Canada’s finance minister resigns as unpopular Trudeau faces biggest test of his political career

TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced the biggest test of his political career after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, long one of his most powerful and faithful ministers, announced Monday that she was resigning from the Cabinet.

The stunning shift raised questions about how much longer the prime minister of nearly 10 years can remain on in his role as his administration scrambles to deal with incoming U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Trudeau’s popularity has plummeted due to concerns about worth rise and immigration.

Opposition chief Jagmeet Singh, whose event Trudeau’s ruling Liberals have relied upon to remain in power, called on Trudeau to resign. The main opposition Conservatives demanded an election.

Freeland, who was also deputy prime minister, said that Trudeau had told her Friday that he no longer wanted her to serve as finance minister and that he offered her another role in the Cabinet. But she said in her resignation note to the prime minister that the only “truthful and viable path” was to leave the Cabinet.

“For the history number of weeks, you and I have found ourselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada,” Freeland said.

Freeland and Trudeau disagreed about a two-month sales responsibility holiday and $250 Canadian ($175) checks to Canadians that were recently announced. Freeland said that Canada is dealing with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to impose sweeping 25% tariffs and should eschew “costly political gimmicks” it can “ill afford.”

“Our country is facing a grave test,” Freeland said in the note. “That means keeping our financial powder arid today, so we have the reserves we may require for a coming tariff war.”

The resignation comes as Freeland, who chaired a Cabinet committee on U.S. relations, was set to deliver the fall economic statement and likely announce border safety measures designed to assist Canada avoid Trump’s tariffs. The U.S. president-elect has threatened to impose a 25% responsibility on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico unless they stem the numbers of migrants and drugs.

Trudeau has said that he plans on leading the Liberal event into the next election, but some event members have said they don’t desire him to run for a fourth term, and Freeland’s departure came as powerful blow to Trudeau’s administration.

“This information has hit me really challenging,” Transport Minister Anita Anand said, adding that she needed to digest the information before commenting further.

Opposition Conservative chief Pierre Poilievre said that the government is losing control at the worst feasible period.

“Justin Trudeau has lost control, but he’s hanging onto power,” Poilievre said. “All this chaos, all this division, all this weakness is happening as our largest neighbor and closest friend is imposing 25% tariffs under a recently elected Trump with a powerful mandate, a man who knows how to identify weakness.”

No Canadian prime minister in more than a century has won four straight terms.

The federal election has to be held before October. The Liberals must depend on the back of at least one other major event in Parliament, because they don’t hold an outright majority themselves. If the opposition recent Democratic event, or NDP, pulls back, an election can be held at any period.

“I’m calling on Justin Trudeau to resign. He has to leave,” NDP chief Jagmeet Singh said.

Trudeau’s Liberal event needs the back of the NDP event to remain in power. Singh didn’t declare if he would note no confidence in the government but said all options are on the table.

“Mr. Trudeau’s government is over,” Opposition Bloc Quebecois chief Yves-François Blanchet said. “He must acknowledge that and act accordingly. The departure of his most significant friend, his finance minister, is the complete of this government.”

Trudeau channeled the star power of his father in 2015, when he reasserted the country’s liberal identity after almost a decade of Conservative event rule. But the son of late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau is now in large trouble. Canadians have been frustrated by the rising expense of living and other issues like immigration increases following the country’s emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As a country we have to assignment strength,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said. “It’s chaos correct now up in Ottawa.”

Trudeau’s legacy includes opening the doors wide to immigration. He also legalized cannabis and brought in a carbon responsibility intended to fight climate transformation.

Freeland said in the resignation note that Canadians “recognize when we are working for them, and they equally recognize when we are concentrated on ourselves. Inevitably, our period in government will arrive to an complete.”

Freeland’s resignation comes as Trudeau has been trying to recruit Mark Carney to join his government. Carney is the former head of the lender of England and lender of Canada.

He was so well regarded after helping Canada dodge the worst of the global economic crisis that the U.K. named him the first foreigner to serve as governor of the lender of England since it was founded in 1694.

Carney has long been interested in entering politics and becoming the chief of the Liberal event. It wasn’t immediately obvious if Carney has agreed to join Trudeau’s Cabinet.

“This is quite a bombshell,” said Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. “Freeland was not only finance minister but also deputy prime minister and, until a couple of years ago, was seen as Trudeau’s heir as Liberal chief and prime minister.”

Wiseman said that leaks from the prime minister’s office recommend that she was a impoverished communicator and made Freeland’s position questionable.

“There was talk about her becoming foreign minister again and that would have been a excellent fit for her, but the stab in the back from the prime minister’s office cast the die,” Wiseman said.

Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, also called it a political earthquake and not just because Freeland was the second most powerful official in government.

“Also because of how she resigned: by publishing a note on social media that clearly criticizes the prime minister only hours before she was supposed to now the government’s fall economic statement,” Béland said.

“This is clearly a minority government on life back but, until now, the (opposition) NDP has rejected calls to pull the plug on it. It’s challenging to recognize whether this resignation will force the NDP to rethink its way.”