WHERE'S JUSTIN?

Do you enjoy a dysfunctional human resources story with catastrophic national ramifications as much as I do? No, I'm not talking about Pete Hegseth...yet. This one is local - but these days local is global. This is the tale of Justin Trudeau's downfall...

It's sad, but fun!

You can reach the Yes We Canada breaking news desk here: zimbel@videotron.ca 

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Yes We Canada - Where’s Justin?

 This is Yes We Canada a commercial and sponsor free independent podcast that depends on your support with a subscription for as little as three dollars a month by going to Yes We Canada slash buzzsprout.com and hit the donate button. You can cancel whenever you want. Ok, let’s yes we Canada and chill…

Lisa:  Canada Curious?  This is Yes We Canada The Progressives Guide to Getting the Fuck Out.

Hey, I’m Matt Zimbel in Montreal. This episode was recorded on April 20, 2025, it’s called  Where’s Justin? 

Ok my American exceptionalists we are in the final days of an election campaign up here in Canadastan and I know you hate thinking about other countries but …we know you’ve been thinking about us lately, we know you’ve been “Canada Curious”…come on admit it… you’ve coveting our sanity, our calm, our universal health care. You’ve been sizing us up, quietly wondering, ‘what kind of Canadian… would I be?” 

 That’s cool.  An exceptionalist can dream right?  

 I just want your dreams informed, enlightened and intellectually grounded in real shit. So, today I’m going to tell you the story of how we came to have a springtime election – it’s not what you think.  I’m going to give you the low down…the electoral brief… as it were and it’s gonna be a brief… the backstory quick and efficient – so you can do what you do best and keep thinking…mostly about yourselves. 

At the end of the pod, I promise you this:  At your next cocktail party you’re gonna sound  incredibly smart and worldly. 

“Damn, Festus, if Jagmeet loses the BC lower mainland, that’s it for official party status in the commons for the NDP, he may even lose his own seat.  Hold my beer. 

Ok, let’s get this over with.

In Canada we don’t have fixed elections like you do in the US.  Oh, wait, that’s a touchy way to phrase it…by fixed, I don’t mean stolen, I’m referring to the length of the term. The Prime Minister must call an election at least once every five years, but they can and often do call elections earlier. 

If the PM feels storm clouds are gathering on the horizon and they sense that the country is vibing them in a positive light, but may not be for long they’ll often call an election early to secure and maybe even grow their government’s size.  Because in the Parliamentary system, size matters.   Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called an election in 2021 just two years after being elected in 2019. He said he needed a fresh mandate after the Covid crisis. 

 Well, a Canadian election ain’t cheap, in fact they’ll run ya about 600 million dollars…so what did Justin get for his six hundred mil?  He lost the popular vote, and formed a minority  government with only five more seats than he held before the election. Five seats more…Damn, that’s some expensive furniture. 

120 million bucks a seat…

Trudeau also got the lowest popular vote ever for the party that would form the government. Ouch. 

 Let’s zoom out for a second…there are 338 seats in our House of Commons aka Parliament– kinda like your congress but not.  In Canada we have a “Parliamentary democracy “– which your right wing often mistakenly gets wrong:  

Canada is a socialistical state run as a “Paramilitary Democracy”. 

 So close!

 Yep, that’s our Parliament functioning as it should.

 Unlike y’all we have more than two parties in our House of Commons. I’mma break it down for you!

 But before I do – a lot of you have been asking me how come that handsome Trudeau fella isn’t running again.

 As I’ve said many times on the pod; Canadian’s love to follow but hate to be led.  So after almost ten years in power, Canadians got right sick of our handsome Prime Minister with the girly boy socks. Justin was losing by-elections all over the country.  

 No, a bi-election is not a contest where the candidates are all bi – it is an election in a district held to replace an MP outside the cycle of a national election. You call them special elections.  Well, our handsome fella was losing ridings or as you call them districts, that his party, the Liberals have held seats for centuries… 

 The electorate was not happy.Which created a caucus that was not happy because they thought they were about to lose the best job they ever had!  Just because of Justin.  

