
If Nate Erskine-Smith has become a political punchline, he's only got himself to blame
Politics can be a blood sport, which is why most politicians learn to roll with the punches.
Not Nate Erskine-Smith, who has become a punchline in the halls of power.
People are always taking shots at politicians. But when they're laughing at you, it hurts.
Erskine-Smith has been the butt of jokes ever since being booted from the federal cabinet this month. To be clear, there is no dishonour in being dropped, but when he complained about feeling 'disrespected,' it became all about him.
'The way it played out doesn't sit right and it's impossible not to feel disrespected,' he posted on social media and in a bloviating blog.
By playing the victim in his own political game, the Beaches—East York MP scored an 'own goal.' Yet he was hardly alone in being bounced from cabinet.
The Liberals elected 170 MPs in last month's election, including many promising new arrivals competing for the two or three dozen spots available in any cabinet. Few are called to serve — and any can be culled at any time.
Even the most deserving ministers serve at the pleasure of the crown. They serve the people, not themselves.
More than a mere blood sport, politics is a team sport. That's why so many Canadians were bemused by his mewling — everyone understands that a soccer or hockey coach has to cut players, because the team needs the right mix of defenders and wingers.
In total, 10 ministers were dropped by Prime Minister
Mark Carney
this time. Several more didn't make it into Carney's short-lived March cabinet.
None griped. All were gracious.
None dissented or felt disrespected. All departed with dignity.
Only Erskine-Smith felt entitled about his title in cabinet.
'I ran again because of the opportunity to make an even bigger difference around the cabinet table and to help fix the housing crisis,' the former housing minister complained bitterly
By his logic, any other Liberal backbenchers who didn't make it into cabinet were equally 'disrespected.' Yet Erskine-Smith never complained about the cruelty of the cut when he cheerfully accepted a ministerial appointment in the dying days of Justin Trudeau's government late last year.
Until then, the Beaches backbencher had made the most of being passed over for cabinet in his first 10 years as an MP. He remade himself into the voice of the Liberal grassroots, a maverick in his own mind.
And yet, when Trudeau ultimately fell out of favour with the party rank and file — after Erskine-Smith had already announced his retirement from politics — he suddenly made his peace with Trudeau. Belatedly offered the ministerial post he'd long coveted, just in time for Christmas last year, Erskine-Smith trampled on the grassroots on his way into the cabinet room, cheerfully reversing his announced retirement.
So why did Carney drop him from cabinet after just a few months on the job? After all, Erskine-Smith insists he was poised to single-handedly solve Canada's housing crisis.
But he has long suffered from the insufferable trait of acting like the smartest man in the room, which can be a career-limiting move if you're outsmarted by a boss who is widely deemed the smartest guy in the room. Also, when Erskine-Smith touts his Oxford education, it may not impress a prime minister who made his mark at Oxford.
Erskine-Smith's liabilities became apparent in 2023, when he took time off from his all-important duties as an MP to run for the Ontario Liberal leadership. After finishing second to Bonnie Crombie — and dissing her along the way — he retreated to Ottawa without making much of a contribution to the provincial election effort, as he'd once promised.
Having burned bridges with both federal and provincial Liberals, will he still try to find cracks in Crombie's leadership in a bid to replace her? It's hard to imagine the Ontario Liberals opting for an outsider without a safe provincial seat, given the perils faced by high-profile party leaders of late.
In any case, Erskine-Smith 'is really hurting right now, so let's leave it at that,' Crombie said in a tone of icy mockery last week after his public self-immolation.
All that said, his legacy after a limited run of less than five months in cabinet suggests he's more about hubris than humility. When his post-cabinet temper tantrum played out poorly, Erskine-Smith did what he does best — blaming everyone else, or at least 'those who only read a headline,' for misinterpreting his musings.
'It was a tweet in a thread and should be read in the context of the thread. Or read in bad faith. Your choice,' the MP lectured his critics on social media.
