5 facts about Mélanie Joly, the ‘top contender’ to replace Trudeau

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Mélanie Joly gets the rising-star treatment in a splashy profile today in The New York Times that declares her a “top contender” to replace Justin Trudeau.

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The profile includes an interview at her Montreal home, and runs through the various pain points among her files – India, China and Trump’s America among them. The story doesn’t address the intense criticisms she’s faced from both sides for Canada’s handling of its response to the Gaza War. There are a number of personal revelations as well.

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Here are five takeaways from the Times’ profile, written by the paper’s longtime Canadian correspondent Ian Austen, who is based in Ottawa:

*She says she turned Justin Trudeau down flat when he asked her to be foreign affairs minister three years ago. The profile makes it clear it was a significant promotion at the time, after a bumpy ride in lesser portfolios.

Joly, who had studied international law at Oxford, said the job would jeopardize the “yearslong quest” by her and her husband for a baby through in vitro fertilization. But, she told Austen, Trudeau pledged to do whatever it takes to allow her to continue her treatments around the world.

She quotes Trudeau: “If you become pregnant, it would be a fantastic message you send to the world.”

She was pregnant a month later, telling Austen: “When you’re pregnant, you feel empowered. I felt empowered.” But she soon suffered a tragic miscarriage, and continues with her IVF treatments.

Reports Austen: “’There is a second room that is still under construction that could be ready for a baby,’ (Joly) said, gesturing to the other side of the apartment, before briefly losing her composure and excusing herself for a moment.”

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*She lives in a “modest walkup apartment” in the funky but pricey Plateau district of Montreal, a neighbourhood that is not in her Ahuntsic-Cartierville riding further north on the island of Montreal.

*Austen describes her as “publicly supportive” of her leader. She told him she’s “known Trudeau for a long, long time” and supports him 100% amid the party’s leadership scuffles. “But the middle class is hurting, and Canadians expect us to be there for them … We need to be able to adapt.” The profile notes a potential Joly leadership run has its skeptics. “It’s been the story of my life, you know, being underestimated,” she tells him.

*She entered Trudeau’s orbit via his famously leftie brother Alexandre, an author and documentary film-maker. She had been an unhappy lawyer and brief journalist who turned to public relations before making a 2013 run for Montreal mayor and coming in an unexpected second.

She met Alexandre through her fundraising for the arts, Austen reports, and he invited her into the group organizing his brother’s successful 2013 bid for the Liberal leadership.

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*Joly dismisses critics who questioned her decision to go to Beijing in July to meet her Chinese counterpart. “There’s that movement – which I am profoundly against – which is if you don’t engage with countries, you’re sending a message that you’re strong. I think that to be strong is to be able to have the tough conversations.”

She said international relations are about “human connections” and understanding the different interests. “What I’ve learned through my professional life is how to look at very complex situations and make them simple for people.”

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