OTTAWA—Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland quit Monday in a surprise move after disagreeing with Justin Trudeau over US President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threats.
The resignation of Freeland, 56, who also stepped down as finance minister, marked the first open dissent against Prime Minister Trudeau from within his Cabinet, and may threaten his hold on power.
Liberal leader Trudeau lags 20 points in polls behind his main rival, Conservative Pierre Poilievre, who has tried three times since September to topple the government and force a snap election.
“It’s not been an easy day,” Trudeau commented at a fundraiser Monday evening. But in difficult times, he added, “we must all pull together.”
Freeland’s departure came just hours before she was scheduled to provide an update on the nation’s finances.
She said in her resignation letter to Trudeau the country “faces a grave challenge,” pointing to Trump’s planned 25-percent tariffs on imports from Canada.
“For the past number of weeks, you and I have found ourselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada.”
First elected to parliament in 2013, the former journalist joined Trudeau’s cabinet two years later when the Liberals swept to power, holding key posts including trade and foreign minister, and leading free trade negotiations with the European Union and the United States.
Most recently, Freeland had been tasked with helping lead Canada’s response to the incoming Trump administration. As the first woman to hold the nation’s purse strings, she had also been tipped as a possible successor to Trudeau.
By day’s end Dominic LeBlanc, the public safety minister, was sworn in as the new finance minister, just as the government announced a Can$62 billion (US$43.5 billion) deficit — about Can$22 billion more than projected — due to “unexpected expenses.”
LeBlanc now takes the reins on negotiating with team Trump, and has promised to be “focused on the challenges” ahead.
Canada’s main trading partner is the United States, with 75 percent of its exports each year going to its southern neighbor.
Trudeau flew to Florida last month to dine with Trump at the latter’s Mar-a-Lago resort and try to head off the tariff threat, but nothing yet indicates the US president-elect is changing his position.
In her letter, Freeland said the country needed to take Trump’s tariffs threats “extremely seriously.”
Warning that it could lead to a “tariff war” with the United States, she said Ottawa must keep its “fiscal powder dry.”
“That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford,” she said, in an apparent rebuke of a recent sales tax holiday that critics said was too costly.