They say it's never a bad thing when people are talking about you, or taking shots at you, as long as they spell your name correctly. But when they're laughing about you and your choice of words, that's a lot less fun.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Asked about the U.S., Canada's chief justice says rule of law is 'under attack' worldwide
Asked about U.S. President Donald Trump's contentious relationship with parts of the American judiciary, Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Richard Wagner said Tuesday "the rule of law and judicial independence is under attack" around the world. Speaking to reporters at his annual news conference on Parliament Hill, Wagner said if a government attacks the media, judges, lawyers and universities — as Trump and his associates have done in recent weeks — there's a good chance it's "a dictatorship" and an "autocratic government." Wagner said Canadians must be "prudent" and preserve their institutions, including a judicial system where rulings are respected by elected officials. "We have to be careful, but be optimistic as well. "In Canada we have a strong legal system," he said. "We have to defend those institutions. We should not take anything for granted." Wagner said, throughout his cross-country travels, "everybody asks me the same question" about whether what's going on in the U.S. court system will bleed over into Canada. What's different in Canada, Wagner said, is that the "main stakeholders" here "respect separation of powers and judicial independence and are happy to live in a country where the rule of law will prevail. "Canada is not a superpower. But it is a democratic superpower. In this country, the rule of law is non-negotiable," he said. WATCH | Canada's chief justice asked about attacks on judiciary: In his second term as president, Trump is pushing an ambitious but constitutionally dubious agenda that has been held back by some judicial rulings. The president has slammed some judges on social media — complaining about a "radicalized and incompetent court system" in one recent post — and threatened others with impeachment or removal from office. When one federal judge ordered a temporary halt to the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members, Trump said it was the actions of a "radical left lunatic of a judge, a troublemaker and agitator" who should be off the bench. In hundreds of cases before the U.S. court system, judges have delayed or stymied his efforts to close some federal agencies, pursue mass layoffs of federal workers, block foreign aid, end birthright citizenship for people born on American soil, deport undocumented migrants and slap tariffs on countries such as Canada. After the U.S. Court of International Trade struck down parts of Trump's tariffs regime, saying the president overstepped his constitutional authority by imposing sweeping levies on global goods, one of his top advisers, Stephen Miller, said, "The judicial coup is out of control." Trump has had some legal victories, especially at the U.S. Supreme Court, which includes three justices appointed by him. Late last month, the top court let Trump's administration revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants living in the United States, bolstering the Republican president's drive to step up deportations. A Trump official said that ruling was "a victory for the American people."
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
EDITORIAL: Auditor general targets spending on fighter jets
Be alarmed. Be very alarmed. A day after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced he will invest billions of new taxpayer dollars to meet Canada's NATO target of spending 2% of our gross domestic product (GDP) on defence, a scathing report by the auditor general reveals massive cost overruns in the government's plan to modernize Canada's aging fleet of fighter jets. Karen Hogan reported Tuesday that the cost of buying 88 F-35 fighter jets to replace Canada's aging fleet of CF-18s — estimated at $19 billion in 2022 because the government used outdated information — had increased by almost 50% to $27.7 billion by 2024. That's without including the added costs of building essential infrastructure — now more than three years behind schedule — and purchasing advanced weaponry to make the F-35s fully operational, which Hogan said will add at least $5.5 billion more to the final price tag. The fighter jet program also faces a shortage of qualified pilots, despite being warned about that issue in a 2018 report by the auditor general. Hogan said some of the government's cost increases were unavoidable due to inflation, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates and supply chain shortages caused by the 2020 global pandemic. But others were caused by government failures. 'National Defence's approach to managing risks … had weaknesses, lacking proactive measures to minimize the impact of potential threats and the project did not have robust contingency plans,' Hogan concluded. Adding to the uncertainty is that Carney has ordered a review on whether Canada should purchase all 88 American-made fighter jets or consider possible alternatives such as European-made fighter jets. EDITORIAL: Meeting NATO's 2% target the right move EDITORIAL: Jobless numbers spell trouble Defence Minister David McGuinty gave the standard government boilerplate response to the auditor general's findings, saying the government accepts the auditor general's recommendations and will implement some by Sept. 30 and others by Nov. 30. Which means that, as is the standard operating procedure in responses to critical auditor general reports these days, the same people who created the problems will now be trusted to fix them. That's disturbing in the context of the massive amount of new spending Carney has promised in order to hit Canada's NATO target of committing 2% of Canada's GDP annually to defence spending, starting during this fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2026, compared to 1.4% last year.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Why turning Canada's new defence spending into economic growth may be ‘easier said than done'
