, 11.07.2022 11:16 AM

My latest: Disney cake

Let them eat cake.

In fairness to Marie Antoinette, who was the last Queen of France prior to the Revolution, she probably didn’t even say that. Jean-Jacques Rousseau published an autobiography in 1767, and attributed that infamous phrase to an unidentified “great princess” – and, what’s more, Rousseau actually claimed she said: “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.”

Brioche” is bread. And there’s no evidence, none, that Marie Antoinette ever said “let them eat cake,” shortly before her head and her body were sent to separate locations by a guy wielding a guillotine. So let’s give the old gal a break, okay?

Chrystia Freeland, meanwhile, did say this to the media (who frankly resemble revolutionary executioners, some days):

“I personally, as a mother and wife, look carefully at my credit card bill once a month. And last Sunday, I said to the kids, ‘you’re older now. You don’t watch Disney anymore. Let’s cut that Disney+ subscription.”

She went on, digging herself ever-deeper: “So we cut it. It’s only $13.99 a month that we’re saving, but every little bit helps.”

Oh, boy. Where to begin?

She personally – don’t you love that she employed that Antoinette-ish flourish, “I, personally” – didn’t rely upon one of the 30-plus staff members assigned to her to break the heartbreaking news to the kids. She, the Minister of Finance of All of Canada, did it herself. She, personally.

There she was, squinting at her credit card statement all on her own, personally, and wrestling inflationary spirals to the ground. With a stroke of a red pen – there’s a lot of red pens to be found in Ottawa, in the Justin Trudeau era – voila! No more Disney Plus! Problem solved.

No more American Horror Story (Justin and Chrystia have been producing a Canadian horror story)! No more Kardashians (we get that already, when Trudeau and entourage travel abroad)! No more Lost (which the country kind of is, under the aforementioned Justin and Chrystia).

All those fine Disney-Plus shows, gone, much like Chrystia Freeland’s sense of self-awareness.

To get serious for a moment – just for a moment – did the Minister of Finance not notice the kerfuffle about her boss, the Prime Minister, staying in a $6,000-a-night palatial London hotel in the lead-up to the Queen’s funeral? Did she not note that the President of the United States, him personally, setting an example by staying at the U.S. Embassy and thereby saving his taxpayers a small fortune?

Or, has she looked at any polls – and God knows her department is addicted to polls – which tell her what Canadians are preoccupied with, these days?

It’s the cost of living, Ms. Freeland. And not Simpsons re-runs on Disney. Canadians, from coast to coast to coast, are focussed on how hard it is to get by.

Nanos: the top issue for Canadians is the state of the economy, far ahead of any other issue, with inflation not far behind. Abacus: 73 per cent say the cost of living is the most important issue they’re facing – followed by economy (45 per cent) and housing affordability (36 per cent).

Also Abacus: when asked what inflation and rising interest rates have made “much more difficult” to get, half said food. Thirty-five per cent said housing. And 34 per cent said energy – heating their home or fuelling their vehicle.

This, of course, is why Chrystia Freeland’s Disney-Plus gaffe was so plus-sized: it reminds everyone how utterly and completely out of touch the Trudeau regime is. They are tired, they are old, and they just don’t get it, any more.

Half of Canadians are trying to figure out how to properly feed themselves, says one of the government’s own pollsters. And the Minister of Finance thinks cutting some Disney cartoons will help?

Marie Antoinette probably never said “Let them eat cake.” But history says she did, so that’s that.

Chrystia Freeland, meanwhile, actually did – she, personally – suggest that cutting back on cartoons would help to put bread on the table.

You want cartoons? Watch the Trudeau government. They’ve become one.

21 Comments

  1. Martin Dixon says:

    I saw that on a a site in support of Pierre and it was so dumb, I thought it had to be fake news.

  2. Peter Williams says:

    This is what I heard:

    As a mother and wife, I personally, am having trouble making ends meet, even though I got a $15,000 raise on April 1, 2022, and make $279,000 a year.

