Chrystia Freeland is Justin Trudeau’s hand-picked candidate in the riding of Toronto-Centre, and she handily won her nomination fight to be the Liberal standard-bearer in a byelection scheduled for Nov. 25. She got the nod from the Liberal leader based on her economic expertise, having recently written a well-received book on inequality titled Plutocrats.
But in her efforts to call out the systems of wealth and privilege that are destroying Western democracies, she probably didn’t mean to single out Trudeau.
During a live Q&A on the economy in September, Freeland was answering a question about whether people today had the same opportunities as previous generations when she said something awkward. While sitting next to someone frequently accused of having little substance and simply benefiting from a famous last name, Freeland explained:
“It is increasingly the case that your job prospects are correlated not with how hard you work, not with how well you did at school, but with the job that your father had.”
Oy.
[h/t David Akin]