Mitch Heimpel: Freeland took notes, and got (Chrystia's Version) out first

Hall of Famers always watch the game tape.

Since this image was tweeted eight days ago, both have quit the cabinet.

By: Mitch Heimpel

Day one of an NFL week is set aside for game tape. Hall of Famers never miss game tape.

Chrystia Freeland did not miss game tape this week.

One thing that is obvious from the former finance minister's now infamous Monday morning letter is that she internalized the lessons of Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott and Bill Morneau. If you do not immediately put out your version of your demotion or dismissal, it will be done through anonymous leaks to the Parliament Hill Toronto Star or CBC bureau. Ottawa will wonder what really happened. There will be murmurs and whispers about whether you were ever much of a "team player."

There’s a lot we can ponder about the letter. I’ve been surprised how few people are interested in the fact that Freeland, despite her apparent strong differences with the PM on the key issues, was willing to go out and deliver the Fall Economic Statement until she found out it would be her last. That seems to be being glossed over more than a bit.

But still. Chrystia Freeland internalized the game tape of the PMO. She learned the lessons. And then she went out and killed them on the field.

Admittedly, this was not the PMO’s finest hour. We can debate the professionalism of demoting a cabinet minister via Zoom (yikes!), expecting the finance minister to deliver a Fall Economic Statement two days after learning she would be demoted (double yikes!!), or openly pursuing her replacement in full gaze of the public (bad form, old chap). It was a comedy of so many errors that pinpointing one in particular seems beside the point.

So yeah. The PMO wasn’t at its best. All the same, Freeland had to capitalize on it. Many would have doubted she could have pulled it off. After all, if you had to pick a particular weak point in Chrystia Freeland's time as a cabinet minister, it would be her communications skills. This is the minister of Disney+ and the “vibecession.” You can understand why the PMO thought they would get away with phoning (or zooming) it in against her.

But Freeland had watched the game tape on the PMO. And, in a tribute to the pop singer/songwriter the prime minister was dancing to just days ago while Montreal burned, Freeland decided to make sure that we all got (Chrystia's Version). First. Right off the top. Her accounting of how events transpired was not exhaustive, but it was entirely sufficient. She aired dirty laundry. She made it just salacious enough to ensure breathless coverage. She also went after the prime minister on policy — decidedly not his strong suit. The use of the word "gimmicks" was no accident.

She left no doubt about what happened, how it happened, or how she feels about it.

In doing so, she did something remarkable. She made it impossible for the PMO’s spinners and issues managers to put the prime minister out to address the media after her letter. He couldn't answer for anything in the letter without having to answer for everything in the letter. Trudeau may be the most impressive communicator the Liberal party has produced since his father. And he was of no use to the PMO to try and counter Freeland's narrative on Monday. He could only make matters worse. His one public appearance was in front of a big money Liberal fundraising event, with a pool camera. A bit like an Eastern-bloc gymnast performing before the East German judge.

Even when TIME magazine had him in full blackface, he still addressed the press from the plane. But not Monday.

Never in his almost 10 years as prime minister has Justin Trudeau had a day like that. Supposedly, nominally, the Liberal's party's best campaign and communications asset was rendered functionally useless to a television audience. To mix sports metaphors, she beat him in the paint. She drove the lane on him, and he could do nothing. And he did nothing. As of this writing, the prime minister has still not addressed either the media or the country, and is, in fact, cancelling previously scheduled interviews.

And then, Freeland went to the caucus meeting. Anything he wanted to say there, he had to say it to a crowd that could get her version by simply looking over to gauge her reaction. She sank a three pointer on him at the end of the day, just to prove she could.

We can debate her record as finance minister later. Lord knows I have my own qualms with it. But this isn't about that. Everything else on Monday, the $62-billion deficit and the tanking loonie, are about that.

But her resignation was something unexpected. She bested Justin Trudeau in an air war. She didn't just beat him, she ran him over. She silenced him.

She may have ended him. That much we still don't know yet. But she ensured she won't be remembered for either Disney+ or the “vibecession.”

The first line of her political history is now Chrystia's Version. And we'll remember it all too well.

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