The prime minister’s refusal to embrace a feminist foreign policy did not get him a single vote. Nor did the abolition of an ambassadorship. But women are taking notice.
By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on December 8, 2025.
OTTAWA—Prime Minister Mark Carney was elected this past April thanks to an estrogen wave.
That was what a key female Liberal organizer had to say about his victory. She said that wherever she travelled, knocking on doors for the Grits, women had confidence in him, and they were the ones reversing the Liberal electoral fate.
Only a few months ago, Liberals were expecting to hold their next Christmas party in a phone booth. Instead, the party is flooded with requests from people who want to join the winning team in this seasonal celebration.
All has been going well. But there are some clouds on the horizon that the leader should be taking seriously.
Words matter—especially when you are in politics. A single comment can be parsed to death.
How many articles were written when then-prime minister Jean Chrétien in 1997 downplayed the police use of pepper spray during a protest against a G20 meeting in British Columbia?
“For me, pepper, I put it on my plate,” was Chrétien’s comical way of minimizing the confrontation.
More recently, Prime Minister Mark Carney declined to characterize Canada’s foreign policy as “feminist” during a press conference following the recent G20 summit in South Africa.
Some saw this as wordsmithing.
Others saw it as a pivot away from the Justin Trudeau government’s 2017 Feminist International Assistance Policy, intended to focus on foreign aid that supports women’s empowerment and gender equality.
The policy was a rebuttal of the previous Stephen Harper Conservative government, which instructed officials to remove gender-based analysis from all cabinet documents.
Carney’s international admission that Canada’s feminist foreign policy was dead has sent ripples throughout the domestic foreign aid community.
Last week, a group of 92 organizations headed by Oxfam addressed an open letter to the prime minister, complaining of foreign aid cuts, and confusion around gender equality.
The organization also called for the re-establishment of an ambassador for women, peace, and security, a post that was folded into the foreign affairs department last March.
Most of us have probably never heard of this envoy, but according to Global Affairs Minister Anita Anand, Jacqueline O’Neill will continue to advocate in that area, sans official ambassadorial designation.
Carney’s statement in South Africa reinforced his initial cabinet decision to eliminate the department of Women and Gender Equality, arguing it could responsibly be included in the ministry for culture and identity.
That faux pas was reversed two months later because of the political backlash it caused.
Similar opposition is quietly brewing internally on feminist foreign policy issues.
A group of senior Liberal women, united on social media, have made it very clear they would be lobbying colleagues at the Christmas party next week.
There is also work within the Liberal women’s caucus, headed by Quebec MP Linda Lapointe, to have the issue referred to the main caucus.
The women’s caucus was crucial in getting Carney to reverse his position and reinstate WAGE as a full ministry.
The open letter from many groups that work internationally on women’s issues will definitely have some effect, but the angst of Liberal women will be even more crucial.
Carney probably thought his rebuttal of a feminist foreign policy would be understood.
He said he wanted gender equality to be a part of the government’s funding mechanisms.
But his focus on defence spending and identifying major projects for national funding means the majority of mega-financing will be focused on men’s jobs.
Like it or not, fewer than 20 per cent of the jobs in the energy sector go to women.
Less than 20 per cent of the Canadian military is also made up of women, and similar numbers apply to defence industries supplying the military.
If only one in five of the big jobs created goes to women, it will be felt in our employment numbers.
More importantly, Carney’s election to the top job was largely dependent on the women’s vote. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was able to secure support from young and middle-aged men in numbers big enough to form government.
But it was women who made sure that Carney got the nod.
No wave lasts forever. An estrogen wave is just as vulnerable to destruction as any other wave.
But surely the loss of support from women should not be based on misspoken messages.
Carney’s refusal to embrace a feminist foreign policy did not get him a single vote. Nor did the abolition of an ambassadorship. But women are taking notice.
The prime minister needs estrogen to win. A feminist agenda reset is in order.
Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.
