Canada’s Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has resigned from her post, citing disagreements with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on how to respond to incoming President Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs.

She announced her resignation in a note 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 test” posed by Trump’s policy of “aggressive economic nationalism”.

Freeland said the selection 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 financial government update in parliament.

The shift 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 event’s fortunes. The Liberal chief’s approval rate 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 siting Liberal MP 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 shift,” Helena Jaczek, an MP from Markham-Stouffville in Ontario, told reporters, before saying that Trudeau should resign.

An emergency Liberal caucus conference was set for 1700 local period (22:00 GMT).

Within hours of Freeland’s announcement, community 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 faithful allies.

Trudeau was now at the swearing-in – his first appearance in front of 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 note, Freeland said Canada needs to keep its “financial powder arid” 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 togetherness in response to these tariff threats.

When the fall economic statement was released on Monday afternoon, it revealed a C$60b deficit ($42bn; £33bn) – far exceeding Freeland’s C$40bn 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 expense-of-living crisis.

Among them is a cheque of C$250 that the government wanted to send to every Canadian earning less than C$150,000 annually. These cheques were expected to expense the federal government a total of C$4.68bn.

Another is a temporary levy shatter on essential items during the holidays which is anticipated to expense C$1.6bn in lost levy turnover.

Freeland’s office had reportedly been concerned about the worth of these two policies, saying they are economically unwise at a period when the country’s deficit is growing.

The levy holiday has since been approved in the House of Commons, but the C$250-cheques hit a hurdle when the recent Democratic event (NDP) – a centre-left event in parliament – signalled it would not lend its back to the policy unless it is expanded.

A poll by the Angus Reid Institute showed that four out of five Canadians viewed the cheques as a political shift designed to triumph community goodwill as Trudeau’s popularity plummets.

In response to Freeland’s exit, Pierre Poilievre, chief of the opposition Conservative event of Canada, called for a federal election as soon as feasible.

“Everything is spiralling out of control. We simply cannot leave on like this,” he said, adding that her resignation comes “at the very worst period”.

NDP chief Jagmeet Singh called on Trudeau to resign. But Singh, whose event has propped up Trudeau’s minority government thus far, stopped short of committing to a vote of non-confidence, which would effectively force a federal election.

Freeland, who also holds the position of deputy prime minister, has long been one of Trudeau’s closest allies within his Liberal event. She has held the key role of Canada’s finance minister since 2020, helping to navigator the country through the pandemic and its aftermath.

Other members of the Liberal event’s cabinet have since reacted to her resignation.

Minister of Transport Anita Anand described Freeland as a “excellent partner,” and added: “This information has hit me really challenging and I’ll savings further comment until I have period to procedure it.”

In a statement, the Business Council of Canada called Freeland’s resignation “deeply troubling” and said the concerns that she raises put into question “whose interests the federal government is looking out for”.

Canada’s community broadcaster CBC reported that Freeland’s selection to quit was not expected today, citing a elder federal government source.

Freeland said she intends to remain on as a Liberal member of parliament, and that she will run again in Canada’s upcoming election, which must be held on or before October.

Her resignation comes after another cabinet member, housing minister Sean Fraser, announced he will not be seeking re-election, saying he wants to spend more period with his household.