The News Rundown
- Former Liberal cabinet minister Chrystia Freeland is stepping down from her role as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s special representative for reconstruction of Ukraine, and resigned as MP as of Friday, after pressure from opposition, in light of her new job.
- Ms. Freeland said she is leaving in light of her appointment as an economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which he personally announced on X earlier Monday.
- Zelensky said on Monday: "Today, I appointed Chrystia Freeland as an Advisor on Economic Development. Chrystia is highly skilled in these matters and has extensive experience in attracting investment and implementing economic transformations."
- That same day, Freeland said: "Ukraine is at the forefront of today’s global fight for democracy, and I welcome this chance to contribute on an unpaid basis as an economic advisor to President Zelensky. In accepting this voluntary position, I will be stepping aside from my role as the Prime Minister’s Special Representative for the Reconstruction of Ukraine. In the coming weeks I will also leave my seat in Parliament. I want to thank my constituents for their years of confidence in me. I am so grateful to have been your representative."
- Her comments made no mention of the day’s worth of calls from Conservative MPs that she should have resigned as an MP before accepting the role with Mr. Zelensky because it placed her in a conflict of interest. Carney also didn’t mention the issue as he thanked Ms. Freeland for her work and wished her well.
- A source close to Freeland said she was offered the job by Zelensky on Dec. 22, and she told Carney about it on Dec. 24. The source said she expected to step down from her special representative role by the end of January.
- Instead, the opposition pressured her into resigning immediately to avoid another conflict of interest. Conservative MP Rachael Thomas said Ms. Freeland can’t be given a pass for supporting an ally: “No matter the ally, this is a clear conflict of interest. Canadians elected her to represent them in Parliament, not to work for a foreign government. Chrystia Freeland must resign immediately.”
- Freeland's resignation adds to what was an already fluid situation in the House of Commons when MPs left Ottawa in December. The Liberals had picked up an extra seat on the final sitting day when former Conservative Michael Ma crossed the floor to the governing party — joining Chris d'Entremont who defected to the Liberals in November. Ma's move put Prime Minister Mark Carney's government just one seat shy of a majority and Freeland's resignation will now put the Liberals back a seat, at least temporarily.
- Freeland's now former riding is a safe one for the Liberals, but will likely still be vacant when MPs return to the House later this month. Carney indicated earlier this week that he is expecting to call multiple byelections soon, though he didn't specify where.
- Freeland's seat is the only one currently vacant. But it's been reported that B.C. MP Jonathan Wilkinson and Toronto MP Bill Blair — both former cabinet ministers — are expected to be appointed to diplomatic positions, which would require them to vacate their seats.
- Blair's riding is a Liberal stronghold and Wilkinson has won his seat by wide margins since he was first elected in 2015. If either MP resigns to take a diplomatic posting, the same byelection clock now ticking for Freeland's seat would start for their ridings.
- Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, a non-partisan organization that advocates for democratic reform, said he believed Freeland was in a conflict of interest.
- The code for MPs states they cannot “improperly further another person’s or entity’s private interests,” while the law covering Freeland in her role as a parliamentary secretary includes similar prohibitions and bars taking outside work.
- Conacher said in his opinion the “entity” of the government of Ukraine will be assisted by her advice, and Freeland should have resigned as an MP before agreeing to take the role: “If the Ethics Commissioner rolls over and rubber stamps this as legal, it will not only open a huge loophole in the ethics law but will also show yet again how much of a lapdog the commissioner is, mainly because he was handpicked in secret by the Trudeau cabinet.”
- While it is good to see that Freeland eventually avoided the conflict of interest by resigning almost immediately, the political calculus behind the scenes still remains.
- Supplementals:
- On New Years Eve Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz announced her resignation from cabinet and that in May she would resign her seat for the Calgary-Shaw riding.
- Schulz said, “I have spent the better part of the last 16 years in politics — as a campaigner, a staffer, an MLA, and a minister — and I’ve truly enjoyed every minute of it. However, timing is everything in life and in politics, and it is time for me to seek new opportunities in my career.”
- Now perhaps the audience will keep in mind what’s happening in May.
- However, the Edmonton Journal had a different idea.
- This story was posted on New Year's Eve and later updated on New Years Day to be about half the length. We here at Western Context were taking a holiday break and did not archive the post as we normally do, so for this story you’ll have to take our word for it.
- The original piece included exposition from the author blaming internal UCP politics for Schulz resignation.
- That has been reduced to the following quote: “The handling of the teacher’s strike, violation of health procurement rules and a loss of upwards of $100 million by privatizing lab testing have put the ruling government at odds with many voters.”
- The article in the news section clearly carried the author’s opinion and did not respect the break between news and opinion.
