The most powerful woman in Canadian politics
UNFORGETTABLE SAGAS, SCOOPS AND SCANDALS
from Toronto Life’slong-form archives |
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Dear reader, There’s no shortage of awkward socializing during the holidays, be it office parties with distant co-workers or Christmas dinners with politically polarized relatives. But this year’s most cringe-inducing gathering had to be the Liberal caucus’s annual holiday party on Monday night. Indeed, no amount of free booze could ease the tension between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and MP Chrystia Freeland, who were forced to schmooze mere hours after the former finance minister’s very public, very hostile, very cataclysmic resignation from cabinet. Freeland had been Trudeau’s right hand since his election in 2015, serving in high-stakes posts including minister of international trade, minister of foreign affairs, finance minister and deputy prime minister. Over the past decade, she’s gone head to head with Donald Trump, stood her ground against Vladimir Putin, renegotiated NAFTA and guided the country through the economic uncertainty of the pandemic. Now, amid the threat of US tariffs and a whopping $61.9-billion federal deficit, many insiders on Parliament Hill view Freeland’s shocking departure—and scathing public letter to the PM—as a nail in his prime ministerial coffin. As speculation swirls around Trudeau’s potential resignation, the Liberal leadership bid, a snap election and Freeland’s next moves, we’re revisiting “The Negotiator,” Jason McBride’s 2017 profile of the most powerful woman in Canadian politics. For more great long-reads from Toronto Life, subscribe to our print edition here. |
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| —Madi Haslam, digital editor |
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She didn’t plan to become democracy’s last best defender, but one doesn’t really plan for Donald Trump. Inside the globe-trotting, crisis-quashing world of Canada’s tenacious foreign minister |
BY JASON MCBRIDE | NOVEMBER 21, 2017 |
Chrystia Freeland was barely five months into her job as minister of foreign affairs when she made a provocative speech in the House of Commons. She argued that the shared values that have governed the Western world were in peril and that it was up to Canada to help restore order. The orange-hued elephant in the room was not named. But here was someone who is in many ways Trump’s complete opposite—devoted mother, former journalist, dauntingly intelligent, friend of George Soros and foe of Vladimir Putin—telling the president to take his isolationist agenda and, well, is there a diplomatic way to put it? |
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