For some, the latest departure, along with increasing online misogyny and even real-world violent threats to prominent female politicians – Ms. Freeland among them – will only underscore the barriers facing women in politics. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a news conference with Ms. Freeland in Ottawa, on May 31, 2018.Chris Wattie/Reuters
Chrystia Freeland is just the latest high-profile woman to leave the federal cabinet after a clash with Justin Trudeau, prompting some critics to question the Liberal Prime Minister’s self-professed feminism.
Long before Ms. Freeland’s resignation as finance minister on Monday, other prominent female ministers have stepped aside after battles with Mr. Trudeau that boiled over into public view.
Former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould was demoted and then quit cabinet in 2019 after facing pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office to let engineering giant SNC-Lavalin (now AtkinsRéalis) out of a criminal prosecution for bribery. Former health minister Jane Philpott also resigned over the affair, and Mr. Trudeau expelled both from caucus.
That scandal, some critics said, tainted Mr. Trudeau’s feminist commitment, which came with a pledge to maintain gender parity in cabinet – a criticism echoed on Monday.
Former Trudeau environment minister Catherine McKenna, who declined to run in the 2021 election to spend more time with her family, criticized Mr. Trudeau on Monday in social media posts on the platform Bluesky: “I’m not sure the PM gets to call himself a feminist,” she said, adding that the “test isn’t what you say,” it’s “what you do.”
She also noted that Mr. Trudeau had boasted in a speech about appointing Ms. Freeland as Canada’s first female finance minister – just days before telling her she was finished in the role.
Ms. Wilson-Raybould took to the social media platform X to urge Mr. Trudeau to quit: “When the general is losing his most loyal soldiers on the eve of a (tariff) war, the country desperately needs a new general.”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, asked about Ms. Freeland’s departure and Mr. Trudeau’s status as a feminist alongside the other premiers at their meeting just outside Toronto, took a jab at the federal governing party.
“Well, all I would say is that Alberta has had three female premiers and there hasn’t ever been a female leader of the federal Liberal Party,” Ms. Smith said. “So I would say that perhaps somebody who declares himself to be such a supporter of women, maybe this is an opportunity for them to demonstrate that.”
Her recently elected Liberal counterpart in New Brunswick, Susan Holt, praised Ms. Freeland for her leadership: “I think she had a difficult choice to make. And she made it. And I want to recognize the work that she did for Canadians.”
For some, the latest departure, along with increasing online misogyny and even real-world violent threats to prominent female politicians – Ms. Freeland among them – will only underscore the barriers facing women in politics.
But Kathleen Wynne – Ontario’s first female premier, and a Liberal – said Ms. Freeland’s sudden departure shouldn’t put women off public life.
“I don’t see anything that Chrystia Freeland has done that would discourage women from getting involved. She’s going out very strong and very clearly was at odds with the direction the Prime Minister is going,” she said in interview.
Ms. Wynne said it was “unrealistic” for the Prime Minister’s to expect Ms. Freeland to deliver the fall economic statement on Monday, just days after telling her he was relieving her of her post.
She suggested Mr. Trudeau’s past comments about appointing Canada’s first female finance minister and being a proud feminist may have affected Ms. Freeland.
“I do think that it’s a bit much for him to have been touting her as an example of his feminism when he was about to fire her – I think that must have stuck in her craw a bit,” she said.
Liberal strategist Carlene Variyan, a former staffer for former finance minister Bill Morneau, who himself quit after clashing with Mr. Trudeau, said the Freeland affair, and the other high-profile departures by women, look to her more like battles over policy and personalities, not gender dynamics.
“Friction between a prime minister and his cabinet ministers is about as old as Confederation,” Ms. Variyan, who is an associate vice-president at Summa Strategies, a lobbying and communications firm, said in an interview.
She added: “But when you have a cabinet made up of 50-per-cent women you are certainly statistically more likely to see women cabinet ministers have clashes with the prime minister than you would have if you had a cabinet that was just full of men.”