Is Nate Erskine-Smith Too Honest for His Own Good?
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Mark Carney
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Central figure in the article as the Prime Minister who dropped Erskine-Smith from cabinet. Readers would benefit from understanding Carney's background as former Governor of both the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, his economic philosophy, and his transition into politics.
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Chrystia Freeland
11 min read
The article draws a parallel between Erskine-Smith's situation and Freeland's departure from the finance portfolio. Understanding her decade-long political career and relationship with Trudeau provides important context for the loyalty dynamics discussed in the piece.
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Online News Act
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Directly referenced in the article regarding Meta's blocking of Canadian news content on Facebook and Instagram. This Canadian legislation represents a significant development in the relationship between tech platforms and journalism that readers may not fully understand.
This story was originally published on thewalrus.ca
Photography by Marina Black
Disrespected. That’s the word that made national headlines this past May, after was dropped as a Liberal minister. While the title of Erskine-Smith’s Substack post read, diplomatically, “Congrats to the new cabinet,” media coverage largely zeroed in on a moment in the fourth paragraph: “The way it played out doesn’t sit right and it’s impossible not to feel”—well, you know.
How did it play out? The story starts back in December 2023, when, as the member of Parliament for Beaches—East York, Erskine-Smith had just come second to Bonnie Crombie in the Ontario Liberal leadership race. He later admitted on his Substack, , that it was “tough” to lose such a close race, and that he would be “looking for new opportunities to make a difference”—in other words, not seeking re-election as an MP.
But plans changed. Nearly a year later, with the Justin Trudeau Liberals at their lowest point, Erskine-Smith was appointed minister of housing, infrastructure, and communities. Weeks later, Trudeau announced his resignation. Erskine-Smith soon endorsed Mark Carney as the party’s next leader. When Carney took over as prime minister in March, Erskine-Smith kept his post and went on to win re-election in Beaches—East York for the fourth straight time. But after Carney’s victory and the subsequent cabinet shuffle, Erskine-Smith was cut loose.
“Disrespected” is, of course, one way to look at the situation. In a scathing Toronto Star op-ed, Martin Regg Cohn wrote that Erskine-Smith was “playing the victim in his own political game” and accused him of temper tantrums. Cohn notes that of all the ministers dropped, Erskine-Smith was the only one to complain. Users on X and Reddit echoed the sentiment: no one is entitled to a cabinet post, and no one whines when they don’t get it. That’s show business, baby.
At the same time, it’s hard not to see it as betrayal when you hitch your wagon to someone else’s, only for them to unhitch it without warning and watch you plunge downhill. Take Chrystia Freeland. She prioritized staying in lockstep with Trudeau for nearly a decade and, as her reward, found herself booted from the finance portfolio. Trudeau offered her another ministry. She declined and quit.
The relationship between Erskine-Smith and Carney is, of course, by no means comparable to the years-long devotion between Freeland and
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