T
here are few positions in the Canadian government
that Chrystia Freeland has not held—deputy prime
minister and minister of intergovernmental aff airs in
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet; also trade minister.
In August, she added fi nance minister to the roster after Bill
Morneau stepped down in August amid a confl ict-of-interest
charity scandal.
Freeland, who as trade minister went toe-to-toe against
the Trump administration in negotiations over a revamped
Nafta trade deal (now known as USMCA), becomes the
fi rst woman to hold the fi nance post in Canada.
“It’s about time that we broke the glass ceiling,” Freeland
said at her swearing-in. “One of the hallmarks of our gov-
ernment has been an explicitly and proudly feminist agenda.”
With a pandemic raging and the economy shut down,
Freeland faces a tough landscape. Economic forecasts sug-
gest that even by the end of 2021, the economy won’t have
recovered to its level at the start of this year, and unemploy-
ment is expected to remain high.
The government estimates that 4 million people will
claim a series of income supports totaling C$37 billion ($
billion) in proposed spending. Federal spending has climbed
quickly over the course of the pandemic. The defi cit in
Canada is C$343.2 billion and total federal gross debt is
C$1.2 trillion, both record highs.
Following this most recent cabinet shuffle, Trudeau
suspended Parliament until September 23, when a new
Speech from the Throne will be read outlining the gov-
ernment’s agenda for the next session. While Trudeau’s
Liberals hold a minority grasp on government, there is little
appetite for an election during the Covid-19 crisis.
–Joel KrancJAPAN
The Abe Era EndsCANADA
New Finance Minister
Breaks The Glass Ceiling
H
e will be remembered as the fi rst prime minister to be born
after World War II and the longest-serving, for his audacious
economic policies and for bolstering the country’s defense
capabilities, for being very popular and then very unpopular—and
yes, for teasing the 2020 (now 2021) Tokyo Olympics by dressing as
the video game character Super Mario during the closing ceremony
of the Rio Games in 2016. The abrupt announcement that Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe was resigning for health issues after nearly eight
years in power startled the world; Japan without him, many argued,
is now diffi cult to imagine.
The grandson of a prime minister and son of a former foreign
minister, Abe was elected to parliament in 1993 and quickly moved
up the ladder of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party. He became
prime minister for the fi rst time in 2006, a stint plagued by scandals
in his cabinet and an electoral defeat. By 2012, however, Abe had
managed to stage the most
unlikely of comebacks, return-
ing to the top political post
and promising to revitalize the
nation’s economy and revive its
global standing.
At fi rst, he succeeded. His
approach, which came to be
known as “Abenomics,” com-
bined fiscal stimulus, mon-
etary easing and structural
reforms to pull the Japanese
economy out of two decades
of secular stagnation. Those
early successes, however,
had subsided in recent years,
then were obliterated by the
Covid-19 pandemic.
While the economy was strong, his conservative policies did not
pose a problem, but when growth slowed, cracks emerged in Abe’s
support base. His approval ratings during his last days in offi ce were
in the low 30%-40% range.
“Abe was the leader of the conservatives, and as such it was only
natural that he would represent their views in politics,” says Hideya
Kawanishi, professor of history at Nagoya University. “He paid very
little attention to those who had different ideas.”
The prime minister’s closeness to US President Donald Trump
also hurt him. “Strategically speaking, emphasizing the Japan-US
alliance made sense,” says Kawanishi. “The majority of the public,
however, did not view their friendship favorably.”
Abe, in Kawanishi’s opinion, widened divisions in Japanese soci-
ety: “His successor will be judged in no small part on their ability to
heal those divides.” —Luca VenturaShinzo AbeChrystia FreelandNEWSMAKERS
4 | Global Finance | September 2020SHUTTERSTOCK.COM