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After France and Germany, Canada has become the third big economy to plunge into political turmoil weeks before Donald Trump’s return as US president. Finance minister Chrystia Freeland’s stunning resignation on Monday after falling out with Justin Trudeau has prompted calls for the prime minister himself to stand down — including from within his own Liberal party. Having leadership crises in three G7 democracies just when US allies must work together to deal with a new disruptive president in the White House is unfortunate. For Canada, the timing is especially poor. The crisis was precipitated in part by Trump’s threat of 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports, which could severely damage its economy.
继法国和德国之后，加拿大成为第三个在唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)重返美国总统职位前几周陷入政治动荡的大经济体。财政部长克里斯蒂娅•弗里兰(Chrystia Freeland)在与贾斯廷•特鲁多(Justin Trudeau)闹翻后于周一惊人辞职，引发了要求总理本人下台的呼声——包括来自他自己的自由党内部。在美国盟友必须共同应对白宫新任破坏性总统之际，三大七国集团(G7)民主国家同时面临领导危机，实属不幸。对加拿大来说，时机尤其不佳。危机部分是由特朗普威胁对加拿大进口商品征收25%的关税引发的，这可能会严重损害其经济。
The trigger for Freeland’s departure was Trudeau’s attempt to demote her last Friday, having reportedly courted Mark Carney, former central bank governor in Canada and the UK, to replace her. The finance minister and prime minister had been at loggerheads over the government’s plan for a wide-ranging exemption to Canada’s goods and services tax and a C$250 ($175) cheque for nearly half the country’s population. Critics have decried these steps as an effort to buy votes by a government trailing badly in the polls before elections due by next October, at the cost of a soaring budget deficit.
弗里兰离职的导火索是特鲁多上周五试图将她降职，据报道，他曾邀请加拿大和英国前中央银行行长马克•卡尼(Mark Carney)来接替她。财政部长和总理在政府计划对加拿大商品和服务税进行广泛豁免，以及向近一半人口发放250加元（175美元）支票的问题上意见不合。批评者谴责这些措施是一个在选举前民调落后的政府试图通过买票来拉票的努力，而代价是预算赤字飙升。
Freeland’s scathing resignation letter referred to “costly political gimmicks”, insisting Canada must keep its “fiscal powder dry” ahead of a potential tariff war with Trump’s US. The outgoing finance minister commendably presented herself as a guardian of fiscal responsibility, though she cannot escape association with the policies that have laid the cabinet low.
弗里兰在她措辞严厉的辞职信中提到“代价高昂的政治噱头”，并坚持认为加拿大必须在与特朗普的美国可能爆发的关税战争前保持“财政储备充足”。这位即将离任的财政部长值得称赞地将自己呈现为财政责任的守护者，尽管她无法摆脱与使内阁陷入困境的政策的关联。
The nine-year-old government has fallen far from its onetime political grace, running 20 points behind right-leaning Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. Like centre-left parties elsewhere, Trudeau’s government has struggled to address discontent over spiralling living and housing costs, and immigration. A country that was long welcoming to newcomers began to chafe at the ambitious immigration targets on which the Liberal-led administration relied to boost sluggish growth — opening the way for the anti-elite populist Poilievre. A government once seen as embodying hopes for a renewal of liberalism in western democracies has not been helped by what many now see as Trudeau’s sanctimonious style.
执政九年的特鲁多政府已经远离了曾经的政治恩宠，落后于右倾保守党领袖博励治(Pierre Poilievre)20个百分点。像其他地方的中左翼政党一样，特鲁多政府很难解决对不断上涨的生活和住房成本以及移民的不满。一个长期以来对新来者持欢迎态度的国家开始对自由党领导的政府依赖于雄心勃勃的移民目标以促进缓慢增长感到不满——这为反精英民粹主义者博励治打开了大门。一个曾被视为西方民主国家自由主义复兴希望的政府，并没有因为许多人现在认为特鲁多的自以为是的风格而得到帮助。
Freeland’s exit, on the day another capable minister said he would stand down at the next election, suggests the prime minister has lost his government’s trust. Trudeau has said he will consider his position over the holidays. In reality, his party’s decline is highly unlikely to be reversed while he remains leader. Trudeau may believe he is best-placed to deal with Trump’s threat of tariffs on close to 80 per cent of Canada’s exports, given the relationship he built up during the president’s first term. But the returning US leader has been openly trolling him as the “governor” of the “Great State of Canada”.
弗里兰的离职，以及另一位有能力的部长宣布将在下次选举中退出，表明总理已经失去了政府的信任。特鲁多表示，他将在假期期间考虑自己的立场。实际上，只要他继续担任领导人，他的政党的衰退就极不可能逆转。特鲁多可能认为，鉴于他在特朗普第一个总统任期内建立的关系，他最有能力应对特朗普对加拿大近80%出口产品征收关税的威胁。但这位回归的美国领导人公开嘲讽他为“大加拿大州的州长”。
Trudeau should consider whether his continued leadership is in the country’s best interests. A new leader and fresh programme might yet be able to cap the Liberals’ election losses and limit the Conservatives to a minority — forcing them to govern with partners and potentially restraining a Canadian tilt to the populist right.
特鲁多应该考虑他继续领导是否符合国家的最佳利益。一位新领导人和新的计划可能仍能遏制自由党的选举损失，并将保守党限制在少数派地位——迫使他们与合作伙伴共同执政，并可能抑制加拿大向民粹主义右翼的倾斜。
The crisis in Canada highlights how Trump’s return is already upturning politics in US allies even before he is inside the White House. It demonstrates once again the need for parties of the centre-left and centre-right to find better ways to counter the rise of would-be Trumps elsewhere. For Canada’s liberal standard bearer, however, the best way to safeguard his political legacy is to hand over to someone else.
加拿大的危机凸显了特朗普的回归如何在他入主白宫之前就已经颠覆了美国盟友的政治。这再次表明，中左翼和中右翼政党需要找到更好的方法来应对其他地方可能出现的“特朗普”崛起。然而，对于加拿大的自由派旗手来说，保护其政治遗产的最佳方式是将权力移交给他人。