Freeland disavows virtue signalling, identity politics in Bill Maher interview

Liberal leadership contender Chrystia Freeland told Bill Maher that she is an “an old school liberal” and that she won’t emphasize virtue signalling and identity politics as much as PM Trudeau has.

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Liberal leadership contender Chrystia Freeland told Bill Maher that she is an “an old school liberal” and that she won’t emphasize virtue signalling and identity politics as much as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has.

Appearing on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher, Freeland was asked why Trudeau became as unpopular and what she would do differently. She responded that Liberals win when talking about broadly shared issues and not when focusing on woke politics.

“With the prime minister, I think every politician has their sell-by date, and that’s part of what happened. But I think the other thing that happened is my party we’re actually called “the Liberal party,” and I am an old-school liberal,” said Freeland.

“And Liberals in Canada win when we are focused on people and what they need in their lives and we lose when people think that we’re focused on virtue signalling and identity politics,”

Maher then suggested that Trudeau had become an “elitist” and compared the situation to the U.S. Democratic Party, which he said suffered from embracing woke politics.

“It’s the same thing that sunk the [Democratic] party here in America, when they went too far left. “And that’s the impression that I got from Justin Trudeau,” said Maher as Freeland nods along.

“Why did he go and become one of those elitist type of scolds who look like he was just overbearing. That sort of left wing overbearingness.”

Maher argued that woke politics does not work and that left-wing politicians need to recognize this. Freeland agreed, saying she had received the message.

“I have received the memo…and politicians win when they listen to people sincerely and hear what people are saying to them about their lives. And politicians lose when we think we are smarter than the people that we work for, and when we think our job is to lecture people,” said Freeland.

While Freeland acknowledged that Canadians dislike “bosses or snobs,” she also said they yearn for a strong leader who can unite the country and stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Freeland repeated the story she had told at the Liberal leadership debate where she met a 4-year-old girl in Saskatoon who asked her if she could stop Trump from invading Canada.

Attempting to contrast herself with the Conservative leader, Freeland attacked Pierre Poilievre, describing him to Maher as a “mini Trump” and “maple syrup MAGA.”

“I think he built a campaign on trying to imitate Trump, but now that Canadians see President Trump wanting to turn us into the 51st state, it’s not going so well.”

While Maher called Freeland the “future prime minister of Canada,” Freeland has been trailing the leadership race’s frontrunner Mark Carney in public opinion polls and donations.

However, a recent poll from Mainstreet Research shows Freeland gaining ground, polling at 31 per cent support among Liberal party members while Carney is at 43 per cent support and Liberal MP Karina Gould polls at 16 per cent.

Freeland is a longtime member of Trudeau’s cabinet, serving in key roles including as minister of finance for four years.

The Liberal leadership race will be decided on Mar. 9.