Trudeau's top lieutenant resigns over differences on Trump

[Celerity]

Chrystia Freeland cited differences with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over how to confront Donald Trump’s “America First” policies and threatened tariffs.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/12/16/canada-chrystia-freeland-resigns/

https://archive.ph/Aj6jX


Chrystia Freeland speaks at a news conference in Ottawa on Nov. 19. She resigned Monday as Canada's finance minister and deputy prime minister. (Patrick Doyle/AP)

TORONTO — Chrystia Freeland, Justin Trudeau’s chief lieutenant throughout his tenure as Canada’s prime minister, resigned from his cabinet on Monday, citing differences over how to confront President-elect Donald Trump’s “America First” economic nationalism, threats of tariffs and the prospect of a trade war. The abrupt resignation is the greatest challenge yet to Trudeau’s leadership. The embattled prime minister, elected in 2015, has seen his popularity nosedive over the past year amid economic torpor, a nationwide housing shortage and voter fatigue. If federal elections were held today, polls project, his Liberal Party would be wiped out.

Freeland, a former journalist, served the past four years as both finance minister and deputy prime minister as one of his most loyal cabinet ministers. She was Trudeau’s first international trade minister; in 2017, he named her foreign minister in a cabinet shuffle intended to prepare the government for the first Trump administration. In her resignation letter, posted on her X account on Monday morning, shortly before she was scheduled to deliver a fiscal and economic update to Parliament, she notes that Trudeau told her Friday he wanted her out as his finance minister and offered her another cabinet role.

“Upon reflection, I have concluded that the only honest and viable path is for me to resign from the Cabinet,” Freeland writes. “To be effective, a Minister must speak on behalf of the Prime Minister and with his full confidence. In making your decision, you made clear that I no longer credibly enjoy that confidence and possess the authority that comes with it.” For several weeks, Freeland writes, she and Trudeau have been “at odds about the best path forward for Canada,” including on how best to respond to the “grave challenge” posed by Trump’s threats to impose a tariff 0f 25 percent on Canadian products. Canada sends three-quarters of its exports to the United States; economists project that such levies could plunge the economy into recession.

“We need to take that threat extremely seriously,” Freeland writes. “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.” Freeland did not elaborate on what she meant by “costly political gimmicks.” But last week, the Globe and Mail reported on a growing rift between the Finance Department and the prime minister’s office over a sales-tax exemption that took effect over the weekend, as well as plans to send $175 checks to Canadians making up to $105,000.

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Link to tweet

[Dennis Donovan]

1. Good for her!

I remember, before she went into government, she was a regular commentator on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

[Mike 03]

2. Tonight Justin Trudeau is meeting behind closed doors.

An important caucus meeting. A great deal at stake.