Today former finance minister and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland announced she is entering the race to become the next leader of the Liberal Party. Her decision comes just after that of Mark Carney, former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor.
Freeland has to be considered the front runner at this point. She was always touted as a successor to Justin Trudeau, and it was her break-up with Trudeau that basically led to his swift (albeit overdue) downfall. The only other people who have declared themselves as running are Jaime Battiste, Frank Baylis, and Chandra Arya. I have no idea who any of them are. I doubt anyone else does either. Even their constituents.
I think Freeland and Carney are both probably bright people, but have no business running for this position. Freeland got her start as a journalist, and wrote a book on growing wealth inequality called Plutocrats a dozen years ago that I think holds up pretty well. But I don’t think she’s a particularly charismatic type or that aware a politician. She might be a slightly more palatable Hillary Clinton, which isn’t nearly palatable enough. Compared to the rest of the field, however, she stands out. Carney has zero personality and I honestly can’t think of why he’s running. He’s everything Michael Ignatieff was and less. I’ll be shocked if he gets anywhere.
What we have here then are a pair of establishment stiffs who I guess plan to dampen enthusiasm and lean into their lack of personality as an antidote to right-wing, anti-establishment, social media-driven politics. And I don’t think there’s any doubt about who they’re really going to be running against in the next federal election. That is, Donald Trump. Which worked for Justin Trudeau, a complete political moron, but may not be enough to seal the deal again, despite Trump’s best efforts.
Anyway, these are just preliminary thoughts that I’m sure I’ll be revisiting as the next federal election looms into view. My expectations are low, but that means that any surprises may be pleasant ones.
Alex Good 
How can they be running against Trump? Canada is separate to USA isn’t it?
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They’re going to say “Do you see what’s happening in the U.S.? Do you want that here?” And that does motivate a lot of people.
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It is separate. For now. We plan on marching on, giving everyone a gun, and then telling them that they are now Americans and do something about it if they don’t like it. We fully expect them to meekly say “yes sir, yes sir” 😉
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We know all you want is the syrup.
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Yeah, that’s a given.
Except for people from Michigan. We have 2 couples in our church, originally from Michigan, and they BOTH like the fake maple syrup crap over the genuine stuff. Boggles my mind and tastebuds…
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You’d think they’d know better.
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It is really weird. They LIKE the chemical crap better.
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I’m looking forward to what you do with Greenland 🤣
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Nuclear silos every 10meters! 😀
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Oh, how we handle them.
They’ll probably petition to become our 51st state 😉
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I thought you had 51 already! 🤣
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Puerto Rico might “think” it’s the 51st state, but it’s not.
And canada will dither enough so they’ll probably end up being #52, hahahahaha 😀
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We’re not in any rush. #99 will be fine.
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You’re not in any rush. But what about the kids? You know how kids are, especially these days….
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We still have TikTok.
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that makes me want to say things I shouldn’t about TWO presidents, sigh…
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Man, sounds like you are in for some good times.
you have my sympathies. I hate political season….
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It’s going to be political season for this whole year. Actually, I’m not sure political season ever really ends anymore.
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when every other ad isn’t a paid for political ad endorsing a candidate, that is when I say it’s not political season any more 🙂
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Nowadays it’s more like what they’re talking about on podcasts all the time. And that seems mostly politics even when there’s no election. So I guess I should just unplug.
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That’s a good idea (to unplug). Not worth getting one’s blood pressure up about…
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