Till recently, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was Canada’s External Affairs Minister who successfully and dexterously handled trade negotiations with the USA dealing through the tough bureaucratic team of the Trump administration. But she also teamed up with Trump on an anti-China mission that has not bode well for Canada as China is continually punishing Canada on the trade end as well as arresting high profile Canadians who are on death row after being found guilty.

By Promod Puri and R. Paul Dhillon

Amid the fall out in the Justin Trudeau government over the WE Charity controversy, and the subsequent resignation of finance minister Bill Morneau, who took free gifts from WE and only paid them back after the $900 student government scandal came to light, we see a rapid emergence of controversial Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland in the Liberal leadership ranking. 

Freeland has Prime Ministerial ambitions and it will be interesting to see how she props up Trudeau who has been her strongest champion in government giving her portfolios like DPM and previously Foreign Minister where she teamed up with the Donald Trump administration to force arrest Chinese Telecom giant executive, who remains under house arrest in Richmond, BC

Freeland, who will retain her Deputy Prime Minister post, has been assigned the additional portfolio of Finance Minister replacing Morneau.

Till recently, Freeland was Canada’s External Affairs Minister who successfully and dexterously handled trade negotiations with the USA dealing through the tough bureaucratic team of the Trump administration. But she also teamed up with Trump on an anti-China mission that has not bode well for Canada as China is continually punishing Canada on the trade end as well as arrest of high profile Canadians who are on death row after being found guilty.

In the rapid shuffling of Freeland, from one job to another, she has shown her versatility but it remains to be seen how she does in the Finance portfolio which is a key to incumbent governments being re-elected and is not a cushy cabinet post like her previous assignments.

There is little doubt that Freeland is perhaps being groomed by Trudeau to take over from him in case his various scandals with WE being the biggest during the pandemic, which took down Morneau and may take down Trudeau as well. 

But whether Freeland has what it takes to become the leader of the Liberal Party, in case Trudeau decides to retire from politics (the euphemism most politicians use for retirement is “for family reasons) or forced to quit due to the scandals, remains to be seen.

There is a huge question mark on Freeland and there will be many capable challengers if Trudeau left or resigned, but with Freeland, the Liberal Party has a grand strategy to retain power under a capable yet controversial woman leader.

Promod Puri is a writer, journalist and author of Hinduism Beyond Rituals, Customs, and Traditions. Websites: promodpur.com, progressivehindudialogue.com

R. Paul Dhillon is an award winning journalist and the editor of the South Asian LINK newspaper and founder-editor of the online DESIBUZZCanada and DESIBUZZbc publications. He is also a filmmaker with over 40 production credits on documentaries and feature films. His recent feature romantic comedy THE FUSION GENERATION was released in Canadian theatres in August 2019.