The Liberal government announced a shift towards a Canadian defence industrial strategy on Monday, which has the potential to add jobs and grow the Canadian economy — but only if executed correctly, economists say. 'We will ensure every dollar is invested wisely, including by prioritizing made-in-Canada manufacturing and supply chains,' said Prime Minister Mark Carney during a speech in Toronto on Monday, where he announced Canada would be meeting its NATO two per-cent spending target. 'We should no longer send three quarters of our defence capital spending to America.' The announcement included $9.3 billion in additional defence expenditures this fiscal year. The funding would go towards addressing immediate operational needs, with $2.6 billion in investments for the recruitment and retaining of personnel and $844 million to repair and maintain Canadian Armed Forces equipment. But an additional $2.1 billion was also promised to 'strengthen' the government's relationship with the Canadian defence industry and re-orient a procurement strategy towards Canadian suppliers. Goldy Hyder, president and chief executive of the Business Council of Canada, said he is hopeful this marks the beginning of a process that will both strengthen Canada's defence and grow the Canadian economy. 'It's going to require a lot of work,' he said. 'I think the government has been given a licence to put more emphasis on things like this, which have been neglected for too long.' The plan included more investments in new submarines, ships, aircraft, artillery, and armed vehicles. Carney said the investment in military capabilities could 'transform our economy' but acknowledged none of the goals set out in his plan will come easily or quickly, including reforming the department of national defence's procurement process. The Royal Bank of Canada said the economic multiplier effects of the announcement in the short-run could be 'favourable' as the Canadian growth outlook is weak over the next couple of years and defence spending could help stimulate growth. 'Multipliers vary with intellectual property being the highest, while machinery and equipment is the lowest, given its high import content,' said RBC economists Cynthia Leach and Salim Zanzana, in a note. In the long-run, Leach and Zanzana said empirical research on the effect of defence spending on growth has found both negative and positive effects. 'Positive impacts tend to arise through industrial development, innovation, and infrastructure channels,' they said. 'Negative impacts tend to stem from capital leakage, fiscal overspending and the risk of diverting resources from more productive sectors of the economy.' The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), which represents 650 companies and directly employs 78,000 Canadians, welcomed the policy shift by the federal government but warned it will be for nothing if the procurement process does not change drastically. 'This is a heavy lift,' said Christyn Cianfarani, president and chief executive of the CADSI. 'This is a fundamental change in the culture of the public service that we're talking about.' Cianfarani said Monday's announcement would be a shift to a more agile way of procuring, moving to a shorter timeframe of one to six months, from the current average of five to 10 years for major capital investments. Jimmy Jean, chief economist at Desjardins Group, said Carney was right that Canada and other allies rely heavily on the United States for defence technologies and equipment. The U.S. defence sector alone has 40 per cent of the global market, while the European industry is dominated by leading national champions, with many companies owned in part by the state. Carney said Canada will draw more from its European partners, by participating in the European Union's ReArm Europe program. Right now, Canadian military exports are valued at $7 billion, which represents just one per cent of Canada's total exports of goods. CADSI said its companies generate $12.6 billion in annual revenues. Advocates agree the way to drive innovation and growth in the defence industry would be to provide significant investments in research and development. To accomplish this, Carney promised to create a new entity called 'Borealis' to provide funding for cutting edge research in areas like quantum computing and artificial intelligence. 'The potential spin-offs from that in terms of new businesses and businesses that can export their technologies around the world, that's really where the money is when it comes to generating wealth out of this,' said Jean. 'But it's easier said than done, when you're competing against established players in industries.' Robert Asselin, chief executive of U15 Canada, which represents 15 Canadian research universities, has long advocated for Canada to adopt a program similar to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the United States. DARPA's mandate is to make investments in leading technologies for national defence and security purposes, but the outcomes often have civilian applications as well and have been commercialized to the economic benefit of the U.S. and American companies. The internet, GPS and voice recognition software are among the technologies it has been credited with accelerating. 'From an economic perspective, technology is out to make our economy more innovative and more productive,' Asselin said. 'Generally, our leading research universities are so well-positioned for this because they already do very neat work in all these promising sectors.' Canada has been a laggard on defence spending for over a decade and has faced pressure from its allies to increase its expenditures on its military. Canada spent 1.45 per cent of its GDP on defence in 2024-2025. In total, the department of national defence will spend $62.7 billion for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, up from the previous estimate of $53.4 billion. Desjardins said the new defence spending will worsen the deficit to roughly $65 billion for this fiscal year. 'Governments have to make choices,' said Hyder. 'You have to pay for these things; we have been calling for some time for program review, to find much of the savings that we think can be available to help fund some of the programs that are going to be necessary.' Carney acknowledged that the geopolitical situation has changed and threats to Canada are more 'immediate and acute.' Last week, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his country will boost its defence spending to 2.5 per cent of its GDP by 2027. Hyder said Canada is playing catch-up, as the NATO spending target, which was established in 2014, is set to increase later this month when leaders meet for this year's NATO summit in the Netherlands. The new target will be 3.5 per cent of GDP for core military spending and 1.5 per cent for defence-related investments. Cianfarani said 'in theory' all these promises from the federal government should create more jobs in the industry but will wait for proper execution from the federal government. 'It's like any business, you can have great vision coming from the CEO, but the reality is the CEO doesn't execute,' she said. 'It's the machine behind the CEO that has to execute.' • Email: jgowling@