Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, long Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s most powerful and loyal minister, stunned the country Monday by announcing her resignation from cabinet, And raised questions about how much longer Trudeau, whose popularity is low, can stay in office.
Freeland, who is also deputy prime minister, said Trudeau told her last Friday he no longer wanted her as finance minister and offered her another cabinet position.
But in her resignation letter to the prime minister, she said the only “honest and viable path” was to leave the cabinet.
“Over the past few weeks, you and I have found ourselves at odds over what is the best way forward for Canada,” Ms. Freeland said.
Freeland and Trudeau disagreed over the recent announcement of a two-month sales tax holiday and a C $250 ($175) cheque to Canadians.
Freeland said Canada, which is dealing with threats from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to impose 25 percent tariffs, should avoid “expensive political gamesmanship” that would be “too much to afford.”
“Our country is facing a serious challenge,” the resignation letter said, “and that means being fiscally prepared so that we have what we need in the event of a coming tariff war.”
Freeland, who has chaired a cabinet committee on U.S. relations, was due to deliver the autumn economic Statement and could announce border security measures to help Canada avoid the threat of Trump’s tariffs. Trump has warned of a 25 percent tariff on all products entering the United States from Canada and Mexico unless they stem the flow of migrants and drugs.
Trudeau has said he plans to lead the Liberal Party into the next election, but some party members do not want him to run for a fourth term. It is unclear what Freeland’s resignation from the Cabinet means for Trudeau’s immediate future.
“The news has hit me very hard,” said a stunned Anita Anand, the transport minister, who needed to digest it before commenting further.
No Canadian prime minister has served four consecutive terms in more than a century.
A federal election must be held by next October. The Liberals must rely on the support of at least one major party in parliament, as they do not have an absolute majority themselves. If the opposition New Democracy party withdraws its support, an election could be called at any time.
Trudeau followed in 2015 the stellar legacy of his father, the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, reasserting Canada’s liberal identity after nearly a decade of Conservative rule. Now he’s in big trouble. As the country emerges from the coronavirus pandemic, Canadians are unhappy with issues such as the rising cost of living and increased immigration.
Freeland said in her resignation letter that Canadians “knew it when we were working for them, and they knew it when we were focusing only on ourselves.” Our time in government will inevitably come to an end. But how we respond to threats to our nation will define us for a generation, if not longer.”
Trudeau is also trying to recruit Mark Carney to the cabinet. Carney is a former governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada.
He helped Canada avoid the global economic crisis and won such acclaim that Britain appointed him the first foreign governor of the Bank of England since it was founded in 1694.
Carney had always intended to enter politics and become leader of the Liberal Party. It is unclear whether Carney has agreed to join Trudeau’s cabinet.
“Said Nelson Wiseman, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. “This is a bombshell,” said Freeland, who is not only finance minister, but also deputy prime minister and was seen a few years ago as the heir apparent to Justin Trudeau’s Liberal leadership and prime minister.
Wiseman said the leaks from the prime minister’s office appeared to indicate that Freeland was a poor communicat, calling Freeland’s position into question.
“There was talk that she was going to be foreign minister again, and that worked for her, but with a bayonet behind the prime minister’s office, there’s no going back,” Mr. Wiseman said.
Daniel Beland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, also called it a political earthquake, and not just because Freeland is the second-most powerful official in the government.
“But also because of the manner in which she resigned: a letter apparently critical of the prime minister published on social media hours before she was scheduled to present the government’s autumn economic statement,” Mr. Belland said.
“This is clearly a minority government that is subsisting on life support, but the (opposition) New Democracy party has refused to withdraw its support until now. It’s hard to know if this resignation will force the NDP to rethink its strategy.”