不久前，加拿大财长方慧兰(Chrystia Freeland)在一次公开采访中，试图用她个人的事例来表达加拿大人对生活成本的担忧，结果非但没有得到成效，还遭到大批民众的批评。
图源：National Post
据加通社报道，方慧兰在去年11月6日播出的《环球新闻》采访中说：“就我个人而言，作为一个母亲和妻子，我每个月都会仔细查看我的信用卡账单，上周日我对孩子们说，‘你们现在长大了。不再看迪斯尼了，“我们取消Disney Plus的订阅吧。”
她接着说：“我认为我需要对联邦政府的财政采取完全相同的方法，因为那是加拿大人的钱。”
图源：Twitter@cafreeland
报道称，也许财长的话是想表明，管理4300亿元的预算与处理家庭事务并没有那么大的不同。
但是这段视频在全国播出后，短短几天内就有近100万次的观看，人们的愤怒也随之爆发。
加通社根据《信息获取法》获得财长办公室收到的电子邮件显示，这让她成为数千人眼中的恶棍。
其中一封邮件说：“这个建议就像婴儿潮一代告诉年轻人，如果他们不吃牛油果吐司，就能买得起房子一样。”
一些评论认为，财长试图拉近与民众的做法没有达到目的，就像《阿拉丁》(Aladdin)中茉莉公主(Princess Jasmine)参观市场时遇到的不那么像皇室的生活方式一样。
留言指责方慧兰“自鸣得意”、“精英主义”、“无知”和“自以为是”。
图源：Twitter@cafreeland
还有人指责财长低估了Disney Plus平台提供的服务。“上面不仅有迪士尼电影，你实际上剥夺了孩子们的机会。”
这位人士还说，“我们都知道，你们实际上都负担得起。”
联邦内阁部长今年的收入超过28.9万元。另一方面，根据加拿大统计局的数据，2020年安省家庭收入中位数为7.95万元。
有人写信说，他们已经停掉了Disney Plus，想知道如何“取消我那部分的CBC补贴”。加拿大广播公司在2022年获得12亿元的政府资金，相当于每个加拿大人每年30元。
其他人则没有那么讽刺，但是他们指出：“贫穷不是一种选择。”
一封电子邮件敦促政府更好地管理通胀。
“如果你不知道该怎么做，我能否谦卑地建议你的办公室考虑一种更激进的方法来监管食品杂货行业飙升的利润？”
另一位自称是残疾单身母亲的人写道，她有时不吃东西，以确保10岁的儿子有东西吃。“对于那些真正在挣扎的人来说，这绝对是一记耳光。”
“就像我告诉我儿子的那样：说话前要三思。”
图源：Twitter@cafreeland
也有人为方慧兰辩护，在电子邮件中说，他们也切断了这个电视频道，还有美容、旅行和手机等其他东西。他们认为：“通货膨胀意味着生活方式必须改变！”
去年11月7日，也就是财长就秋季经济报告接受了一系列采访的第二天，财政部一名负责媒体监控的官员在一封电子邮件中写道，在两天的时间里，有1.3万次提到方慧兰和Disney Plus，“都是负面的”。
第二天，方慧兰就收回了自己的言论，她对记者说：“和其他民选的联邦领导人一样，我的薪水非常高，我知道这让我处于一个非常非常特权的地位。”
Once upon a time, Chrystia Freeland attempted to relate to Canadians’ cost-of-living concerns with a personal anecdote — and it didn’t produce a fairy-tale ending.
“I personally, as a mother and wife, look carefully at my credit card bill once a month, and last Sunday I said to the kids, ‘You’re older now. You don’t watch Disney anymore. Let’s cut that Disney Plus subscription,”‘ Freeland told Global News in an interview that aired on Nov. 6.
She went on to say: “I believe that I need to take exactly the same approach with the federal government’s finances, because that’s the money of Canadians.”
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Maybe Freeland meant to show that managing a $430-billion budget is not all that different from handling a household one.
But as word of the clip spread throughout the land, and was viewed nearly a million times in just a couple of days, so did outrage.
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Emails sent to her office and obtained by The Canadian Press under access-to-information law show that Freeland’s attempt to connect with Canadians made her a villain to thousands.
“This advice is about as wise as boomers telling younger folks if only they skipped the avocado toast then they could afford a house,” said one person. The names of the senders are redacted in the documents.
Some commenters felt the minister’s attempt to blend in missed the mark, like when Princess Jasmine visited the market in “Aladdin” and encountered a less-royal way of life.
Messages accused Freeland of being “smug,” “elitist,” “clueless” and “entitled.”
One person accused her of underestimating the platform’s offerings. “There is more than just Disney movies on Disney Plus, so you are actually depriving your children of the things their friends might watch.”
The person added that Freeland was doing so “when we all know you can easily afford that.”
Federal cabinet ministers will earn just over $289,000 this year. The median household income in Ontario in 2020 was $79,500, according to Statistics Canada.
Someone wrote to say they’d already cut Disney Plus and wanted to know how to “cancel my portion of the CBC subsidy.” CBC’s $1.2 billion in government funding in 2022 works out to about $30 per Canadian per year.
Others were less sarcastic, noting that “poverty is not a choice.”
One email urged the government to better manage inflation.
“If you are out of ideas on how I do this, might I humbly suggest your office consider a more aggressive approach to regulating the skyrocketing profits in the grocery industry?”
Another writer, who described herself as a single mother on disability, said that she sometimes goes without food to ensure that her 10-year-old son doesn’t.
“That was an absolute slap in the face to people who are truly struggling,” she wrote.
“Like I tell my son: You need to think before you speak.”
One would-be knight in shining armour did come to Freeland’s defence, emailing to say they, too, had cut out TV channels — along with beauty treatments, travel and cellphones, among other things.
They argued: “Inflation means lifestyles must be changed!”
Staff in the Finance Department did a social media scan on Nov. 7, the day after Freeland’s series of interviews about the fall economic statement.
Over two days, there were 13,000 mentions of Freeland and Disney Plus, and “coverage was predominantly negative,” an official in charge of media monitoring wrote in an email.
A word cloud graphic attached to the email showed the phrases “tone-deaf” and “high inflation” featured prominently.
Freeland walked back her remark the next day, telling reporters that “Like other elected federal leaders, I am paid a really significant salary, and I know that that puts me in a really, really privileged position.”
Her office did not respond to questions this week about the feedback she received, instead pointing to her comments in the Nov. 7 press conference.
— This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2023.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland arrives to a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, April 18, 2023. PHOTO BY SEAN KILPATRICK /The Canadian Press
