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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s status as a self-described feminist is taking successful
Revealed Dec 17, 2024 • Final up to date 7 hours in the past • 5 minute learn
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Clockwise from prime left, Anita Anand, Treasury Board president and minister of transport; Patty Hajdu, minister of Indigenous providers; Catherine McKenna, former minister the atmosphere and local weather change; and Jody Wilson-Raybould, former lawyer basic and minister of justice. Picture by Spencer Colby/Postmedia; Sean Kilpatrick/CP; Seth Wenig/AP; Lars Hagberg/AFP through Getty Photographs
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OTTAWA — With Chrystia Freeland out as finance minister, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s status as a self-described feminist is taking successful.
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Trudeau has been largely out of public view grappling with the fallout from Freeland’s bombshell resolution to resign from his cupboard the identical day she was set to current the Liberals’ fall fiscal replace on Monday, saying she was doing so after the prime minister advised her final Friday that he now not wished her within the position.
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A Liberal supply says Trudeau knowledgeable Freeland of his resolution in a Zoom name final Friday morning, providing her to turn into the minister accountable for Canada-U.S. relations, which isn’t a standalone ministry and doesn’t have a price range. The supply stated a cupboard shuffle was speculated to occur by Wednesday.
In a scathing resignation letter posted to the social media platform X, the Toronto MP, who had been a loyal supporter of Trudeau’s, stated they’d for weeks discovered themselves disagreeing over how greatest to handle the nation’s funds and brace for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s risk of tariffs, criticizing his resolution to pursue “costly political gimmicks.”
Whereas Trudeau discovered himself at odds with Freeland’s predecessor, Invoice Morneau, over COVID-19 pandemic spending, Freeland’s departure is being seen by some former colleagues-turned-critics as one other knock towards his status as a feminist prime minister.
Former atmosphere and infrastructure minister Catherine McKenna posted to the platform Bluesky that she wasn’t positive “the (prime minister) gets to call himself a feminist,” saying “the test isn’t what you say, it’s what you do.”
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Upon studying of their colleague’s resolution, Treasury Board President and Transport Minister Anita Anand advised reporters it was hitting her exhausting, whereas Indigenous Providers Minister Patty Hadju wished Freeland one of the best over her resolution, saying “I respect her for it.”
Different Liberal MPs have come to her defence after Freeland’s time serving because the face of a few of the authorities’s most necessary recordsdata.
“She deserved better,” stated Liberal MP Sean Casey, who represents Charlottetown.
“Chrystia Freeland is genuinely well-liked, and I think on a personal level, we all feel badly,” stated Marcus Powlowski, Liberal MP for Thunder Bay-Wet River.
“I think she, too, is somebody who’s dedicated a lot of time on behalf of Canadians and doing the right things for Canadians. I think she’s a very capable person. I think all of us feel badly.”
Adam van koeverden, a Liberal MP from Ontario, stated he was amongst various MPs who’ve questions on what occurred.
Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland listens to a query from a reporter throughout a press convention on the Nationwide Press Theatre in Ottawa on December 3, 2024. Picture by Spencer Colby /The Canadian Press
Two Liberal MPs who attended Monday’s emergency caucus assembly confirmed that Freeland acquired a standing ovation from the room.
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Freeland was additionally greeted warmly on the Liberals’ vacation celebration Tuesday night. Staffers, senators and ministers took turns hugging her. She applauded as Trudeau delivered his speech to caucus staffers and MPs, together with when he attacked the Opposition Conservatives as having anti-abortion beliefs, with Freeland rising to her ft and clapping.
Contained in the Home of Commons earlier within the day, Conservative MPs accused Trudeau of being a “fake feminist prime minister,” which is a typical assault they use towards him, given the departures of different ladies from high-profile cupboard roles.
Jody Wilson-Raybould, who in 2015 grew to become the primary Indigenous particular person to function justice minister and lawyer basic, resigned in 2019, after she was demoted as she and Trudeau discovered themselves at odds over a deferred prosecution settlement for engineering big SNC-Lavalin, now AtkinsRéalis.
Jane Philpott, former well being minister, resigned in assist of Wilson-Raybould.
Each took to X after Freeland’s information, with Wilson-Raybould delivering a warning that, “when the general is losing his most loyal soldiers on the eve of a (tariff) war, the country desperately needs a new general.”
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Philpott posted a message providing encouragement to her former colleague, saying “hold your head high, my friend.”
Celina Caesar-Chavannes, who stepped down as a Liberal MP, additionally throughout Trudeau’s first majority time period, advised CBC that Freeland’s resignation looks like “history’s repeating itself” from 2019, saying “look at the body count of women.”
Ladies and Gender Equality Minister Marci Ien rejected any notion Freeland’s exit challenges Trudeau’s status as a feminist.
She advised the Ontario Chronicle she “absolutely” nonetheless considers him to be, saying “I’m here.”
The minister added she wouldn’t name Trudeau’s commitments as a feminist political chief into query “at all” over what occurred with Freeland.
Different Liberal MPs weren’t prepared to defend the prime minister as vocally.
Sophie Chatel, who represents a Quebec driving, when requested whether or not she considers Trudeau to nonetheless be a feminist prime minister stated, “I’m not answering those questions yet. I’m in reflection as well.”
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In the meantime, Annie Koutrakis, Liberal MP for the Quebec driving of Vimy, stated, “I think you’ll have to ask him that.”
Earlier than informing Freeland he now not wished her to function finance minister, a task she has held since 2020, Trudeau delivered a speech to the Equal Voice Basis final week, the place he touted himself as a proud feminist and ally to ladies.
He advised the muse, which advocates for extra ladies to be concerned in politics, that girls’s progress was underneath assault, pointing to Trump’s victory over U.S. vice-president Kamala Harris.
The muse launched a press release following Freeland’s information, saying she “is one of a growing list of powerful women who have resigned from politics in unusual circumstances, often facing scrutiny and expectations distinct from their male counterparts,” saying it was a state of affairs not distinctive to 1 political celebration or stage of presidency.
Alicia Natividad, nationwide director of the Nationwide Liberal Ladies’s Fee for the Liberal celebration, declined an interview, however stated in an e mail she respects Freeland’s resolution calling her “a strong role model for all women.”
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Since taking workplace, Trudeau has assembled a cupboard with an equal variety of ladies and men, marking a primary in Canadian historical past.
Freeland’s resignation has not modified that.
Nonetheless, he’s confronted with deciding how he may keep that with three of his feminine ministers — Carla Qualtrough, Filomena Tassi and Marie-Claude Bibeau — having introduced plans to not search re-election. Northern Affairs Dan Vandal additionally doesn’t plan to run once more, similar with Housing Minister Sean Fraser. Edmonton MP Randy Boissonnault’s departure from cupboard final month additionally leaves him with one other place to fill.
The Prime Minister’s Workplace has not but responded to questions on whether or not he intends to take care of gender celebration when he shuffles his cupboard, the timeline of which stays unclear.
-With recordsdata from Catherine Levesque
Ontario Chronicle
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