THREE TEAM ‘T’ LEADERS

Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland: With tireless effort bringing 28 countries and a multinational bureaucracy on board, Chrystia Freeland was instrumental in ensuring the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the European Union went ahead.

Much of the deal had been negotiated by the previous government, but new pressures and fears threatened CETA throughout the year, necessitating renegotiation and a lot of persuasion.

If Freeland had not intervened with its Social Democratic Party, Germany may never have signed CETA. And as the Belgian region of Wallonia blockaded CETA this fall, her emotional walkout from meetings with its prime minister proved effective.

Despite postelection bluster from the United States, Freeland has remained a shrewd and vocal supporter of free trade and globalization. There’s little doubt she is preparing to press an incoming Trump administration on preserving the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna: Catherine McKenna has shown herself to be a highenergy operator, who has been able to weather the storm on a tricky file.

Despite some yelling and screaming from premiers, she brought most provinces on board with a national carbon pricing plan. Like the carbon tax or not, McKenna was given a task and powered ahead with it, even with uncertainty south of the border.

She announced a plan to phase out coal, has been marketing Canada’s clean technology in China and has managed to defend pipeline decisions in parallel with articulating a clean-fuel strategy.

Transport Minister Marc Garneau: At the start of his mandate, Marc Garneau was handed lemons — a department struggling with its finances and in the vise grip of the Treasury Board Secretariat. But he appears to have made lemonade.

He’s steering a strategy called “Transportation 2030,” which includes measures to invest in green transportation, improve regulations and update infrastructure that facilitates the movement of goods from Canada to other countries. The strategy partly stems from a review of the Canada Transportation Act led by former cabinet minister David Emerson.

Airline rules are shifting so that low-cost carriers can survive the Canadian market and a “passengers’ bill of rights” is being introduced.

The transport minister is proving himself a productive manager lacking in bluster and scandal, unlike a few of his honourable colleagues.