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.

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Pierre Poilievre had a good week. Nay, a very good week.

And he didn’t even have to do anything to get it.

The application of the Emergencies Act. The rise in interest rates. And a trip to London.

Events, dear boy, events: long-ago British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was asked by a journalist about his biggest political challenges. “Events, dear boy, events,” was Macmillan’s pithy reply.

Events cut both ways, however. What’s bad for Liberal Justin Trudeau is, most days, good for Conservative Pierre Poilievre. And those three events have arguably nudged the freshly-minted Tory leader closer to power.

Let’s look at each.  First, the Bank Canada.

On Wednesday, Canada’s central bankers stepped back from the abyss, somewhat, and raised key interest rates by 0.5 percentage points.  That’s better than what some had been expecting, which was .75 per cent.

But, still.  It’s the sixth interest rate hike in 2022.  The so-called policy rate is now 3.75 per cent – the highest it’s been since 2008.  And the Bank of Canada is all but promising that more interest rate hikes are coming – their size to be determined by “how inflation and inflation expectations are responding.”

For most Canadians, that sounds decidedly ominous.  It means that, if inflation isn’t presently hurting you, interest rates will.  Because the cost of borrowing for anything – to buy a house or a car, to use a credit card – is going up and up.

Inflation, and rising interest rates, both help Pierre Poilievre.  For months, he’s been hammering away at the Bank of Canada’s fiscal policy.  At the start, his rhetoric was overheated – and his swipes at Bank of Canada officials, who can’t defend themselves, was unfair.

Now, Poilievre looks prescient.  If the central bankers don’t do enough, the cost of living will get worse.  If they do too much, we could be pushed into a recession. Either way, the Tory leader can’t lose.

The second “event” that assists Poilievre is the inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act, presided over by Justice Paul Rouleau.

Rouleau has ruled the inquiry with professionalism and restraint.  But the inquiry is more likely to be remembered as a lot of blame-shifting by the people who let the Ottawa occupation go on for weeks.

Police agencies, in particular, look terrible.  After previously nudging the government into applying the Emergencies Act, the police – from the RCMP to the OPP – are now claiming they didn’t.  The record suggests otherwise.

For Poilievre, this also amounts to a win.  While he got far too close to the “freedom convoy” types – whose leaders are now facing criminal prosecution for multiple serious charges – Poilievre’s earlier insistence that the Act was overkill may end up being seen as true.

The inquiry may well find that the Trudeau government used a legislative sledgehammer to kill a housefly.  And Poilievre, again, would be vindicated.

The third event happened in the pages of this newspaper: my colleague Brian Lilley’s revelation that taxpayers shelled out $6,000 a night for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – or Governor-General Mary Simon, we’re not sure who – to stay at London’s Corinthia Hotel.

Trudeau and Simon were in London for the funeral of the Queen, as they should have been.  But, by any reasonable standard, $6,000 a night is outrageous. Given that U.S. President Joe Biden stayed at his country’s embassy for the funeral – costing American taxpayers little to nothing – makes Trudeau and Simon’s profligacy completely unacceptable.

At a time of surging inflation, and rising cost of borrowing, $6,000 a night looks very, very bad.  As Tory ethics critic Michael Barrett told Lilley:

“At a time when Canadians are being forced to choose between heating their homes and feeding their families, this type of excess is shocking. Prime Minister Trudeau should explain to Canadians why he is living a lifestyle of luxury at their expense.”

Three recent events, all unhelpful to Justin Trudeau.  And therefore all quite helpful to Pierre Poilievre.

Sometimes, in politics, you don’t need to do anything – just stand there and reap the rewards.

For Pierre Poilievre, this has been one of those weeks.

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