What the resignation of Justin Trudeau’s deputy means for Canada
The resignation of Deputy PM and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeman adds to doubts about whether Justin Trudeau, who already has dismal approval ratings, can lead the Liberal Party into next year’s general election.
The embattled prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, suffered a blow on Monday when his deputy unexpectedly resigned hours before a big speech.
Chrystia Freeland, who also serves as the finance minister and was in charge of Canada’s response to the incoming Trump administration, said that she did not share Trudeau’s vision of the future as she became the most high-profile member of his cabinet to quit.
It adds to doubts about whether Trudeau, who already has dismal approval ratings, can lead the Liberal Party into next year’s general election.
Donald Trump has threatened to impose 25 per cent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico unless their governments do more to curb the flow of undocumented migrants and drugs into America.
The US president-elect, who hosted Trudeau in Florida this month, has attempted to humiliate the Canadian leader by calling him the governor of “the great state of Canada” rather than the prime minister of a sovereign nation.
Freeland, who has long been one of Trudeau’s closest allies, was due to present the government’s commitments to improve border security with the US on Monday.
“For the last number of weeks, you and I have found ourselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada,” Freeland, 56, wrote in a letter to Trudeau, indicating that the prime minister had attempted to force her out of the position.
‘Carney? What sense does that make?’
There is some speculation that Freeland will be replaced by Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England. Carney, who warned that Brexit would damage the UK economy, has been advising Trudeau’s government in recent months and was recently appointed to his Leader’s Task Force on Economic Growth.
Commentators are not widely convinced by the idea. Scott Reid, who was director of communications to the Liberal prime minister Paul Martin, said: “What sense does that make for Mark Carney? Rushing into a burning building with charcoal pants on. It’s just insane.”
Push back against America First
Trudeau unveiled a proposal for a mini-stimulus package last month, which envisaged spending over C$6 billion (AUD$50m) on one-time payments to 18 million Canadians. The country is struggling with a large budget deficit.
Freeland, a former journalist who was appointed four years ago, described the decision as a “costly political gimmick which we can ill afford and which makes Canadians doubt that we recognise the gravity of the moment”.
She warned that the Canadian government needed to take the Trump tariff threat “extremely seriously”.
See my letter to the Prime Minister below // Veuillez trouver ma lettre au Premier ministre ci-dessous pic.twitter.com/NMMMcXUh7A
— Chrystia Freeland (@cafreeland) December 16, 2024
“How we deal with the threat our country currently faces will define us for a generation, and perhaps longer,’‘ Freeland wrote in her parting letter.
She added that Canada needed a stronger approach to “push back against ‘America First’ economic nationalism”.
Trudeau said in a recent interview: “Let’s not kid ourselves in any way, shape or form – 25 per cent tariffs on everything going to the United States would be devastating for the Canadian economy.”
The prime minister is said to have offered Freeland another role in the cabinet. She has said she will run in the election, which must be held in or before October. Trudeau’s Liberals trail the Conservatives by about 20 percentage points in most surveys.
Trudeau, who has been in power for nearly a decade, has only narrowly survived votes of confidence in recent months.
Canadians have complained of a downward shift in their country and said that promises Trudeau made to build the “Canadian dream” have not come to pass three terms on.
The affordability of the housing market is near a record low, grocery prices have rocketed, crime has become more visible and the country’s public healthcare system has been struggling under the added weight of new immigrants.
The Times
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