- The article now quotes political scientist Lori Williams saying, “It’s either the government saying, ‘Let’s get ready for the election. Are you in or out?’ And she said, ‘No’.”
- Williams also brought up the recall votes and suggested that if some of the recall votes were successful the UCP could instead just decide to call an election given the recall votes and the use of the notwithstanding clause last year.
- Williams also cited a blow to the “progressive conservative base” and the reality of that line says all we need to know about the analysts.
- While there is still a moderate wing of the party represented by the central and northern Calgary seats and some parts of rural Alberta, thinking in terms of progressive conservative vs. Wild rose is counter productive.
- It’s counter productive because the party planks are now delimited by policies on affordability, Alberta’s relationship with Canada, a myriad of social issues, and many others with the goal of figuring out what works and makes sense for a majority of Albertans rather than simple old partisan lines.
- The article also cited recent polls from Leger in October showing the province headed in the wrong direction, Nenshi having a higher approval, while the UCP still maintains a vote percentage lead.
- Overall though the paper narrative will come crashing down.
- The first recall campaign’s signature gathering period against Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides ends in just under 2 weeks.
- They figure they have about 6,000 signatures before verification and need 10,000 more.
- The petition organizer admits that gathering that many in such a short time would be a major accomplishment and has said that if she doesn’t have the signatures she won’t submit the petition because those who have signed are fearful of this information being used against them.
- So yes, really, timing is everything.
- The petition, the timing of this article, and the timing of Schulz resignation.
- It is entirely possible that Schulz could be aware of a potential seat opening federally and be interested in pursuing that.
- She could just want out of politics.
- Or should could want to be the next UCP leader and is just creating room for whenever Danielle Smith resigns.
- Yet a sky is falling approach was taken by the media despite that narrative being just under 2 weeks away from failing.
- Supplementals:
- BC Premier David Eby has not been shy about opposing a new oil pipeline from Alberta to BC, but this week he's added a new twist to the story, by saying that public funds should be used for a refinery instead, and preferably in Alberta. It's not often that you get a premier hoping that the federal government spends money in another province, but this story is a little more interesting once you dive below the surface.
- The pivot, as Eby described it, is a somewhat surprising one for a BC NDP government that has, until recently, prioritized clean energy over fossil fuels like natural gas and oil. A new refinery would be a major polluter, and, at first blush, seemingly incongruent with the NDP’s CleanBC climate plans. Which is probably why the Eby government isn’t really considering one. It’s just suggesting the idea to Alberta.
- While Eby dismissed Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s calls for an expedited pipeline in the wake of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, he said the conversation should turn toward increasing Canadian refining capabilities. He said building refining capacity would be better than shipping raw resources out when the Trans Mountain pipeline is still not at capacity.
- More than 70 per cent of B.C.’s gasoline and diesel is imported, either from Alberta via the Trans Mountain pipeline, or through Washington state. The province’s only major refinery, Parkland in Burnaby, fell under U.S. control last year after Texas-based Sunoco LP purchased Calgary-based Parkland for US$9.1 billion.
- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the situation with Venezuela underlines the urgency to build a new pipeline to B.C.’s coast. Alberta and the federal government signed a memorandum of understanding in November laying out a pathway for a pipeline amid heavy criticism from some coastal First Nations. The agreement says the pipeline needs to be privately-owned.
- Eby said: “If we've got tens of billions of dollars to spend, I think we should spend it on a refinery and we should develop oil products for Canadians and for export, instead of being reliant on American and Chinese refineries to do it for us. I don't understand why, if we're talking about massive public investment into supporting Albertans in this fragile global time, we can't talk about supporting all Canadians with oil and gas products that are made right here at home while we transition.”
- B.C. Energy Minister Adrian Dix said such a project would generally be built near oil reserves, which would “imply Alberta,” although he acknowledged there have been proposals for a B.C.-based refinery in the past.
- While a refinery sounds good in theory, does it make economic sense to do? Adam Pankratz, a lecturer at the UBC's Sauder School of Business says no. “Refining in Canada is frequently suggested by politicians because it sounds good politically, but it's not an economically justifiable or feasible idea. We don’t know what the market is going to be for all of the various products that a refinery might produce. Gasoline needs to be sold within a few months, otherwise it goes stale. And so if you're refining it and don't sell it now, you have a worthless product.”
- This is true. The refined products market is generally more volatile than crude, and if the product doesn't sell, then it can become worthless. Unless Eby pivots even further to make it a new BC refinery proposal—basically, he’s just telling another province what to do.
- The last time British Columbia seriously discussed building an oil and gas refinery here was in 2012, when newspaper mogul David Black pitched a $13-billion refinery in Kitimat.
- Black wanted to build what would have then been the 12th largest refinery in the world, fed by Alberta crude brought in via rail, due to the collapse of the Northern Gateway pipeline project. But Black could never pull together the investors required.