    My heart bleeds.

    Median income for Canadians in 2020 was $39,500 Ms Freeland.

    Disney+? I gave up ALL TV years ago.

    I’m tired of the lectures from Team Trudeau, as they enjoy big raises, lots of CO2 spewing travel with luxury meals (Beef Wellington anyone?) and $6000 a night hotel rooms complete with butler.

  3. Robert White says:

    In fairness to Freeland she has become tone deaf due to all the jackhammers throughout the Parliamentary precinct busy renovating everything under the sun with the $6 billion CDN she allotted for the next five year accounting period ahead of the deflation of markets.

    PM Trudeau & Finance Minister Freeland gave us the New Deal 2022 Greatest Depression spending agenda
    last year where both were accorded cost of living increases via collective bargaining & Charter Rights protocol which is expected.

    Cutting television stations at home is not belt tightening for Freeland as she clears $368k per year as FinMin & Deputy PM. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t buy her own groceries either.

    Clearly, the only time Freelnad will experience any sort of cut will be to her principle residence when the housing market tanks due to a lack of buyers given the costs that are now outsized and no longer affordable for working class Canadians.

    Corporate Board Compensation determines pay scale for Freeland and Trudeau. Corporate board professionals are not suffering from the structural inflation unleashed via Finance Canada or the Trudeau Liberas.

    I actually like Freeland because she can fight and she has a proven track record of fighting as a Canuck. Her government is rather out of touch with reality though I have to agree.

    RW

  4. the salamander says:

    haha.. might be among you’re best work ..

    what was she thinking.. ?
    well if that’s thinking ..
    I’ll be .. uh

    Winner of the Battle of the Tone Deaf ..
    and weighing in at (redacted)
    ..
    Gad.. ! Her family is laughing at her

    But she does have a vague dreamy Disney ‘way’

  5. Steve T says:

    Freeland is to the Conservatives what Pollievre is to the Liberals – a gift.

    It is no secret that Freeland is being groomed as Trudeau’s successor, and I’m sure that is giving the Conservatives an absolute thrill. Freeland is the most annoying, grating, sanctimonious, tone-deaf person in the upper ranks of the Liberals. Yet for some reason the party keeps trotting her out for media scrums and the like. Maybe she has some appeal to inner-circle Libs, but every civilian I know finds her atrocious – and that’s including some Liberals.

    • Steve,

      Sure, but if we’re talking sanctimonious, the pre-PM Harper came mighty damned close to her level of sanctimonious. That version of Harper was irritating beyond measure. But he was smart enough to drop that BS in the 2006 campaign.

  6. Sean says:

    The Star Wars spinoffs are surprisingly sophisticated television… so I will keep my Disney Plus membership, thank you very much…

    Using that exact same standard / barometer for the Federal Government… I think I’ll stop paying my taxes.

  7. Martin Dixon says:

    Pierre’s speech at the Empire Club. Funny, self-deprecating in spots and discussing some issues that JT has literally no understanding of. None. The ironic thing is he likely speaking to a bunch of Toronto Laurentian Elite types that made out like bandits in the last few years thanks to JT’s shifting of the wealth from the families that have to cancel that Disney plan to them(the dirty little secret).

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u40RDafKiK0

    • Martin,

      If it went over well with that crowd, they’ve already read the tea leaves and are now trying to figure out how to royally suck up to the new guy in town who likely could be on his way to power.

  8. Big Mike says:

    If she really wanted to make a statement, how about cutting back on the CBC (I’d vote for that).

  9. Arron Banks says:

    This recalls Caroline Mulroney’s since deleted tweet when during her campaign for the PC leadership in Ontario, she lamented: “When you really want Italian but the crowd is too big and you have to settle for McDonald’s instead.” I guess that’s what you get when you have politicians who did all their uni education at elitist schools in the US and return to rule over the provincialists lol.

  10. Doug says:

    She also made a statement back in June about being able to save money by not owning a car because she lives in dt Toronto, likely in a housing unit worth $1M+.

