After nearly a decade in power, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finally bowed to a chorus of criticism that had become too loud to ignore, announcing his resignation on Monday. Among the loudest critics was one of his most loyal and longest-serving deputies. <\/p>\n
In December, then-Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland had sharply rebuked what she described as Trudeau\u2019s pursuit of \u201ccostly political gimmicks,\u201d referring to recent policy proposals including a two-month sales tax holiday and 250 Canadian dollar ($175) rebates for most workers. <\/p>\n
She and Trudeau had \u201cfound ourselves at odds about the best path forward,\u201d she wrote in a resignation letter, adding a jab at her boss\u2019s waning popularity: Canadians \u201cknow when we are working for them, and they equally know when we are focused on ourselves,\u201d Freeland said. <\/p>\n
Just a few weeks later, Trudeau would announce his own resignation. <\/p>\n
\u201cRemoving me from the equation as the leader who will fight the next election for the Liberal Party should also decrease the level of polarization that we\u2019re seeing right now in the House and Canadian politics,\u201d he said on Monday as he stepped down. <\/p>\n
While Trudeau had already faced heat from a disenchanted public and rising opposition movement, Freeland\u2019s public letter was a stunning turn for a once-steadfast ally of Trudeau. <\/p>\n
Was it also her campaign manifesto? Members of Trudeau\u2019s ruling Liberal Party are now preparing to vie for the top seat, and the 56-year-old Freeland is already widely seen as one of the top possible contenders. <\/p>\n
A poll conducted last week by prominent Ottawa-based pollster Nik Nanos for CTV gave Freeland an edge when Canadians were asked to pick which of nine possible candidates for the leadership of the Liberal Party they found most appealing. <\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s opposition politicians also appear to see Freeland as a possible successor; a video shared by Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre last week heavily focused on Freeland alongside Trudeau in its depiction of the \u201cwackos\u201d in the government. <\/strong> <\/p>\n Freeland, a longstanding figure of the Liberal Party, has held a range of positions in the Canadian government, emerging as a magnet for international attention and earning the occasional moniker in local press as \u201cminister of everything.\u201d <\/p>\n During the first Trump administration, Freeland \u2013 then foreign minister \u2013 engaged in high-profile clashes with the United States over Trump\u2019s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada. <\/p>\n She was closely involved in the arduous negotiations to revise the longstanding North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which Trump has indicated he wants to renegotiate yet again. <\/p>\n Freeland has since become a personal target for Trump, who recently criticized her as \u201ctotally toxic and not at all conducive to making deals.\u201d <\/p>\n Freeland has said Trump acted as a \u201cbully\u201d during negotiations after Trump\u2019s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner criticized her own negotiating tactics in his memoir. <\/p>\n Born to a Ukrainian mother in the western province of Alberta, Freeland studied at Harvard University before going on to work as a journalist covering Russia and Ukraine for several years. <\/p>\n She then worked in Canada before successfully running a campaign for a place in Parliament within Trudeau\u2019s Liberal Party in 2013. After Trudeau was elected prime minister, Freeland\u2019s career also ascended. First to the position of minister of international trade, followed by minister of foreign affairs before finally filling the role of deputy prime minister. <\/p>\n After Canada\u2019s finance minister resigned after an ethics scandal in August 2020, Freeland was appointed to that position and handed a struggling economy crippled by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n In this role, she was tasked with overseeing an overhaul of the government\u2019s finances and slashing a deepening deficit. Those responsibilities and the challenges associated with them contributed to the unraveling of her relationship with Trudeau as he introduced economic policies she disagreed with. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a huge Ukrainian diaspora community in Canada and the fact that she\u2019s able to speak to them in their language and identify with them has actually been a strength for her,\u201d said Turnbull. <\/p>\n Freeland played a key role in positioning Canada as a staunch supporter of Ukraine by pushing to freeze billions of dollars worth of Russian assets and provide expansive financial aid packages to Ukraine. <\/p>\n \u201cI really think we cannot understate the extent to which that Ukrainian battlefield is the battlefield of democracy and dictatorship,\u201d Freeland said in an interview at the Council on Foreign Relations last November. \u201cI think it is absolutely possible for them to win. And we just need to give them a little more support.\u201d <\/p>\n In the same interview, Freeland voiced her support for Ukraine to join NATO. <\/p>\n Her hardline stance on Russia has led her to run afoul of Moscow. In 2014, Freeland was among 13 Canadian officials hit with Russian sanctions. In response, she expressed her love for the Russian language and culture, while also noting that \u201cit\u2019s an honor to be on Putin\u2019s sanction list.\u201d <\/p>\n Among Canadians, Freeland is viewed as a capable politician but one closely associated with a government many have soured on amid a pained economy. <\/p>\n No matter who takes Trudeau\u2019s mantle within the Liberal Party, their mandate could be short-lived. <\/p>\n As he resigned, Trudeau suspended Parliament until March 24. Once Parliament reconvenes, whoever ends up leading the Liberals could face a confidence vote. That\u2019s one reason Canada\u2019s next prime minister is likely to try to keep parliament in a state of suspended animation for as long as possible. <\/p>\n The Liberal Party\u2019s path to holding onto power is already fraught, with polls showing Conservatives with an assertive lead in the coming general election this fall, according to Nanos. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be massively difficult for the Liberals. They\u2019re more than 20 points behind the Conservatives and the Conservatives have had a double-digit lead for almost 18 months,\u201d Nanos said. \u201cBecause they\u2019ve been in power since 2015 there\u2019s a wave of change in the country right now that is being ridden and led by Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative leader.\u201d <\/p>\n Pain in the Canadian economy, already under strain from inflation and high living costs, has been compounded by Donald Trump\u2019s threat of a looming tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico, unless they take stiffer action on immigration. <\/p>\n Canada has seen continual population growth, fueled partially by record immigration. But Freeland has hinted at potentially cutting back on immigration; in an interview with the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) in the wake of Trump\u2019s reelection, Freeland said that new migrants must arrive in Canada in an \u201corganized, systematic way.\u201d <\/p>\n Whoever wins the leadership of the Liberal Party faces an uphill battle and will likely need to lead the charge to remake the party, suggest polls and analysts. \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody expects that the Liberals are going to come first the next election. So the question is really about who\u2019s going to rebuild the party,\u201d Turnbull said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After nearly a decade in power, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finally bowed to a chorus of criticism that had become too loud to ignore, announcing his resignation on Monday. Among the loudest critics was one of his most loyal and longest-serving deputies. In December, then-Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland had sharply rebuked what she <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Who is Chrystia Freeland? The \u2018minister of everything\u2019<\/h2>\n
A Freeland government?<\/h2>\n