Canada’s Corrupt Liberal Government

Unlike Mark Carney and Chrystia Freeland, Karina Gould is not running for prime minister of Canada — at least according to her launch video. She has limited her declared ambition to becoming the next leader of the Liberal party of Canada: “We need to rebuild our party so that we can rebuild our country.”

While her opponents are running to beat the Conservatives — or at least to save the furniture — Gould appears to have no illusions. Should she inherit the party, it will be akin to moving into an unfurnished apartment during an affordability crisis, with a low bank balance to cover expenses.

Sunday afternoon, at the St. Alban’s Boys and Girl’s Club in Toronto, former finance minister Chrystia Freeland officially announced her bid to run for the leadership of the Liberal Party. To call the event tense would be an understatement.

What was quickly made clear is that Freeland is woefully unprepared for the Canada that lies ahead of her — a Canada with an increasingly extremist anti-Israel/pro-Hamas segment who, even with a prisoner-hostage exchange occurring in Gaza as she announced her bid, were still unsatisfied with her party. A party that, frankly, did everything it could to not help Israel and appease the protesters. And now it’s clear where that’s gotten them.

The race to become Canada’s next Liberal leader is shaping up into the battle that Justin Trudeau keenly wanted to fight himself — one in which U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump, and the forces behind his resurgence, are top of mind for Canadians.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre isn’t forgotten, but Trump has found a way to make himself a much bigger headache for Liberals in the immediate term.

Trudeau has spent months saying privately and publicly how much he was spoiling for the fight with Trump. He was sure that as Canadians saw the scope of what they’re up against — a vivid vision they’ll see on Monday when Trump is inaugurated, Trudeau and his government would be seen as the best, if only alternative.

Whoever “wins” will enjoy a bitter victory.

What drives a man like Mark Carney, who has held some of the most powerful economic positions on the planet, to subsequently slink into the role of prime minister of Canada?

“I’m not the usual suspect when it comes to politics, but this is no time for politics as usual,” Carney quipped at his launch to replace Trudeau in Edmonton. “It’s not the time for lifelong politicians such as Pierre Poilievre.”

Really?

Chrystia Freeland’s rally for the official launch of her Liberal Leadership bid had trouble launching Sunday afternoon. After a touching introduction by her two children, Freeland was interrupted time and again by Hamas-supporting protesters.

OMG this is comedy gold!

Chrystia Freeland says the one reason Donald Trump doesn't like her is because he's afraid of her.

How delusional can she be? pic.twitter.com/h15m38KTy0

— Bret (@Bret_Sears) January 19, 2025

OTTAWA—Former finance minister Chrystia Freeland made it official Sunday afternoon, telling a crowd full of supporters in Toronto that she is seeking the Liberal party leadership to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Her launch event was repeatedly disrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters, including one who attempted to rush the stage as Freeland began her remarks.

“I am not going to let anyone stop me from working with you, from talking with you, and from talking about how we together are going to stand up for our amazing country,” she said at the St. Alban’s Boys and Girls Club in Toronto Sunday. “There are definitely people who want to stop us, but we are not going to let them.”

Chrystia Freeland kicks off her campaign by getting screeched at unintelligibly by some kook wearing a mask.

What a shitshow lol. pic.twitter.com/tIgmCeoRF3

— Bret (@Bret_Sears) January 19, 2025

Hamas supporters are typically LPC/NDP so this is self defeating.

In the wake of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s drawn-out defenestration from his party’s top job, some Liberal MPs are opening the door to a formal mechanism to remove leaders, but most caucus members remain silent.

Three MPs told The Hill Times they support the party adopting the Reform Act in the next Parliament, which would provide a formal mechanism to remove a leader through a majority caucus vote—a tool that Liberal MPs lack in the current Parliament.

With the Trudeau government soon to become history, whatever happens in the next federal election, the most accurate portrayal of what it became comes from a 30-year-old book on the prevailing liberal political vision of our time – the vision of the anointed.

Well, he finally did it.

After literally years of rumours that he was preparing to run for parliament and being groomed as Justin Trudeau’s successor.

After he, reportedly, agreed to take over Chrystia Freeland’s job as Finance Minister in December, only to then, reportedly, pull back once her very public and pointed resignation made the job too toxic for someone with his ambitions.

The Liberal leadership race is now shaping up as a contest between Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney. Freeland represents the tradition of the senior colleague of the outgoing leader seeking the succession: Louis St. Laurent, Lester Pearson, John Turner, Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin. Mark Carney is in the tradition of comparative newcomers: the Trudeaus, Stéphane Dion, Michael Ignatieff. But they are seeking the leadership of a government that will be trying for a fourth consecutive election. Only Macdonald, Laurier and King- St. Laurent managed that and they were much more distinguished governments. (The case could be made that Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau won five consecutive elections between 1963 and 1974, but they were short terms, three were minorities and one was effectively a draw.) The vital signs of the present government are flickering and the flight of potentially presentable leaders away from this contest is surely indicative of the government’s poor reelection prospects rather than of any sudden evaporation of career ambition by other potential contenders.

Spare a thought for beleaguered Canadians who have had to endure a decade of Justin Trudeau, only to discover Mark Carney is now running to replace him.

It was bad enough that the Canadian Prime Minister, who announced resignation earlier this month, presided over the gradual destruction of Canada’s economy, immigration system and international standing. But now Canadians are facing the prospect of someone even more smug and incompetent (if that’s possible) taking his place.