A day that rattled Canadian politics ended the exact same way Chrystia Freeland spent a defining chapter of her political career: Getting trash-talked by Donald Trump.
That blast from Freeland’s past came in a social media post from Trump late Monday, in a comment on her departure from Canada’s federal cabinet.
The post from the U.S. president-elect underscored their past tussling over trade and other issues. In the message, Trump continued his running troll of Canada, likening it to an American state, then adding a personalized insult of a former interlocutor who once frustrated him.
“The Great State of Canada is stunned as the Finance Minister resigns, or was fired, from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau,” Trump posted on his site, Truth Social.
“Her behavior was totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada. She will not be missed!!!”
The post drew new international attention to the eye-popping political drama unfolding in Canada. To date, it has not been a top news item in the U.S., which is busy with a gusher of its own political news related to the presidential transition.
It did rekindle memories of how Freeland spent key moments in her nine-year career in the federal cabinet; U.S. affairs were central to it.
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump referred to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as ‘Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada’ in a social media post on Tuesday. That sparked a question to Chrystia Freeland, deputy prime minister and finance minister, about how to negotiate with a leader who doesn’t seem to be taking Canada seriously.
Freeland was named international trade minister as her first cabinet position, then was elevated to foreign minister to deal with Trump in 2017, becoming the lead minister on cross-border issues.
In frequent trips to the U.S., Freeland won plaudits from American liberals. She even received awards from Trump’s U.S. critics who celebrated her as a defender of the liberal international order.
Freeland emphasized that by sharing books with her negotiating interlocutors about human progress and the dangers of sliding back into nationalism.
This elicited eyerolls – or worse – in Trump’s Washington.
Trump himself took a public dig at her, late in the NAFTA renegotiation: “We don’t like their representative very much,” Trump said in late 2018.
Yet the new trade deal was finalized a few days later. Freeland played a central role, occasionally frustrating her American interlocutors, before landing the deal.
Scenes from the Freeland-U.S. trade talks
The U.S. trade czar, Robert Lighthizer, blew up in different meetings over leaks from her side to Canadian reporters during the negotiations.
His deputy, C.J. Mahoney, snapped at Freeland in another session when, with a self-imposed U.S. deadline looming, she kept running out the clock.
In meetings, Freeland had ticked through Canada’s concerns with the proposed pact, one after another, occasionally reading notes scribbled in ink across her hand.
At one point, she voiced worry about one specific clause of the pact’s environmental chapter, related to anti-whaling provisions. She wondered whether Canada’s Inuit had an exemption to that.
With the U.S. facing a tight congressional timeline, Mahoney lost his patience and wondered whether she was prepared to sacrifice a multibillion-dollar trade deal over a whale-hunting exemption.
In his memoir, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner lamented that Freeland would spend sessions refusing to make substantive decisions, then walk outside to hold press conferences, “uttering platitudes.”
The Americans grew so annoyed they announced an agreement with Mexico and said they were prepared to move ahead without Canada; Canadian officials, meanwhile, described Freeland’s acts as a deliberate delay strategy, to press the U.S. up against its declared deadline.
Professional and friendly
With the pact concluded, Lighthizer eventually flew to Toronto to dine at Freeland’s house, with her family. In his memoirs, Lighthizer referred to their up-and-down relationship and insisted it wasn’t as bad as reported.
“[Freeland] is a plucky Rhodes scholar and former journalist who once found her way onto a KGB watch list when reporting in the former Soviet Union,” Lighthizer wrote in his book, No Trade Is Free.
“Much would later be written about the personal dynamics between the three of us, which, contrary to press accounts and the expectations of some, were always professional and at times quite friendly.”
But he conceded the early negotiations, in 2018, were bumpy. Lighthizer said he made clear he was committed to a substantive reshaping of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and it wasn’t clear the Canadians grasped that.
Ultimately, the pact was reached, with some changes the U.S. sought, including the addition of one element of long-term uncertainty: the deal must be renegotiated every decade or so, or it will expire. This was a U.S. objective, forcing the countries into a state of near-constant negotiation, which the U.S. believed would be to its benefit.
New negotiations are set to start as early as 2026. This time, Freeland won’t be involved. But in her resignation note Monday, she alluded to more immediate challenges with the U.S.
She said Trudeau had offered her a role overseeing Canada-U.S. relations, without any department responding to her. She viewed it as a demotion and resigned on the day she was to deliver a budget update.
Freeland added that she opposed new fiscal measures that would unnecessarily deplete Canada’s finances in case of a potential economic emergency: Tariff threats from Trump.
