Chrystia Freeland, Liberal leadership candidate.

There can be no other rational explanation for why the former finance minister is sticking around. None. Having fired a rocket directly at Justin Trudeau first thing Monday morning, she has now cleared the way for a run at the Liberal Party leadership.

And, make no mistake, she fired that rocket right at Trudeau’s credibility, and left his claims to be a “feminist” and a prudent administrator in tatters.

Wrote Freeland: “Our country today faces a grave challenge. The incoming administration in the United States is pursuing a policy of aggressive economic nationalism, including a threat of 25 per cent tariffs. We need to take that threat extremely seriously.

“That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war. That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill-afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment …That means working in good faith and humility with the Premiers of the provinces and territories of our great and diverse country, and building a true Team Canada response.”

“Costly political gimmicks!” Them’s fighting’ words, folks.

Freeland hit a bullseye, too. The markets dropped after her announcement — and, more critically, her planned lockup for reporters to go through the Fall Economic Statement was delayed, likely permanently.

Now, if Mark Carney joins Trudeau’s cabinet, it will be analogous not just to jumping on the deck of the Titanic — it will be like jumping onto a Titanic whose deck is ablaze, and which has a bubonic plague outbreak, too.

In official Ottawa, the most important part of any letter is the second-to-last line. Here’s what it is in Freeland’s declaration of war on Trudeau and his cabal: “I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues as a Liberal Member of Parliament, and I am committed to running again for my seat in Toronto in the next federal election.”

When Finance Minister John Turner broke with Pierre Trudeau, he left Ottawa and returned to a top-rung Bay Street law firm (where I was, full disclosure, a partner). He returned to run for the Liberal leadership in 1984, but his days away had made him rusty. He was prime minister for just 79 days.

So, when Paul Martin left, he stuck around, as Freeland plans to do — and plotted more or less openly against Jean Chretien. He won the leadership and became prime minister for the next three years.

Freeland is a woman and a Westerner. She is bilingual. She has been a journalist, and has held every major position in the federal government. While she will be tagged with many of the Trudeau government’s least-popular policies, she will also be campaigning more or less from the outside, now with some credibility. And, in the House of Commons, she will every day be a painful visual reminder of the failure of Trudeau’s government — and his “feminism.”

In the past week, Chrystia Freeland had been meeting with very senior Liberals to discuss her options. The advice, overwhelmingly, was to push back. Stop letting Trudeau humiliate you in public, they said. Quit. She has now done just that.

This is a government falling apart before our eyes, folks. If he had any sense, any self-awareness, Justin Trudeau would know that he has to go, too.

Somewhere, Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott are smiling. And nodding their heads.

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Picture a schoolyard.
 
Donald Trump is there. He’s the schoolyard bully.  He calls the other kids names, he threatens them, he pushes them around. Sometimes, he even hits them, for no apparent reason.
 
Other kids are in the playground.  They’re from all over. There’s Justin Trudeau from Ottawa, and Francois Legault from Quebec, and Danielle Smith from Alberta. And the newer kid, Doug Ford from Ontario.
 
One day, Donald again threatens the other kids. He says he’s going to take away the stuff that belongs to them. He says he’s going to hurt them and their families.  He says he’s going to do all these things because the other kids are bad. Not him.
 
Danielle and Francois immediately cozy up to Donald. “You’re right, Donald,” they say, in small voices. “We’re bad. We’ll do whatever you want. Just don’t hurt us.”
 
Justin, who also has a rich Dad and thinks he’s always right, tries a slightly different approach. “I’m going to come to your place and bring pizza and your favourite drink, Donald,” he says. “And you can make fun of me as much as you want.”
 
The newer kid, Doug Ford, watches all of this. He shakes his head. He then walks over to Donald Trump, eye to eye, and says: “Stop bullying us.”
 
And then he slugs Donald Trump in the nose.

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In October 1988, the Liberal Party started running an election ad in French about a free trade deal with the United States: “There’s just one line that’s getting in the way” of an agreement, the ad declared. Then, a hand appeared and erased the border between Canada and the United States.

Brian Mulroney’s Conservatives shrugged. Turner was spent force, they reckoned. The election was in the bag. Mulroney was going to win again.

On October 25, the English-language leaders’ debate took place at CJOH in Ottawa. There were no fireworks for most of it. And then, in the last few minutes of the debate, the discussion turned to the free trade deal.

Turner wheeled on Mulroney, jabbing a finger at him: “We gave away our energy. We gave away our investment. We sold out our supply management and agriculture. And we have left hundreds of thousands of workers vulnerable because of the social programs involved. I happen to believe you have sold us out.”

Mulroney grew red in the face. He sputtered and tried to interrupt. Turner was contemptuous: “[The] ability of this country to remain as an independent nation, that is lost forever and that is the issue of this election, Sir.” He said the word “sir” like it was a curse.

Turner went on: “We built a country East and West and North. We built it on an infrastructure that deliberately resisted the continental pressure of the United States. For 120 years we’ve done that. With one signature of a pen, you’ve reversed that, thrown us into the North-South influence of the United States and will reduce us, I am sure, to a colony of the United States.”

The impact was immediate. Within 48 hours, 72 per cent of Canadians said Turner won the debate. Internal polls, broadcaster Steve Paikin wrote in his excellent Turner biography, showed Mulroney was in big trouble – as many as 70 Tory seats were now in jeopardy, and potentially his Parliamentary majority, too. Frantic, the Conservatives started running ads calling Turner a liar and showing a hand re-drawing the border. The Tories’ ad guru said they were only saved by “bombing the bridge” on Turner’s credibility.

Which brings us to today, and Donald Trump. Who, according to his social media postings, is already regarding us as “a colony of the United States,” as John Turner memorably put it, so many years ago.

On Monday night, Trump posted this on his Truth Social platform: “It was a pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada. I look forward to seeing the Governor again soon so that we may continue our in depth talks on Tariffs and Trade, the results of which will be truly spectacular for all! DJT”

The “DJT” means Trump wrote his statement, personally. A few days earlier, he was a bit more oblique, and posted an AI-generated picture of himself under the words: “Oh, Canada.” In it, he is facing a mountain – one he possibly thought was in the Canadian Rockies, but which is actually the Matterhorn in Switzerland.

Confronted with all this, Trump’s fans in Canada shrugged. He’s just joking, they said, which is what they always say when Trump says something stupid.

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