Calls started coming for him to resign…but he is not the kinda dude to walk away from a fight…you may remember this:

 Yeah that was Trudeau as an MP before he became PM in a charity boxing match beating the crap out of Conservative Senator Patrick Brasseau. You will not believe this but it is true…Trudeau and Senator Brasseau both formerly held jobs as night club bouncers…

Who knew that bouncing could lead to legislating…

Ok so last fall, 2024 - after ten years in power Trudeau is polling terribly, he’s losing the bi-elections, his caucus is in open revolt but he’s not budging…because as aforementioned, he relishes a good fight and he profoundly believes that Canadians will support the most leftist government they have ever had, if he could only explain his brilliance better to them in the context of a national election campaign.

But the knives are out, signed lists of MPs in Trudeau’s caucus who want him to resign are starting to circulate – the oust Trudeau movement has the big mo!  The media is in emergency “will he stay or will he go” mode and then… in a desperate attempt to stay in power the PMO (Prime Ministers Office ) makes a tremendous and ultimately fatal mistake.  A mistake so disastrous, so tone deaf, it deserves production value – it deserves it’s very own scrap of sound design, Pi?

 And then …this happened…

 Well lord thundering Jesus boys, did ya ever see such a ting? 

 Now if you’re one of those legions of folks who love a good dysfunctional human resources story…don’t touch that dial, we got you…

So it’s December of 2025 - Deputy Prime Minister (kinda like our VP without the motorcade) who is also the Minister of Finance, Christya Freeland is diligently working on her fiscal update for 2025. A fiscal update is kinda like a mini budget… it’s the one where the government usually tells us that they spent more than they thought would spend but eventually everything will be fine. The Parliamentary Budget Office calls the update “light fictional reading” and then we all go back to living our lives.  

I shouldn’t denigrate a good fiscal update. Sorry. A fiscal update is a big deal, it has all the pomp and circumstance of a budget, there’s an embargo that takes place in a lock up where the journalists surrender all their phones and internet compatible devices 

 The journos are corralled into a locked convention centre in this case Ottawa’s Old City Hall where they can read the fiscal update document before it’s released, so they can explain it all to us civilians at 4 o’clock eastern after the markets close.  

A fiscal update is fun… I’ve been… there’s even catering in the embargo!

Well on a Friday in late December, Minister Freeland is putting the final touches on her update before it goes to the top-secret printers, and she receives a call from the PMO – Prime Minister’s Office telling her that on Monday after delivering her fiscal update she would be shuffled into a new cabinet post!  Rumours were that the former Governor of the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney would replace her as Finance Minister even though he did not have a seat in Parliament. 

The PMO thinking was that a fresh new spiffy look to his Cabinet would reverse public opinion and help him win an election.

 I mean there was also chattering that the PMO was not fond of Freeland’s public speaking style which can best be described as a 4th grade teacher who is internally exasperated but holding it together as she speaks to her class.  

 Plus, historically there’s always a bit of push and pull between the PMO and the Finance Minister – The minister wants to do what’s right fiscally and the prime minister wants to do what’s politically right. Cuz lets face it Prime Minister of Canada? …. that’s a pretty good gig.  Comes with a plane and a motorcade.

 Minister Freeland is tough as nails and I was proud to have her as the first female Finance Minister in Canadian history.  A working mom as minister of finance … love that…she spoke French gooder than me, and she was the author of “Plutocrats: The Rise of the Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else” waaaaaaay back in 2012- before “Oligarchs” were a CNN green room talking point. The National Post called Plutocrats “the book 100 percent of the 99 percent need to read” (damn,  I wish I thought of that)…

 She was so far to the left that when Freeland was originally announced as Finance Minister, Bay Street collectively crapped their pants. Oh yeah, bonus point, she was one of 13 Canadians banned from travelling to Russia by Putin way back in 2014.  So, she’s my kinda lefty radical…but …she’s also the Government of Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister…I’m just going to let that sink in for a minute….

 Well, after years of being a faithful loyal Trudeau warrior…she gets word she’s about to be shuffled.  She says; “fuck this shit, I quit…” with a scalding Tweet that is at turns modestly respectful toward Trudeau and mad as hell. She resigns her cabinet post but keeps her seat  in parliament.   

