Kudos, Ms. Freeland

Like many Canadians, I read with some surprise today that Chrystia Freeland had resigned from the Liberal Cabinet. (Maybe you saw it coming, I was surprised.) I have never been a fan, but I should admit that was based on two somewhat superficial aspects of her.

One, in any public statements I saw her make, she conveyed an attitude of lecturing to lesser mortals who did not understand the subtleties of governing. Two, she seemed to be a(nother) toady to Justin Trudeau, speaking only in bureaucratic language designed to make shit smell like roses.

Neither of those things is all that damning, the first being perhaps just a deficiency in her communication skills, and the second being widely shared by her peers in government.

However, I want to say in this post that I read her entire resignation letter, and it raised her in my estimation considerably. This is largely due to her writing the following, which I quote in full:

“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% tariffs.

We need to take that threat extremely seriously. That means keeping our fiscal powder dry, 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.”

The implied economic analysis in that quote does not impress me. I am on record as being doubtful that the 25% tariff threat is all that grave a matter at this point, and I don’t see why Canada needs to keep its fiscal powder dry for a tariff war, as that will happen only if the Canadian government behaves as stupidly as Trump is promising to behave. Even then it will cost Canadian citizens rather than our government.

But the ‘costly political gimmicks which we can ill afford’ do indeed make this Canadian doubt the government’s seriousness. That Freeland seems to see that, and that she was willing to put it in writing impresses me. Not such a toady as I once thought. She has principles.

And, I give her high marks for two other aspects of her resignation. In the letter she explicitly states that she will again run for her seat in Parliament in the next election – she could have, but did not, add ‘good luck in your riding, Mr. Prime Minister’. And, she resigned on the morning that she would have otherwise had to deliver the Fall Economic Statement, in which she would have had to say that the government of which she was a part had blown by its own fiscal deficit promise by more than 50%. Yes, goodonya Chrystia for forcing your former boss to find some other toady to deliver those numbers.

Epilogue: I have now posted applause for a politician twice on this blog. I’m a little worried…..