billion in just 1 year. Trump knows this Liberal government is finished and is now trolling Trudeau for fun, spite and to help hasten his fall.
Canada needs a new government that is serious. Major policy overhaul is urgently needed on border security, crime, defense, energy, competitiveness, fiscal controls, US relations and foreign policy. Get ready, big changes are coming.
Interesting to refer to the scuttling, scurrying, ass-covering politicians as “rats”.
Does that seem to be coming the norm in the era of majority governments? Is the pendulum swinging too wildly? Politicians promise and then struggle to deliver. We now have a pending landslide in the offing according to the pundits. Will the new top rodent be able to right the ship before the people become restless again? There’s a lot of stuff needs work and does 4 years seem enough? And the only real targets seem to be the CBC and the carbon tax. Lord knows any of us can name a few taxes we would like to see gone.
We had majority government with Trudeau. Now it seems he should be in a hole. Mike Harris and his “common sense revolution” (remind you of someone?) promised a lot, couldn’t deliver, and people began to search for a rope and a tree. Dalton McGuinty delivered the first majority government in 70 years and then fled like a gazelle when it all began to unravel.
We had Stephen Harper with a majority government losing it to a Justin Trudeau majority. Talk about from ‘pillar to post’. How will our Ontario premier fare when the province tires? When “shucks” and “golly” and ‘pre-mixed drinks’ doesn’t do it any more.
But the big Kahuna of losing it would have to be Brian Mulroney. Majority governments two elections running and then the wheels fell off. When he chose to ‘abdicate’ there wasn’t a critter in the party that would be responsible to run out the mandate ’til an election. The only person with the cojones to do the job was a woman! That’s gotta’ be ironic.
I find the choice of the word “rats”, though maybe a bit derogatory to the rat, seems right in this political reference.
So rats it is!!
Trump suggested Wayne Gretzky should run for Prime Minister.
He would win over the likes of Poilievre.
At least Wayne is honest.
I agree with Ms Pendrith who stated in the comments:
“Poilievre and statesmanship do not accurately go together.”
Not even close.
“The commentary forgot to mention one of the latest “gimmicky” and very misleading antics of P.P. when at a press conference he told Canadians he was asking Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada to “pull the plug” on Parliament and bring down the Liberal government.
P.P. knows full well that the G.G. does not have the power to do that. Unfortunately many people arent parliamentary scholars and dont know that.”
Just like Poilievre goes on and on about the carbon tax that he claims is responsible for inflation.
PP also knows full well the carbon tax is rebated and he knows the Bank of Canada stated it is only responsible for 0.15% of inflation.
Among “Other dishonest tricks, are his continued unethical attacks.”
Remember “Poilievre ran in favour of carbon taxes multiple times in his career.”
He hopes you have forgotten.
Despite what Poilievre keeps ranting, for the facts, search “What if ‘Axe the Tax’ leaves most Canadians worse off?”
and “If Canada axed its carbon tax — and rebates — this is how different households would gain or lose.”
Despite what Poilievre keeps ranting, for the facts, search “There’s now a Bank of Canada number for carbon tax’s impact on inflation. It’s small”
“That number: 0.15 percentage points of the inflation increase can be attributed to the carbon tax.”
Almost nothing in fact.
Hmmm, Poilievre and statesmanship do not accurately go together. The commentary forgot to mention one of the latest “gimmicky” and very misleading antics of P.P. when at a press conference he told Canadians he was asking Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada to “pull the plug” on Parliament and bring down the Liberal government.
P.P. knows full well that the G.G. does not have the power to do that. Unfortunately many people arent parliamentary scholars and dont know that..
Other dishonest tricks, are his continued unethical attacks blaming Trudeau for everything, even for things that are the result of widespread global issues that all countries are facing, and when he spins things going well in Canada into negativity and so on.
The Libersl party requires a new leader partly due to public opinion, partly stoked by a voluminous firehose of negative media (mainstream and especially social)
Noone mentions that when Trump imposed tariffs *(steel etc.)in his previous presidency, the Liberal government acted and successfully forced Trump’s trade negotiating team to end the tariffs.
Trudeau is sure not perfect, but he’s done a lot of good for ordinary folks, which no one mentions: reduced daycare costs for many, significantly reducing water quality advisories on First Nations community, (Harper fixed none.) The list is long.
Trudeau genuinely believes he is the better choice for negotiating trade disasters with Trump. His record shows he’s done it before.
Poilievre would be far less successful based on his scrappy negative, attack mode performance so far. Statesmanlike he is NOT! I believe he’d be a disaster as Prime minister for average folks and for the country. Political pundits have their valid beliefs and opinions, I just wish they wouldn’t omit the reality of the balance between positive and negative. It’s like lying by omission.
Mr. Mackenzie, a predictable article, with not much new.
I suggest that as PP keeps his MPs in gag-order line, Stephen Harper-style, he will start to look like an alternative.
Sorry, not to me. the populist political, culture war rhetoric is deeply shallow for the solutions needed for complex problems we face.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t voter turnout in the most recent BC election @16%?
Now That’s Concerning! And should be for all Canadians who care about our country.
Good piece Hugh, although, I think Christie Clark is more than a dark horse. She is a savvy politician who is not tied to the dumpster fire that is the Trudeau Liberal crap show. Anyone tied to that legacy is certain to be obliterated in an election. If I was to even think about a liberal candidate, it would need to be someone unaffiliated with the nine year nightmare.
Well, the fallout from Trudeau’s botched handling of Finance Minister Freeland’s removal continues to grow. His caucus is in revolt as Liberal support craters, now some 25 points behind the Conservatives.
One would think Trudeau got the message to step down, but no, off he goes on vacation to ‘reflect’, while saying nothing of any substance. He is delusional, and seems determined to battle on. It would all be funny if the stakes weren’t so high. Our economy is weak, our $ is failing, cost of living is high, the deficit is out of control, taxes & crime are up, and that’s just the short list. People want change.
Fortunately an election is coming soon, now that the NDP support for the government is finally gone. The Trudeau Liberals are headed for an epic loss, and could easily finish fourth. The coming changes in Canadian government policy and direction are long overdue. They should prove helpful in dealing with the uncertainty and risks associated with the incoming Trump administration too.
An early Christmas present from Chrystia Freeland perhaps?
Merry Christmas to all. The rats, the dark horse, and even PP. May 2025 be a better year for all.
You are right: the Liberal Leadership is a mess! However, you are really grasping at straws when you say “Pierre Polievre showed signs of statesmanship last week”. Clearly you can’t say he he is a statesman, not ever. We need someone with class and backbone. PP isn’t even close.
This is political “kicking the can down the road” to the extreme. Trudeau was never supposed to last longer than one term, he’s a drama teacher with zero experience at this magnitude. Trump was supposed to do a full pull of 8 years to right the ship, even by brute force. The “deep state” that held the far left craziness together is now fleeing to escape life in prison which they deserve for the destruction they caused – billions of tax dollars stolen, the sexulization of public schools and no home ownership for anyone born after 1990. Thats terrorism – and a lot of you voted for it. Shame.