{"text":[[{"start":7.68,"text":"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. "},{"start":15.847,"text":"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. "},{"start":26.339,"text":"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. "},{"start":34.932,"text":"For Canada, the timing is especially poor. "},{"start":37.861999999999995,"text":"The crisis was precipitated in part by Trump’s threat of 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports, which could severely damage its economy. "}],[{"start":46.54,"text":"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. "},{"start":56.969,"text":"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. "},{"start":70.274,"text":"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. "}],[{"start":80.22,"text":"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. "},{"start":89.487,"text":"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. "}],[{"start":99.48,"text":"The nine-year-old government has fallen far from its onetime political grace, running 20 points behind right-leaning Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. "},{"start":107.522,"text":"Like centre-left parties elsewhere, Trudeau’s government has struggled to address discontent over spiralling living and housing costs, and immigration. "},{"start":115.227,"text":"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. "},{"start":126.569,"text":"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. "}],[{"start":136.23000000000002,"text":"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. "},{"start":144.497,"text":"Trudeau has said he will consider his position over the holidays. "},{"start":147.90200000000002,"text":"In reality, his party’s decline is highly unlikely to be reversed while he remains leader. "},{"start":152.882,"text":"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. "},{"start":162.049,"text":"But the returning US leader has been openly trolling him as the “governor” of the “Great State of Canada”. "}],[{"start":167.8,"text":"Trudeau should consider whether his continued leadership is in the country’s best interests. "},{"start":172.467,"text":"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. "}],[{"start":183.89000000000001,"text":"The crisis in Canada highlights how Trump’s return is already upturning politics in US allies even before he is inside the White House. "},{"start":191.44400000000002,"text":"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. "},{"start":198.699,"text":"For Canada’s liberal standard bearer, however, the best way to safeguard his political legacy is to hand over to someone else. "}],[{"start":205.41000000000003,"text":""}]],"url":"https://creatives.ftmailbox.cn/album/185626-1734752578.mp3"}