- He said refined gasoline, diesel and jet fuel would be safer to ship via tanker, and easier than diluted bitumen to clean up in case of a spill. Also, refined products would get around the current federal moratorium on oil tankers.
- The then-BC Liberal government hired an outside consultant to review the idea, which concluded in 2013 that “building a refinery on the coast of British Columbia has economic merit and should be seriously considered by the government of British Columbia. The report finds that such a refinery would provide incremental long-term economic benefits to the region.”
- If we had more pipeline connections to the rest of the country then maybe another Alberta refinery would make sense, if the population centres in Ontario and Quebec were connected by pipeline to Alberta, and if export was already doing well through BC. But as it stands with current pipeline capacity, it just doesn't make sense. Eby is trying to shift the conversation away from what really needs to happen, and the media seems content with letting him get away with it.
- Supplementals:
Firing Line
- While many have been focusing on Canada’s relationship with the US this has created an integrity gap in the media where Canada’s most key stories are ignored.
- One of those is the ever stumbling pilot gun buyback program.
- We’ve received news that just 25 guns were taken back as part of the buyback program in the Cape Breton region of Nova Scotia.
- The government had been hoping for 200 guns to be collected where the government anticipated at least 2,000 guns could’ve been collected that were on the ban list.
- In December the government set aside $12.4m for Quebec to implement the program. This is interesting because Alberta has asked to run the program on their own but that request was met with silence.
- This program started with the Trudeau government in 2020 wanting to ban assault style firearms. These included typical guns that a farmer would use to protect livestock that had composite or metallic stocks versus traditional wooded stocks. Those with wooden stocks were not banned. The only difference, one looked scarier.
- Then there was the debacle that saw the government ask Canada Post to collect firearms but they said no.
- Now they have taken in just 25 guns.
- Another aspect of the gun buyback program failing requires looking to the community where it was implemented.
- The Charlottetown council initially voted against being part of the federal gun buyback program.
- They also said that they would not use their own police resources to take part in the program.
- Council voted 10-0 to not take part in the program in mid-December. Councillor Julie McCabe said, "It's a federal program. We have RCMP in our city who are under federal jurisdictions. For me, that was like a duplication of service.”
- The federal government is also not saying what kind of guns were turned in.
- Simon Lafortune, spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangare, said, "It was an opportunity to test the program's processes and systems, confirm what works well and identify and address any potential gaps or challenges before the program opens nationwide.”
- Their takeaway from this is that there were a number of “lessons learned” including clearer registration processes and more instructions.
- They also identified functional gaps in the online portal.
- The government has not talked about law abiding gun owners but there is a list of people on parole finding firearms smuggled into Canada and committing crimes.
- Babatunde Afuwape was charged in the killing of Shivank Avasthi at the University of Toronto. Afuwape was on parole after being convicted of undisclosed firearms crimes.
- Another shooting in Toronto saw a 46 Nigerian national murdered at a Yorkdale GO station. The perpetrator, Tyrel Gibson, had convictions that would have prevented him from owning any firearms.
- These are enforcement failures that are not being executed.
- It is more important for the government to ban guns that are “assault style” or “weapons of war” than to take concrete actions.
- This story isn’t a priority for most of the media. Sad but true.
- Instead 2026 continues the same way 2025 ran with a focus on Canada’s relationship with the United States and what Donald Trump is doing and how that impacts Canada.
- Canadians and the media have many paths to reducing their stress but there will be more stress in the future as these stories that don’t showcase the failure thus far of the gun buyback program are ignored by the media.
- Supplementals:
Quote of the Week
"Ukraine is at the forefront of today’s global fight for democracy, and I welcome this chance to contribute on an unpaid basis as an economic advisor to President Zelensky. In accepting this voluntary position, I will be stepping aside from my role as the Prime Minister’s Special Representative for the Reconstruction of Ukraine. In the coming weeks I will also leave my seat in Parliament. I want to thank my constituents for their years of confidence in me. I am so grateful to have been your representative." - Chrystia Freeland on accepting a role in Ukraine
Word of the Week
timing - the choice, judgment, or control of when something should be done
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Show Data
- Episode Title: Set Me Free
- Teaser: Chrystia Freeland resigns to accept an economic role in Ukraine, Rebecca Schulz resigns as Alberta environment minister, and David Eby wants a refinery instead of a pipeline. Also, the Cape Breton gun buyback pilot brings in only 25 guns.
- Production Code: WC-451-2026-01-10
- Recorded Date: January 10, 2025
- Release Date: January 11, 2025
- Duration: 55:42
- Edit Notes: Shane sneeze
Podcast Summary Notes
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Duration: XX:XX