A 'Proud Feminist' No More

Things are unfolding at a rapid rate, so I shall just post a few excerpts from Stephen Maher's piece published in The Star just a few minutes ago.

In a speech to a feminist political charity in Ottawa Tuesday night, Justin Trudeau lamented the election of Donald Trump as a setback for women’s progress.

“I want you to know that I am, and always will be, a proud feminist,” he said. “You will always have an ally in me and in my government.”

On Friday, the proud feminist had a meeting with Canada’s first female finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, and told her that he intended to replace her, presumably with Mark Carney, on Tuesday.

First, though, Trudeau wanted Freeland to present the government’s fall economic statement, featuring a gimmicky $2.7 billion holiday tax break the PMO had persuaded her to include. She would have to humiliate herself on her last day on the job by announcing a measure she opposed, missing the deficit target she had set herself in May. Trudeau had thus created a situation where it was easier for Freeland, his single closest and most important cabinet ally, to denounce him and quit, rather than do as he asked.

The departure of the long-suffering Freeland, the consummate team player, reminded me of the departure in 2019 of former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, who quit hours after the prime minister told reporters “her presence in cabinet should actually speak for itself.”

In both cases, the proud feminist put women who had shattered glass ceilings in a position where they were better off resigning rather than let Trudeau continue to humiliate them.

Taken together, the two incidents make Trudeau look like a narcissistic gaslighter, a fake feminist who thought he could subordinate talented women to his will based on his own excessive self-confidence.

With her departure, the whole operation now seems like a farcical mess.

On Monday, Trudeau huddled with his remaining cabinet. No minister who left the meeting would say out loud whether they still have confidence in him as prime minister. Five or six more ministers were rumoured to be ready to follow Freeland out the door.

The proud feminist now looks like a one-trick pony, a narcissist whose leadership was only effective while his charisma was working. Now that his charm has worn off, he is left with nothing, performing progressivism as if a breathless world was still waiting for his latest charming quip while everyone just wants him to go.

As they say, there is much more to come, so I'm sure we'll all stayed tuned with the aphoristic "bated breath".