Dear Katie Telford: It’s time to go, Part II
Who spun The Globe & Mail on Minister Freeland, btw?
What an interesting 48 hours that was!
For those who thought the Prime Minister was holding the Liberal Party back, you were so, so wrong. Near as I can deduce, the folks in actual power (there are but two in Ottawa) are quite convinced that the alleged problem has got nothing to do with either the PM or his senior staff. That dog don’t hunt!
To recap:
6am, Wednesday, July 10th: Toronto Star publishes my column titled: Dear Katie Telford: It’s time to go (see prior post “Dear Katie Telford: It’s time to go” July 10-24);
early morning, Thursday, July 11th: The Globe and Mail publishes a news story quoting two sources, who say that “the view of some senior officials within the PMO, including chief of staff Katie Telford, is that Ms. Freeland has been ineffective in selling the government’s economic policies that have come under assault from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. Other criticism includes that Ms. Freeland is not doing enough to win over members of the Liberal caucus, the sources say.”;
around noon, Thursday, July 11th: The Toronto Star’s Alex Ballingall gets a statement from one of the Prime Minister’s comms people saying that the he has every confidence in his DPM and Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland: “These assertions are not accurate,” the Prime Minister’s Office’s statement said. “The Deputy Prime Minister has been working tirelessly and effectively to serve Canadians since she was first appointed to cabinet in 2015.” (The PMO also once said that the assertions about our then Justice Minister & SNC weren’t accurate, nor were the CSIS leaks about Chinese electoral interference, but I digress.);
late afternoon, Thursday, July 11th: while in Washington for NATO meetings, the Prime Minister has this to say about Ms. Freeland in response to The Globe story: “I have full confidence in her abilities and on the work we’re going to be doing together.”
Trudeau also acknowledged, as first reported in the Star, that he has spoken with former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney. The Star’s Althia Raj wrote that they discussed Carney becoming finance minister, but Trudeau did not address that. He said he has “been talking with Mark Carney for years now about getting him to join federal politics. “I think he would be an outstanding addition at the time when Canadians need good people to step up in politics,” Trudeau said.;
earlier today, Friday, July 12th: The Globe added a bit more grist to the mill: “Two senior Liberals said Thursday that a cabinet shuffle is likely coming this summer, but that it would be held in part to replace ministers who aren’t seeking re-election in 2025. Several Liberals suggested Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson or Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne could take the finance post if Ms. Freeland departed and Mr. Carney sits it out. The Globe is not identifying the sources because they were not permitted to disclose private conversations and internal deliberations.”
If you’re at all cognizant about politics, or even common sense, you’ll appreciate that none of this was choreographed. When the PMO tabled the “July 2024 Comms Plan,” no one laid out a strategy to consciously distract from the Prime Minister’s trip to NATO meetings in Washington by leaking word that senior PMO folks were unhappy with Ms. Freeland’s post-Budget sales efforts; and that, by extension, she was to blame for her former staffer’s loss in the recent Toronto-St. Paul’s by-election.
If this was an actual PMO plan, I’d have hoped that they’d have seen the sense in waiting until, say, Saturday, if not next week.
It’s fair to assume that the PMO expected pressure in D.C. from various corners about Canada’s apparent disinterest in achieving our long-promised 2% defence spending target, which I assume is why the team was primed yesterday with The Big Announcement: that Canada was now ready to proceed to seek proposals to provide the Royal Canadian Navy with new patrol submarines that can function in our northern waters. That important commitment, which wasn’t as forcefully articulated in the recent Defence Policy update, gives Canada a viable path to getting to NATO’s 2% target by 2032. I was glad to see it, and you should be, too.
But that relatively “good news story” isn’t what everyone’s talking about today. As the week comes to a close, the focus is on the parallels between former Minister Bill Morneau’s final few days at the helm of the Department of Finance, and the words the PMO is currently choosing to apply to Canada’s first female Finance Minister. Given how loyal Ms. Freeland has been, it’s all quite stunning.
One of two things happened on Wednesday:
members of the leadership campaign team of someone who isn’t Ms. Freeland thought it was time to stomp all over the Finance Minister’s chances of someday replacing Mr. Trudeau; or
a couple of dedicated PMO staffers didn’t like reading in Wednesday’s Star that someone thought that Ms. Telford might have to take the fall for her Party’s difficult six months, and took it upon themselves to freelance with The Globe’s Ottawa bureau and offer up Ms. Freeland — if in fact a “sacrifice” was required following the Toronto-St. Paul’s disaster. Who better than the Political Minister for Toronto, and architect of the class warfare-driven increase to the capital tax gain rate (see prior post “How Freeland’s capital gains tax changes will harm Canada’s economic future” May 1-24)? An idea that most Canadians, including those who don’t ever expect to have the good fortune to pay such a tax, don’t support.
There’s no rational third scenario.
As with Gerry Butts’ exit over the SNC scandal, it seemed to me that the only way for Mr. Trudeau to effectively “change the channel” and get the Quit Monkey off his own back was to allow Ms. Telford to depart of her own volition. Clearly, someone had a different idea (bus meet Ms. Freeland), although I find it fascinating that I can no longer access the original Globe story from Thursday via the Globe’s own search engine — the one about “Senior officials in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office [being] concerned that Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has not been effective.” The original url now redirects you to the later story about Mr. Trudeau trying to recruit Mr. Carney to join his caucus, which is why I had to post an internet archived version.
It could be nothing. But it may also be possible that the Globe’s sources look a bit suspect now, given the PM’s stated excitement yesterday about the “work we’re [he and Ms. Freeland] going to be doing together.” Regardless, Mr. Carney knows well enough to look this gift horse in the mouth (see prior post “Is it time for Trudeau to throw a Hail Flutie pass?” June 29-24).
I reminded Star readers that “Trudeau has always followed Machiavelli’s advice to try to be both ‘loved and feared.’” Have we seen both tactics on display over the past 48 hours?
MRM
(this post, like all blogs, is an Opinion Piece)
(photo credit: Street Photographer (A), New York, 1951, by Irving Penn)