Pandemonium – the journalists are in lock up and have no idea the minister who’s supposed to deliver the fiscal update in the House of Commons in a few minutes just quit – they have no clue what’s going on …because they have no internet access and they’re locked in a room!  Their editors and producers can’t reach them…this is freaking wild!  Eventually there’s an announcement saying there has been a delay because of a quote “development”.

At this point no one knows whether there will even be an update. 

… oh, lord thundering Jesus boys, this is strategic!  Journos in lock up - minister quits!

Who’s going to read the budget update in the house?  Gosh we seem to be fresh out of finance ministers at the moment. 

 Oh, my faithful exceptionalists – I know what you’re thinking – Matt you can’t leave us here! Who read the financial update in the house – I have to know …ok, ok, ok …Dominic Leblanc Trudeau’s old friend and the newly minted Minister of Finance who is also the Minister of International Trade,  The Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs , The President of the Privy Council and the Member for Beausejours, New Brunswick, with a side hustle of light housekeeping duties for the PMO.

Freeland’s resignation from cabinet is the end of Trudeau.  Trump tried to claim responsibility for his exit but …you not going to believe this but Trump lied! 

 On January 6th – that’s January 6th (Canadian)…January 6, 2025 our handsome fella resigns.  He’s as sad as we’ve seen him. Says he’ll stick around until the new leader is chosen. Which he does with elegance and passion as Trump amps up the 51st state tariff bonanza. 

 There’s a campaign for leader.  There are 4 candidates including Freeland – it’s all very polite and boring and I am not going to subject you to it.  Freeland doesn’t attack the front runner Mark Carney too aggressively because, and this is true… Carney is Freeland’s daughters God Father.  I told you Canada is nice and we all know each other, eh?

Mark Carney wins in a landslide.  

And after ten years leading our country Justin Trudeau just vanishes in a puff of smoke…

Look, I know this Canadian human resources intrigue is taking a while, are you guys still with me?   

Guys?

Pi where’d they go?

 Pi:  I have no idea.

 Ok, then hit the theme. 

 This has been Yes We Canada – our announcer is Lisa Evans, our sound designer is Pi Salin Cutler, the theme was written by Doug Wilde and myself and performed by Manteca. You can support the show with a paid subscription by going to Yes We Canada slash buzzsprout.com and hit the donate button. You can cancel at any time. Your support means a lot to our independent podcast.  Thanks for listening. Until next time!

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The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, P.C., M.P.

80 Wellington Street

Ottawa, ON KIA 0A2

Dear Prime Minister,

It has been the honour of my life to serve in government, working for Canada and Canadians. We have accomplished a lot together.

On Friday, you told me you no longer want me to serve as your Finance Minister and offered me another position in the Cabinet.

Upon reflection, I have concluded that the only honest and viable path is for me to resign from the Cabinet. To be effective, a Minister must speak on behalf of the Prime Minister and with his full confidence. In making your decision, you made clear that I no longer credibly enjoy that confidence and possess the authority that comes with it.

 For the past number of weeks, you and I have found ourselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada. Our country today faces a grave challenge. The incoming administration in the United States is pursuing a policy of aggressive economic nationalism, including a threat of 25 per cent tariffs. We need to take that threat extremely seriously. That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war. That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment. That means pushing back against 'America First' economic nationalism with a determined effort to fight for capital and investment and the jobs they bring. That means working in good faith and humility with the Premiers of the

provinces and territories of our great and diverse country, and building a true Team Canada response. I know Canadians would recognize and respect such an approach. They know when we are working for them, and they equally know when we are focused on ourselves. 

Inevitably, our time in government will come to an end. But how we deal with the threat our country currently faces will define us for a generation, and perhaps longer. Canada

will win if we are strong, smart, and united. It is this conviction which has driven my strenuous efforts this fall to manage our spending in ways that will give us the flexibility we will need to meet the serious challenges presented by the United States. I will always be grateful for the chance to have served in government and I will always be proud of our government's work for Canada and Canadians. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues as a Liberal Member of Parliament, and I am committed to running again for my seat in Toronto in the next federal election.

With gratitude,

The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, P.C., M.P.