    Canada hasn’t had a real Finance Minister since Joe Oliver.

  11. Shawn says:

    If a large segment of the population were to cut back on their Disney + subscription, the CEO and the managers at the top at the Disney franchise will just cut back on the hired help and non of them will go hungry or with out a roof over their head. Now if mom and dad are finding it hard to make ends meet they might be forced to make the decision to cut their daughters dance classes or their sons hockey or soccer teams(opps girls can play hockey these days too, how sexes of me). And if enough children are opted out of these extra curricular activities it could have an impact at the local level and businesses shutting down. I’m all ready hearing parents talking about making such decisions. The fat cats at Disney will get by, the local small business owners wont be so lucky. And its going to get worse.

  12. Warren,

    I’ve got news for HimselfTM and Freeland: their government isn’t by any stretch of the imagination worth the $13.99 she saved in personal economy.

    What magnificence awaits Canadians next with all that money? Subsequent to her life-changing sacrifice, will she selflessly donate it to a homeless shelter or food pantry? It would go a long way to feeding a caged bird at either establishment.

    Freeland, like her phoney-baloney boss has been permanently tone deaf since SNC. They personally betrayed two fellow cabinet ministers and a female MP and lost not a wink of sleep while quite deliberately doing it.

    These pathetic phoneys need to be kicked to the curb ASAP. From my keyboard, hopefully directly to God’s ears. Sink those bastards. It’s long, long, overdue.

  13. Douglas W says:

    Federal by-election coming up in Mississauga-Lakeshore.

    Ammunition for Conservatives, if they’re smart enough to make the most of it.

  14. Warren,

    Watching Anderson interview Nancy Pelosi: what class, what quiet dignity, what humanism, what grace, what politeness and what incredible resolve, decency and personal bravery.

    Very few other people in DC have what it takes to fill her shoes.

  15. western view says:

    The Trudeau Government has been holding the levers of power for 7 years and counting and has built much of its success through issues and message management. The collective has the attention span of whatever happens to be trending on the front pages, but nobody can say it hasn’t been effective.
    Something has changed though…any thinking political strategist working in the PMO would have known awaaaay back when gasoline rocketed over $2.00/litre, that a round of serious hurt was coming for Canadians, and coming soon. Ditto for the hurt young people are feeling as their mortgages go up $300/month.
    And what is the messaging while the cost of living chokes the life out of a pandemic worn population? Tone deaf platitudes that are guaranteed to make Canadians happy for how pissed off they are. Reduce the carbon tax, or at least suspend the looming increase? Not a chance, because we should be grateful that it is helping us transition to a green economy faster. Hope that solutions are being fast tracked for a reliable supply of Tylenol? Cranky Moms got a back handed slap, told to stop hoarding and there would be lots for everyone. Nuff said…
    There isn’t any attempt made to defend a $6000/night hotel room, or even admit who ran up the bill. The optics are terrible when people are setting aside their pride and admitting they need food bank support. If the only reason to continue on as Government is for the perks, let’s have an election and see what everyone thinks.

  16. Gilbert says:

    I don’t think Chrystia Freeland needs to save a few dollars. She probably thinks her children should watch less TV.

    • Ron Benn says:

      Gilbert, based on the quote from Freeland re the content being cartoons, I think it is fair to conclude that she hasn’t scrolled through the Disney + menu.

      Freeland’s script writers (which is the correct term to use when writing for an actor/actress playing a role) wanted to point out that many Canadians spend money on “nice to have”. When money gets tight, say due to a greater than 10% increase in the cost of food, the first place that Canadians should look is at their “nice to haves”.

      What we see is an explicit plan to deflect attention away from the actual problem. Government spending, using the Bank of Canada to fund this ill-considered “quantitative easing” (a more polite term than “printing money”), is contributing to generationally high inflation rates. Government, as in the (dis)organization in which Ms. Freeland plays the role of Finance Minister.

  17. Ernst Hemingland says:

    Warren Kinsella is 87 years old.

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