WRITTEN BY: NADINE YOUSIF
Canada’s finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, has resigned from her post, citing disagreements with prime minister Justin Trudeau on how to respond to incoming US president Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs.
She announced her resignation in a letter to Trudeau on Monday, in which she said the two have been “at odds about the best path forward for Canada”, and pointed to the “grave challenge” posed by Trump’s policy of “aggressive economic nationalism”.
Freeland said the decision comes after Trudeau informed her last week that he no longer wanted her to be his government’s top economic adviser.
Her resignation came hours before she was due to provide an annual fiscal government update in parliament.
The move may push Trudeau’s already shaky minority government to the brink.
After nine years in power, the prime minister has faced growing calls to resign over concerns he is a drag on his party’s fortunes. The Liberal leader’s approval rating has plummeted from 63% when he was first elected to 28% in June of this year, according to one poll tracker.
Following Freeland’s departure on Monday, five sitting Liberal MPs publicly called on Trudeau to step down.
“Let’s put it this way – firing the minister of finance who has served you extremely well is not what I’d call a trustworthy move,” Helena Jaczek, an MP from Markham-Stouffville in Ontario, told reporters, before saying that Trudeau should resign.
An emergency Liberal caucus meeting was set for 17h00 local time (22h00 GMT).
Within hours of Freeland’s announcement, public safety minister Dominic LeBlanc was sworn in as her replacement. LeBlanc, who has been close friends with the prime minister since childhood, is considered one of his most loyal allies.
Trudeau was present at the swearing-in – his first appearance in front of the media since Freeland’s announcement – but he did not provide any statements. His office and the finance department both did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.
In her publicly-shared resignation letter, Freeland said Canada needs to keep its “fiscal powder dry” to deal with the threat of sweeping tariffs from US president-elect Donald Trump.
She added this means “eschewing costly political gimmicks” that Canada cannot afford.
Trump has promised to impose a levy of 25% on imported Canadian goods, which economists have warned would significantly hurt Canada’s economy.
Referencing the tariffs, Freeland called them a “threat” that needs to be taken “extremely seriously”.
She added that this means “pushing back against ‘America First’ economic nationalism” and working with unity in response to these tariff threats.
When the fall economic statement was released on Monday afternoon, it revealed a C$60 billion deficit (about N$760 billion) – far exceeding Freeland’s C$40 billion target.
She and Trudeau were reportedly also in disagreement over a series of recently-proposed policies by the prime minister designed to address the country’s cost-of-living crisis.
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