Without a paddle
Chaos reigns in Ottawa as a PM is put on Resignation Watch.
Gee, anything happen in the news over the past 24 hours?
Sean Fraser is out, after one of the most damaging ministerial records in modern history.
Chrystia Freeland is out, after refusing to accept a post-Fall Economic Statement demotion, and after lobbing a bomb under the cabinet table on the way out.
That aforementioned Fall Economic Statement was no statement at all, shotgunned out to reporters in place of proper presentation in the House, and it’s as bad as expected. The Liberals’ so-called “fiscal guardrail” was blown through by $20-billion, as if it were struck by a post-2021 Brampton truck driver. The final damage? A posted $61.9-billion deficit total.
60+ Liberal caucus members are said to have called for Trudeau’s resignation behind closed doors at 5pm EST.
Mark Carney, unelected man of destiny, has fled the scene, showing he has a thimble of political sense after all.
And how’s the PM handling all this?
That’s right, it’s business as usual, for now, for the self-heralded male feminist, who just slipped a knife into the back of another female cabinet minister who had the gall to tell him “No,” and who had allegedly become a liability in Trump tariff negotiations.
Not days ago, the same Justin Trudeau was lecturing the American electorate for not voting for a uniquely terrible candidate because she had an innie, not an outie.
The mind, it reels.
There will be lots to unpack in the weeks ahead, and far more developments to come. For now, here’s what we’re hearing at the Substack from sources in Ottawa.
Two to three more cabinet resignations are expected by the end of the week. Anita Anand, Minister of Transport, “wouldn’t be a surprise.”
Jagmeet Singh, still holding out for his pension at the end of February, has “no plans” to call for a vote of no confidence at present, despite NDP House Leader Peter Julian’s waffling remarks to the CBC.
The PM will be spending the holidays in British Columbia, and has told a restless caucus in revolt he will at least “reflect” upon the Liberals’ present position.
There’s nothing like a little Trudeau-Liberal schadenfreude before the House rises for an unearned six weeks of soul-searching and naval-gazing, but amusement should be tempered.
For one thing, Canadians deserve the honour of “seconding” for Justin Trudeau as he commits ritualistic seppuku at the polls. To weasel out now, months beyond what should have been the bitter end, from the furthestmost corner pocket of the Canadian terafirma he so callously desecrated for years, would be an insult to the voters who deserve justice.
And of more importance than delayed gratification of the feudal variety, millions of us are presently beset upon by historic domestic crises of immigration, housing, employment, healthcare, affordability, a hostile investment economy, both the government drug trade and the allowed government-fentanyl trade. Add a 25% American tariff on top of that, and that’s a country killer.
We can ill-afford months of Liberal posturing, sides being drawn inside caucus, and 75 more strongly-worded letters from Anthony Housefather; we need leadership, now, and that can only come from an election.
This is a chaotic and fluid situation. Anyone who claims to know for sure what will happen is as reliable as some foreign policy palm-reader, who would have missed on a development like Syria by a country mile, or claimed a Javier Milei could have never balanced Argentina’s budget.
But here’s what we know for sure at press time: whether it’s this Friday afternoon, on a rainy Tofino walk in January, or ten months from now at the ballot box, Canadians are getting their country back.
What shape it’ll be in remains to be seen.
As entertaining as Ottawa's events have been today, my brain has become numb. Watching television coverage of the Lib gathering has done that. Despite the breathless commentary by the talking heads of CTV and CBC, I fear that I'm one of millions who have resigned themselves to the fact that we won't see the resignation we are hoping for any time soon.
An excellent essay. Here’s a teaser:
“That’s right, it’s business as usual, for now, for the self-heralded male feminist, who just slipped a knife into the back of another female cabinet minister who had the gall to tell him “No,” and who had allegedly become a liability in Trump tariff negotiations.
Not days ago, the same Justin Trudeau was lecturing the American electorate for not voting for a uniquely terrible candidate because she had an innie, not an outie.
The mind, it reels…”