A respected economist and author, Diana represents a stark contrast to her predecessor, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau. Trudeau, a retired Canadian television host, was celebrated for her glamorous style and was a darling of the Canadian people, said Elle. And although she comes from wealth, Diana has spurned consumerism and is not a lover of “things”.
According to Diana’s LinkedIn profile, she has master’s degrees in philosophy, politics and economics, and agricultural economics. She’s also a strategist for government policy: she served as vice-president of Canada 2020, a think tank focused on climate, energy, social mobility and inequality.
She was director of strategy and engagement at the Institute for Public Policy Research in London and has been a trustee of the Friends of the Royal Academy and a World Wide Fund for Nature ambassador.
As an economist, there’s no doubt Diana knows her way around money. Per The Guardian, she spends her spare time fighting consumerism and has said on a few occasions that “having more stuff does not make us happy”.
She’s been scathing in her approach to a consumerist culture, writing that she has “seen, first-hand, the devastation that our wilful refusal to change our consumerist habits is wreaking on marginal communities”, as also quoted by The Guardian.