In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on July 12, 2024, Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney discuss the likely fate of Chrystia Freeland, deputy prime minister and minister of finance. For those who remember what happened to her predecessor, Bill Morneau, a certain news story in the Globe this week — wherein sources close to the PMO said they're getting fed up with Freeland's terrible communication skills — suggests that bad things are headed the deputy PM's way. Your hosts talk it out — if she does lose her gig at Finance, does she go entirely out of cabinet? Take a different portfolio? Does she quit? Is this deliberate leaking to spook her into quitting, or a genuine leak from chatty insiders? Also, as Gurney notes, if the PMO is mad at her for being a bad communicator, they should blame themselves. She's always been a bad communicator. If they're just noticing that now, that's their fault.
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They also talk about this week's NATO summit. Gurney recaps his column, published in The Line on Friday, and they also chat about what Trudeau has gotten right on defence. He has gotten things right! But he's also demanding full credit for a promise that, to be blunt, simply isn't very credible, and he's also taking swipes at NATO's two-per-cent target itself. Which is weird .... since he committed his government to it! No one is asking Justin Trudeau to do anything that Justin Trudeau hasn't pledged to do, and Justin Trudeau is apparently unhappy about that. That's something we should reflect on. That's something the PM should reflect on.
They wrap up the episode by talking about some of the other stories that crossed their desk this week. Shocking revelations about the personal life of Canadian literacy icon Alice Munro are forcing a necessary reevaluation of her legacy. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre received a less-than-friendly reception when he spoke at a meeting of the Assembly of First Nations; your hosts get into that a bit as well. And lastly, the political fate of Joe Biden might already be sealed, and there isn't much that the Democrats can do about it ... probably.
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The Line Podcast: Trudeau steers Freeland under the bus