Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resigns from Trudeau's cabinet

[OnlinePoker]

Source: CBC

In a shocking move, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced Monday she's resigning from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's cabinet, just hours before she was set to deliver the government's fall economic statement.

It's a disastrous development that throws the government's economic agenda into a tailspin and leaves a huge gap on Trudeau's front bench at a time when Liberal Party support has collapsed in the polls.

Freeland's move to leave just before tabling the economic statement — the government's fiscal road map at a time of great uncertainty, as Canada stares down president-elect Donald Trump's tariff threat — is unprecedented.

In a letter to Trudeau that was subsequently posted on her social media account, Freeland said she had no choice but to resign after the prime minister approached her on Friday about moving her to another cabinet role.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/finance-minister-chrystia-freeland-resigns-from-trudeau-s-cabinet-1.7411380

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She was also the Deputy Prime Minister. Trudeau's days are numbered. The Conservatives have been tabling a series of non-confidence motions, which, if passed would topple the government. I can see with this resignation Trudeau might just pull the plug himself and call an election.

[cilla4progress]

1. Apparently goverments are "collapsing" worldwide..

Cuba, Germany, France

What will arise in their place??

[Mike 03]

8. Yes, it's sad and terrifying.

"Autocrcy, Inc" is Anne Applebaum's latest book. She predicts a network of autocratic kleptocracies connected fundamentally by the admiration strongmen have for each other, helping each other to remain in power, and more inclined to use technology and courts than crude violence to keep us citizens in compliance.

[Renaissance Man]

2. Potential Economic Collapse

If governments are collapsing, then I'd take a look at potential economic collapse.

The United States has someone recently elected President that has been hawkish on talking about imposing tariffs on foreign made goods and being sheepish on U.S. support for NATO. Along with that, the economies of many European countries are not in a good position, considering that they have not been able to address inflationary pressures on their economies in the same manner as the U.S.

The saddest part about this is that Europe has been trending toward far right and fascist parties over the course of the last 8 years.

[Prairie Gates]

3. Yeah, Trudeau is done

For those who dreamed of moving to Canda, it will soon have a Conservative government. To be fair, though, a conservative government in Canada is slightly to the left of the Clinton administration.

[Fiendish Thingy]

5. Not exactly true

The current Canadian Conservative Party is anti-vax, anti-trans, anti-immigrant, anti-EV, climate change deniers who support Freedom Convoys that blockade border crossings and occupied and disrupted Ottawa for a month to protest public health orders, including vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers, (90% of whom were already vaccinated).

It’s the Canadian Liberals who most closely resemble the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party.

[Bev54]

6. The Conservative Party is much different today than

They used to be. They are moving further right and are now much closer to the US Republican Party. Not at all what our country needs. I am a liberal and while I have been a Trudeau supporter, he needs to go. 10 years is a long time. Chrystia Freeland is an extremely smart woman and a real asset to our government, losing her in cabinet is a real blow, although she will stay in her seat. The best thing the liberals can do right now is appoint a new leader and put her back in cabinet. She was integral in our dealing with Trump in his first term.

[LauraInLA]

13. Absolutely untrue.

[Fiendish Thingy]

4. Not *that* shocking

The rift has been reported in the Canadian press for at least a couple of weeks. Freeland had the audacity to call Trudeau’s tax holiday a “gimmick”, which it is.

Trudeau must see the writing on the wall, that his days as PM are coming to an end, and should resign once a new deputy PM (likely Mark Carney) is in place.

If he refuses to go, Polievre is certain to win in a landslide in October.

[Mike 03]

7. Thanks for the background. I was wondering if this tension

between them had been visible to Canadian citizens for some time, or whether it had just burst into the open today with this announcement.

I guess it's unlikely, but I really do hope Trudeau can manage to prevail.

[LauraInLA]

14. I thought they had until 2026 to call the election -- have they announced it's next October?

[Fiendish Thingy]

16. October is the latest an election can be held

It could happen before then.

[OnlinePoker]

17. No, the election date is the third Monday in October, 4 calendar years after the previous one.

It can also be called before that if the government falls or (as Trudeau did in 2021) the PM calls a snap election.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Canadian_federal_election

[Mike 03]

9. Here's a good BBC article that explains their conflict in some detail

Canada's finance minister quits over Trump tariff dispute with Trudeau

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2elggj813o

Canada's Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has resigned from her post, citing disagreements with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on how to respond to incoming President Donald Trump's threat of tariffs.

She announced her resignation in a letter to Trudeau on Monday, in which she said the two have been "at odds about the best path forward for Canada", and pointed to the "grave challenge" posed by Trump's policy of "aggressive economic nationalism".

Freeland said the decision comes after Trudeau informed her last week that he no longer wanted her to be his government's top economic adviser.

Her resignation came hours before she was due to provide an annual fiscal government update in parliament.

Damn. As much as I like Justin Trudeau, I find myself in agreement with Freeland on practically every area of contention. For his sake, I wish he hadn't allowed this to happen.

[Bev54]

10. There is more to it than that. It has a lot to do with Canada's

Financial stability to handle possible tariffs and the fact that Trudeau was going to move her out of her position in a cabinet shuffle. I liked Trudeau but have said for over 6 mos now that his time is up. We cannot afford to keep losing the smartest members of cabinet. She disagreed with some of Trudeau’s policies and she is 100% correct. We need a new liberal leader to try and save this country from falling into the hands of the conservatives.

