Global Courant 2023-04-19 14:29:42
OTTAWA –
Chrystia Freeland once tried to relate Canadians’ concerns about the cost of living with a personal anecdote — and it didn’t end in a fairy tale.
“I personally, as a mother and wife, take a good look at my credit card bill once a month and last Sunday I said to the kids, ‘You’re older now. You don’t watch Disney anymore. Let’s get rid of the Disney Plus subscription,'” she said. Freeland told Global News in an interview that aired Nov. 6.
She continued, “I believe I should take exactly the same approach with federal government finances because that’s Canadians’ money.”
Perhaps Freeland wanted to show that managing a $430 billion budget isn’t all that different from managing a household.
But as news of the clip spread across the country, reaching nearly a million views in just a few days, so did outrage.
Emails sent to her office and obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act show that Freeland’s attempt to connect with Canadians made her a villain to thousands.
“This advice is about as sensible as boomers telling younger people that if they just skip the avocado toast, they can afford a house,” said one person. The names of the senders have been redacted in the documents.
Some commentators felt the minister’s attempt to blend in missed the mark, such as when Princess Jasmine visited the market in “Aladdin” and encountered a less regal way of life.
Posts accused Freeland of being “smug,” “elitist,” “no idea,” and “entitled.”
One person accused her of underestimating the platform’s offerings. “There’s more than just Disney movies on Disney Plus, so you’re basically depriving your kids of the things their friends might be watching.”
The person added that Freeland did this “when we all know you can easily afford that.”
Federal cabinet ministers will earn just over $289,000 this year. According to Statistics Canada, the median household income in Ontario was $79,500 in 2020.
Someone wrote to say they had already cut Disney Plus and wanted to know how to “cancel my share of the CBC grant.” CBC’s $1.2 billion in government funding in 2022 equates to about $30 per Canadian per year.
Others were less sarcastic, noting that “poverty is not a choice”.
One email urged the government to better manage inflation.
“If you’re out of ideas on how to do this, may I humbly suggest that your office consider a more aggressive approach to regulating the skyrocketing profits in the food industry?”
Another writer, who described herself as a single mother with a disability, said she sometimes goes without food to make sure her 10-year-old son doesn’t.
“That was an absolute slap in the face to people who are really struggling,” she wrote.
“As I say to my son, you have to think before you speak.”
A would-be knight in shining armor defended Freeland with an email to say that they too had shut down TV channels, along with beauty treatments, travel and mobile phones, among other things.
They argued, “Inflation means lifestyles have to change!”
Finance staff conducted a social media scan on Nov. 7, the day after Freeland’s series of interviews on the fall economic statement.
Over two days, there were 13,000 mentions of Freeland and Disney Plus, and “the coverage was mostly negative,” an official in charge of media monitoring wrote in an email.
An image in a word cloud attached to the email prominently displayed the phrases “tone deaf” and “high inflation”.
Freeland backtracked on her comment the next day, telling reporters, “Like other elected federal leaders, I get a very substantial salary, and I know that puts me in a very, very privileged position because of it.”
Her office this week did not respond to questions about the feedback she received, instead pointing to her comments made during the Nov. 7 press conference.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on April 19, 2023
