On Nov 19, 2025, the Rhodes Trust officially announced that Chrystia Freeland has been appointed as its next Warden and CEO. She is scheduled to begin her tenure on July 1, 2026. She will relocate to Oxford, England, where the Rhodes Trust is based at the University of Oxford.
Well she should have left atleast a year before even THINKING about taking this role.
Smh.
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I’m not looking for a problem. There is a problem.
It’s a conflict of interest. And she should have resigned prior to taking on the position.
There seems to be no transparency anymore. It’s really starting to irk me. And we just let our government officials off the hook.
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I kind of assume you are in Alberta, so if you need some conflicts to be upset about. I can list some, somewhat focused in Alberta, because mercifully PP hasn't so much had the opportunity to do his worst.
Spoiler!
Buying a Pipeline that was DOA for $1.3B to try to pick economic winners and losers
Making cash payouts to doctors, to save face, for picking a losing a dumb fight during a pandemic.
Added several extra cabinet positions to bolster the average salary of UPC MLAs
Buying unusable medicine to make some pronouncement of doing something without actually having a plan to do anything functional
Buying ineffective PPE for medical professionals
Cutting tax rates for businesses hoping to bolster employment but not responding the the provinces employment numbers lagging behind the rest of the country in the wake of that, and causing an years of impending debt in Alberta, which will cause them to call for a reduction in government spending, which will cause an economic down turn, to which they will respond to by saying an economic down turn is no time to raise taxes to on the profits of businesses to below the level of all the other provinces, but at a level where we can better avoid deficits.
eliminating public health positions because the people who are educated in health that staffed them disagreed with the opinions of Marlainas facebook groups.
authorizing, then unauthorizing, then losing hundreds of millions in law suits for cancellations, then attempting to reauthorizing coal mining protected lands.
musing about using our pension money to prop up a specific industry (government picking winners and losers.)
knowing violating the public health restrictions you are responsible to enforce.
fomenting treason in bad faith, to "get a better deal"
lying about how equalization works
outsourcing critical medical functions like lab testing, without a proper implementation plan, blowing a punch of money re-nationalizing the services
paying your friends and donors twice as much to do work government employees could have done if you didn't spend so much time antagonizing them that you have a shortage.
Cutting back on education funding during a skilled labour shortage.
threatening private industry with government take over if you don't like their politics.
I ran out of ideas, but I am sure there are many many things more egregious than an outgoing MP taking a volunteer job to help advise an ally that has been invaded by an adversary
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Rural Albertans can’t be worried about high levels of corruption complete with endless conflicts of interest that are actively destroying their province when an MP out of Ontario who has no role in cabinet, any committees, or anything else that would allow access to confidential information has agreed to volunteer her time with another allied country currently at war.
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How about when, just last week, the premier claimed to want to increase power generation capacity in Ab and to increase investment. Yet wind and solar dont count...you know...for reasons.
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How about when, just last week, the premier claimed to want to increase power generation capacity in Ab and to increase investment. Yet wind and solar dont count...you know...for reasons.
See I tried to tried to focus on things that should upset "conservatives". I didn't really want to get into choosing to forego $93M in annual tax revenues for municipalities and growing.
There were other things I didn't want to get into things that could be argued, I was just sticking to established facts, if you want to get into other stuff that outrages me but I am reasonable enough not to expect 100% agreement 100% of the time on.
Spoiler!
human rights violations
wasting time/money trying to pretend Alberta is a federal entity with USA / UAE...
not responding to population growth with infrastructure while actively courting more immigration
*this is more speculative, but just looking at the way they manage things, I really worry about rapidly swelling insurance, energy, health, education and recreation costs way beyond other provinces.
Now I do realize that many of them are not conservatives, and many of them do not care about facts, they just intuitively know UPC/CPC = good, NDP/LPC = bad. But it would be nice if they had to face the facts every once in a while.
Henley Strategies CEO Laryssa Waler, a staunch supporter of Ukraine, told The Canadian Press that Freeland’s decision crossed a line and that it gives Ukraine’s critics new leverage to attack the government’s motives.
“They’re giving fodder to people on the extreme left and the extreme right to take shots at Ukraine and to question the intentions of our government and to question why are we helping Ukraine” fend off a Russian invasion, she told The Canadian Press. “Now it looks like we did it to get Chrystia Freeland a job.”
Quote:
Democracy Watch co-founder Duff Conacher told The Canadian Press that Freeland’s decision to step down as an MP after the announcement of the advisory role “clearly violates the federal government ethics law.”
The Conflict of Interest Act does not include specific language about advising a foreign head of government, according to The Canadian Press, although Conacher argued Freeland’s new position goes against wording that bars cabinet members and parliamentary secretaries from advancing another organization’s private interests.
While there may or may not be a conflict of interest, this is certainly not a good look.
Looks like Chrystia scored a position, but somehow managed an own goal in the process.
Seems she may have found a loophole by taking this “non paid” position, but why not just do it right? Resign, then take the new role.
Seems she may have found a loophole by taking this “non paid” position, but why not just do it right? Resign, then take the new role.
She can't resign because she needs a pay cheque. Non paid work won't pay the bills. Her family already cut back on Disney+ and there aren't anymore sacrifices to make.
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Freeland really playing the long game. Who knew Canada was supporting Ukraine's military all the way back to when Harper was PM just so Freeland could land an unpaid job in 2026.
