Canada’s Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland quit on Monday after clashing with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on issues including how to handle possible U.S. tariffs, dealing a huge blow to an already unpopular government.
In a stinging resignation letter, Freeland dismissed Trudeau’s push for increased spending as a political gimmick that could hurt Ottawa’s ability to deal with the 25% import tariffs U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he will impose.
The resignation by Freeland, 56, who also served as deputy prime minister, is one of the biggest crises Trudeau has experienced since taking power in November 2015. It also leaves him without a key ally when he is on track to lose the next election to the official opposition Conservatives.
“The government of Canada is itself spiraling out of control,” Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre told reporters, repeating calls for an immediate election.
“We cannot accept this kind of chaos, division, weakness, while we’re staring down the barrel of a 25% tariff from our biggest trading partner … we simply cannot go on like this,” he told reporters.
Freeland said she was quitting in the wake of a meeting last Friday with Trudeau, who asked her to take on a lesser post after the two had argued for weeks over spending.
A Liberal source said Trudeau wanted Freeland to serve as minister without portfolio dealing with Canada-U.S. relations in name only – in effect a major demotion.
LARGE DEFICIT
Her resignation came just hours before she was due to present a fall economic update to parliament, a document widely expected to show the minority Liberal government had run up a much larger 2023/24 budget deficit than predicted.
Officials said the document would be unveiled on Monday as planned but gave no details.
“This will likely trigger a leadership crisis within the Liberal caucus … (it) is politically and personally devastating for Trudeau,” said Nik Nanos, founder of the Nanos Research polling firm.
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