[Justice matters.]

11. His GST "gimmick" is a living nightmare for small business owners.

Many had to go sleepless to reprogram their sales software just to sort out which small article is GST-free and which are not.

The whole bureaucratic mess is a disaster. I don't know who thought of it instead of just issuing checks or easy bank deposits but... it's an absolute idiocy!

[Bev54]

12. Equally stupid was his insistence of a $250 payment

To all working Canadians making under $150,000. Also a gimmick that we all understand. I had hoped in the summer that he would see the writing on the wall and step down and save his legacy. Unfortunately he did not take that opportunity and will be pushed out.

[LauraInLA]

15. From a Canadian lib friend (though no fan of Trudeau):

Taken at face value, Chrystia Freeland's resignation letter eviscerates Trudeau.

But she's full of crap when she tries to depict herself as being fiscally responsible.

As a part of their 2015 election platform the Liberals said they would run ~$10B deficits for 3 years to stimulate the economy (even though the economy was already in pretty good shape).
It was considered controversial at the time.

Their first budget actually included a deficit of over $20B and they've gone hog wild from there.
Since Freeland took over the Minister of Finance role things have only gotten worse. After Covid her budgets have run deficits in the ~$40B range.

It sounds like the deficit in her next budget will be closer to $50B.

"In October, the Parliamentary Budget Officer said the government was already on track to miss that target, putting the deficit at $46.8-billion. But Ms. Freeland’s comments on Tuesday suggest the situation is worse."
She can't happily sign off on these deficits year after year and then claim to be making a "strenuous effort" to curtail spending. She should have spoken up years ago.

As much as I can't stand Trudeau, she's trying to throw him under the bus for the Liberal's wild spending because it now suits her to do so.

[Bev54]

19. Your "liberal" friend sounds an awful lot like a Conservative, promoting their talking points.

She was not finance minister in 2015, they have not gone "hog wild" but ran deficits to promote business and get us through covid, which was the smart thing to do and we suffered less than most countries. The deficit is $20B over what she had promised of the $40B but that is because of a one time expense due to a indigenous lawsuit and could not be helped, it had to be written off in one year being this year, so it was not an operating deficit or social programs. The new budget in the spring is expected to put funds towards business that would improve our GDP. The Banks are not concerned about the deficit of $60B on a $3trillion dollar economy as long as we are moving forward with actual programs for business, as they have done in the US. It is the conservatives that want money to go to the border and military at the expense of growth and people. It is the conservatives, just like republicans that want to eliminate social programs for "fiscal" responsibility and there seems to be the same amnesia here as in the US about how Harper (conservative) screwed this country up with his cut backs on everything.

She did not throw Trudeau under the table, rather he was trying to throw her under the table. She serves at his pleasure and it is up to her to support his programs and some disagreements are expected, it is the nature of the job but she does not make policy, he does and she no longer agrees with his policies with stupid gimmick gst free days and a one time $250. to working people, which is doing nothing to move the country forward.

[LauraInLA]

20. My husband, also a lib, shared it with me. I think it's clear that libs can disagree on this issue.

[Bev54]

21. We can certainly disagree on whether we like the PM or Minister Freeland but facts are facts and your friend

is not correct on the facts and making statements without context. If you lived here you would understand these are the statements right out of the mouths of conservatives, not liberals.

[HereForTheParty]

18. She basically said she has no confidence in his handling Trump's tarrifs

Our country today faces a grave challenge. The incoming administration in the United States is pursuing a policy of aggressive economic nationalism, including a threat of 25 per cent tariffs.

We need to take that threat extremely seriously. 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.

That means pushing back against ‘America First’ economic nationalism with a determined effort to fight for capital and investment and the jobs they bring. That means working in good faith and humility with the Premiers of the provinces and territories of our great and diverse country, and building a true Team Canada response.

I know Canadians would recognize and respect such an approach. They know when we are working for them, and they equally know when we are focused on ourselves. Inevitably, our time in government will come to an end. But how we deal with the threat our country currently faces will define us for a generation, and perhaps longer. Canada will win if we are strong, smart, and united.

https://globalnews.ca/news/10920146/read-chrystia-freelands-resignation-letter-trudeau-cabinet/

[C0RI0LANUS]

22. Canadian PM Justin Trudeau is juggling a lot of plates.

Besides pocketbook issues for Canadians, the Trudeau government has been trying to fix their healthcare system and address an affordable housing issue. Geo-politically, his support for the people of Ukraine seems to be popular. But on the other hand, PM Justin Trudeau received a letter from more than 100 parliamentarians from nine political parties in Canada, the UK, Australia, and NZ to join the 146 countries which have recognized Palestinian statehood, which was denied.

On top of everything, PM Justin Trudeau will have to deal again with the ignoramus who will imminently occupy the White House. Mr. Trudeau is not in an enviable position.

Sources:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/primary-care-canada-10-000-canadians-report-1.7125990

https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/what-s-behind-canada-s-housing-crisis-decades-of-policy-failures-says-former-deputy-pm-1.6544653

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-mp-sign-open-letter-palestinian-statehood-1.7388628