Ottawa: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration faced a significant crisis when his trusted deputy, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, issued a scathing resignation letter on Monday, significantly weakening his position at a critical juncture.
For weeks, Trudeau and his cabinet have struggled to present a united stance against Donald Trump’s threat of imposing 25% tariffs on Canadian goods. The prime minister’s popularity has been declining for years and is now nearly at its lowest. He is facing criticism from provincial premiers and increasingly louder calls for his resignation, not just from opponents but also from within his own Liberal Party.
Freeland, who has served as finance minister since 2020 and is a former journalist, publicly expressed her disagreement with the prime minister’s inclination towards short-term spending for popular measures such as tax breaks, which would increase the budget deficit. She implied that such strategies reflect poorly on the government’s seriousness.
“Our country today faces a grave challenge,” Freeland, 56, said in her resignation letter — referring to Trump’s tariff threat.
“That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war. That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment.”
The timing of her letter might as well have been calculated to cause maximum damage. She posted it to social media site X at 9:07 a.m. in Ottawa, as the city’s political district prepared to watch her unveil an update on the country’s fiscal and economic situation.