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Freeland really playing the long game. Who knew Canada was supporting Ukraine's military all the way back to when Harper was PM just so Freeland could land an unpaid job in 2026.
Nothing stopping her from taking this position. They just opened themselves up to more scrutiny in exchange for the hoc vote.
She can't resign because she needs a pay cheque. Non paid work won't pay the bills. Her family already cut back on Disney+ and there aren't anymore sacrifices to make.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doctorfever
Nothing stopping her from taking this position. They just opened themselves up to more scrutiny in exchange for the hoc vote.
God you guys are stupid.
I'll give you a hint, anything the Carney government does where some right wing nut job "reporter" from the rebel, can find the tiniest wedge in will become a giant story and bad look for you.
Go find real corruption to complain about, I gave you a very long and inexhaustive list above.
"Out going MP who is a long standing supporter of our ally is moving into an advisory role for that ally to help rebuild from their defensive war" This isn't a bad look, this isn't corruption, this isn't controversial, it's stupid.
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I'll give you a hint, anything the Carney government does where some right wing nut job "reporter" from the rebel, can find the tiniest wedge in will become a giant story and bad look for you..
This was on every news outlet including CBC. This was not the tiniest wedge (and this isn't really a Carney government thing, but a personal Freeland / individual MP one)
Take it another way, if an active CPC MP was an unpaid economic advisor to Modi and India, should that be allowed?
Freeland is perfectly fine to do this while not being an active MP. Or she could wait on taking the unpaid advisor role to an ally / foreign government until she was leaving for the Rhode Trust role later this year.
I kind of assume you are in Alberta, so if you need some conflicts to be upset about. I can list some, somewhat focused in Alberta, because mercifully PP hasn't so much had the opportunity to do his worst.
Spoiler!
Buying a Pipeline that was DOA for $1.3B to try to pick economic winners and losers
Making cash payouts to doctors, to save face, for picking a losing a dumb fight during a pandemic.
Added several extra cabinet positions to bolster the average salary of UPC MLAs
Buying unusable medicine to make some pronouncement of doing something without actually having a plan to do anything functional
Buying ineffective PPE for medical professionals
Cutting tax rates for businesses hoping to bolster employment but not responding the the provinces employment numbers lagging behind the rest of the country in the wake of that, and causing an years of impending debt in Alberta, which will cause them to call for a reduction in government spending, which will cause an economic down turn, to which they will respond to by saying an economic down turn is no time to raise taxes to on the profits of businesses to below the level of all the other provinces, but at a level where we can better avoid deficits.
eliminating public health positions because the people who are educated in health that staffed them disagreed with the opinions of Marlainas facebook groups.
authorizing, then unauthorizing, then losing hundreds of millions in law suits for cancellations, then attempting to reauthorizing coal mining protected lands.
musing about using our pension money to prop up a specific industry (government picking winners and losers.)
knowing violating the public health restrictions you are responsible to enforce.
fomenting treason in bad faith, to "get a better deal"
lying about how equalization works
outsourcing critical medical functions like lab testing, without a proper implementation plan, blowing a punch of money re-nationalizing the services
paying your friends and donors twice as much to do work government employees could have done if you didn't spend so much time antagonizing them that you have a shortage.
Cutting back on education funding during a skilled labour shortage.
threatening private industry with government take over if you don't like their politics.
I ran out of ideas, but I am sure there are many many things more egregious than an outgoing MP taking a volunteer job to help advise an ally that has been invaded by an adversary
Over the past year, Minister Loewen has made several changes that affect Alberta’s wild species. He has increased the cougar quotas, authorized hunting of “problem” grizzly bears by members of the public, removed trapping limits on sensitive furbearer species and expanded the area in which cougars can be hunted. He has also allowed off-leash hunting dogs in provincial parks, expanded the species that can be hunted under a Minister’s Special License, lowered the minimum age of hunting, permitted wasting of meat or skins and allowed hound-hunting of black bears.
These changes heavily favour a small group of hunters, trappers and outfitters, a group that Minister Loewen maintains close personal connections with. Prior to his current role, Minister Loewen was the owner of Red Willow Outfitters, a guide outfitting business. The business currently lists his wife and son as the primary stakeholders and remains an active outfitting business. The Minister has been active in attending Safari Club International Convention Shows and the Wild Sheep Foundation Summit, both organizations that promote hunting of large predators. He also maintains associations with the Alberta Trappers Association and has passed his traplines to his sons.
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This was on every news outlet including CBC. This was not the tiniest wedge (and this isn't really a Carney government thing, but a personal Freeland / individual MP one)
Take it another way, if an active CPC MP was an unpaid economic advisor to Modi and India, should that be allowed?
Freeland is perfectly fine to do this while not being an active MP. Or she could wait on taking the unpaid advisor role to an ally / foreign government until she was leaving for the Rhode Trust role later this year.
What if you are married to a Venezuelan, who has some sketchy criminal family members, and you wont get a security clearance?
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She can't resign because she needs a pay cheque. Non paid work won't pay the bills. Her family already cut back on Disney+ and there aren't anymore sacrifices to make.
I personally have no problem with what Freeland is doing re: taking the position with Ukraine, but I lol'd hard at the Disney+ joke. Her tenure as finance minister was an utter disaster and she was awful at that job (Although to be fairer to her, she only ended up in the role because Trudeau needed a complicit finance minister who would enable him after Bill Morneau resigned after publicly challenging him. Happy we're in a better place leadership wise in Canada from an economic / finance perspective at this critical juncture.
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