OTTAWA — Crying ministers, comforting hugs and public scoldings over politically incorrect language were apparently part of life in Justin Trudeau's cabinet, according to former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland's new memoir.In Unreliable Boyfriend, released Tuesday, Freeland describes the atmosphere inside the Trudeau government, including an occasion when the former prime minister reprimanded a female minister for using the word “crazy.”“Crying was routine at cabinet meetings,” Freeland writes, according to excerpts reported in a review of the book.Tissues were kept on hand, and Trudeau sometimes offered hugs to ministers who became emotional.Freeland also recalls a meeting where “a very progressive female colleague” described something as “crazy,” prompting a “long, harsh public scolding from Trudeau.”The former prime minister considered the word offensive to people with mental-health problems. Ministers were instead instructed to say “bananas.”The anecdotes offer an account of Trudeau's leadership behind closed doors, from a former deputy prime minister who worked alongside him for nearly a decade..Freeland's account also revisits her own falling-out with Trudeau in December 2024, when he informed her that she would no longer serve as finance minister and offered her another cabinet position.Rather than accept the move, Freeland resigned hours before she was scheduled to present the government's fall economic statement.In her resignation letter, she accused the government of pursuing costly political measures at a time when Canada needed to prepare for incoming U.S. president Donald Trump's threatened tariffs.Freeland writes in her memoir that she should have resigned a year, or perhaps two, earlier.Former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien was among those who encouraged her to leave, reportedly telling her to weigh her loyalty to Trudeau against her “responsibility to the Liberal Party and to Canada.”Freeland's account follows previous public disputes between Trudeau and senior female ministers.In 2019, then-attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould accused senior government officials of pressuring her to intervene in the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.The federal ethics commissioner subsequently found that Trudeau had violated the Conflict of Interest Act by attempting to influence her decision-making. Trudeau disagreed with aspects of the finding.Jane Philpott resigned from cabinet over the government's handling of the affair. Both women were later expelled from the Liberal caucus.Freeland remained in cabinet, eventually becoming Trudeau's deputy prime minister and finance minister, before her own departure contributed to the political crisis that preceded his resignation as Liberal leader in January 2025.The title of her 416-page memoir, Unreliable Boyfriend: An Insider's View of Dealing with a Chaotic Superpower, Plutocrats, and Other Complicated People, refers primarily to Canada's relationship with the United States, rather than Trudeau himself.Freeland, who led Canada's negotiations with the first Trump administration over the replacement of NAFTA, examines the growing uncertainty of Canada's relationship with Washington and the challenges of dealing with American political and economic power.Trump has long described Freeland as “nasty”, in remarks referencing the former negotiator’s conduct in bilateral trade talks with the White House.
