This is about as stupid as it gets. The move had nothing to do with gender. It’s a struggling PM trying to bring fresh faces into his cabinet in a desperate attempt to revive his flailing fortunes. Freeland’s tenure as deputy PM and finance minister has been unremarkable, and at best have kept the status quo going that caters to the corporations and the rich. Only thing of note during her time was her stance on Ukraine. Perhaps she should’ve been foreign minister.
Freeland isn’t even Trudeau’s first finance minister to quit. Anybody remember Bill Morneau? His feelings on COVID relief sound a bit similar to Freeland’s resignation letter:
Former federal finance minister Bill Morneau says that when it came to COVID-19 pandemic aid policy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the top advisers in his office favoured “scoring political points” over policy rationales, leading to him feeling like a “rubber stamp” ahead of his “inevitable” resignation.
“My job of providing counsel and direction where fiscal matters were concerned had deteriorated into serving as something between a figurehead and a rubber stamp,” he writes in his new book, out on Jan. 17.
This is about Trudeau and finance ministers, not women.
So, is Trudeau just too fiscally liberal for his fiscally conservative finance minister picks? I mean, a good finance minister does skew fiscally conservative compared to the rest of their party, regardless of which party they are a member.
I’m probably giving him wayyy too much credit here.
This is about Trudeau and finance ministers, not women.
If it really were about the mistreatment of women, Conservatives would be defending him. So yes, absolutely not about women! LOL
those who are focusing Freeland’s resignation on the fact that she is a woman are oversimplifying the issue and distracting from the true factors Freeland cited in her decision
Holy shit, yes. From her resignation:
On Friday, you told me you no longer want me to serve as your Finance Minister and offered me another position in the cabinet.
At the same time Trudeau is courting Mark Carney hard,. It’s possible there’s something else going on, but evidence points towards Trudeau trying to build a cabinet around someone new. And screwing it up.
It’s totally reasonable to call out Trudeau for his hamfisted and performative crap, but in this case I think he’s just bad at building a team.
I just love this meme, so I need to include it
It seems reasonable to me that under so much financial criticism and a 50% budget overrun they want to bring in someone with strong finance background. Carney leads two central banks, I don’t think it gets more qualified than that.
But also I don’t know how much Freeland fought the stupid cheques amid such a large deficit, and I don’t know how much Trudeau was trying to protect himself or the party.
That’s the thing: running a central bank is nothing like being a finance minister. Central banks should be apolitical and focus on whatever data they consume, while finance ministers need to get reelected (and should do what’s best for the country). I’m not sure how those skillsets overlap.
In an ideal world, the finance minister would have stopped the gimmicky cheques and would have focused on helping those in need, reducing costs (maybe with OAS/GIS reform?), and growing the economy. But the PM doesn’t want that.
The cheques are gimmicky yes, but they are communicative and have also been effective. Ontario’s conservatives did this to get re-elected, and they’re doing it again. It is also a direct re-distribution of wealth to the 99%, the same way our governments have been giving handouts to the corps and wealth. There are a lot of things I fault Trudeau for but not this one.
It’s a one time payout. It isn’t a long term solution. The feds could provide cash for people who need it. Maybe increase GST payouts for low income Canadians? It could be covered by reforming OAS.
I agree. It’s a gimmick. That didn’t stop Doug Ford. He’s doing it again. Nobody’s complaining. I won’t. I won’t complain against re-distribution of money to average joe no matter what form it takes.
What do you mean, “nobody’s complaining?!” Not only are people complaining in this very thread, Freeland herself specifically calls it out in her resignation letter!!
Yeah just here. Didn’t you see Douggie get re-elected with the same gimmick? that’s what I meant.
I bet Carney would’ve looked down on those cheques too.
If he’s competent, yes. But I doubt Trudeau would listen to him if he did.
We already know he won’t. He didn’t listen to his current finance minister. 😂
I feel like the CBC has published several opinion-based pro-Freeland (anti-Trudeau) pieces in the last 48 hours 🧐
Freeland is staging a coup. I don’t want her to be the next leader either. She is too close to the billionaire class.
I agree all around. But I don’t know how to interpret the CBC appearing to play sides here so much so soon
That’s how they survive, isn’t it.
CBC reporting this does point to his gender record yesterday
I know they’re quoting but you do not have to publish every scoop.
I was annoyed when they posted this, this clearly had nothing to do with gender. I’d he’d only hired men this wouldn’t have happened, so this actually just hurts feminism to push that narrative.
