In her resignation letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Chrystia Freeland criticized "costly political gimmicks" and said the federal government should focus on serious economic issues.Patrick Doyle/Reuters
It took Chrystia Freeland’s exit letter for the former federal finance minister to say what business leaders, and a vast chunk of the population, have long wanted to hear her tell Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It’s time to get serious, said Ms. Freeland as she quit the federal cabinet on Monday, after Mr. Trudeau told her on Friday he planned to move her out of the Finance Department. Time to “recognize the gravity of the moment” by partnering with premiers to face the existential threat posed by U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s planned tariffs. Time to deal with persistent productivity problems.
Enough with what Ms. Freeland rightly described as “costly political gimmicks,” like bribe-us-with-our own-money cheques for $250 and a two-month GST holiday on booze. Enough with working flat out to keep Mr. Trudeau in power, rather than focusing on what matters to Canadians.
“Inevitably, our time in government will come to an end,” Ms. Freeland said, openly acknowledging what polls have been saying for over a year. “But how we deal with the threat our country currently faces will define us for a generation, and perhaps longer.”
This refreshing candor begs a question: Where was this speak-truth-to-power version of Ms. Freeland in her five years as deputy prime minister and over four years at Finance?
For business leaders, Ms. Freeland’s wake-up call to the Prime Minister will be welcomed, no matter the motivation and timing.
CEOs across the country have long been frustrated by Ms. Freeland’s habit of listening intently to their advice, taking meticulous notes, then doing next to nothing to fix solvable problems. Her resignation on Monday showed the lack of action may have had as much to do with the Prime Minister’s priorities, and those of his all-powerful chief of staff Katie Telford, as it did with Ms. Freeland’s failings.
Most CEOs long ago gave up on Mr. Trudeau as a leader and look forward to his departure. In anticipation of that day, the business crowd is grateful to Ms. Freeland for using her exit to help set priorities for the next prime minister, whoever that may be.
In a line, business leaders want to see the next prime minister focus on building prosperity for all, so everyone gets a bigger slice of a bigger pie. They openly criticize Mr. Trudeau’s government for tax-and-spend polices focused on redistributing wealth as simply cutting the economic pie a different way.
“Tax-and-spend to me is like eating Sugar Pops for breakfast. You feel really good for an hour and you feel crappy by noon, at the end of the day,” Dave McKay, CEO at Royal Bank of Canada, said in a 2022 interview. “That’s what tax-and-spend gives you. It doesn’t give you sustainable prosperity.”
In need of a new finance minister on Monday to serve up Sugar Pops, Mr. Trudeau turned to one of his oldest friends, former Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc. The New Brunswick MP needs be ready for the same reputational damage done to Ms. Freeland and her predecessor, Bill Morneau.
After quitting politics in 2020, Mr. Morneau wrote a book – Where To From Here – that spelled out the reasons for his departure. He said Mr. Trudeau had a “lack of focus on policy details” that led to conflict between ministers and the Office of the Prime Minister.
Mr. Morneau said Mr. Trudeau struggles with building relationships and the Prime Minister’s “absence of personal connections sowed the seeds for a breakdown among many members of the team.” Ms. Freeland’s resignation letter echoed those lines, as did the departures of Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and Health Minister Jane Philpott.
In recent years, Mr. Trudeau has flirted with former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney as the political candidate who can cure what ails Canadian business. The fact that Mr. Carney remains outside politics, while Mr. LeBlanc is running the finance file, speaks volumes.
Mr. Carney, now chair of Brookfield Asset Management Ltd and Bloomberg LP, only wants one job in Ottawa. It’s not the one Ms. Freeland just gave up. The former central banker would have limited tolerance for costly political gimmicks and even less patience for propping up an unpopular Prime Minister at the expense of country.
Ms. Freeland’s exit letter likely hastens Mr. Trudeau’s departure as Prime Minister. That is an achievement the business community would applaud.