OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is reflecting on his political future after the tumultuous resignation of his finance minister Chrystia Freeland, who quit while firing a blistering salvo at her boss.
While no immediate decision is expected before the Christmas holiday season, it is not at all clear that Trudeau will opt to stay on.
A senior Liberal source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said it is fair to say Trudeau is reflecting on his future and could not say for certain that the prime minister would continue to lead the Liberal party.
The House of Commons rose Tuesday for a six-week break, with MPs not expected to return to Ottawa until late January, giving Trudeau time to contemplate his future. He faces a growing number of his own MPs calling on him to step down, no opposition party willing to support his government, and the continuing sting of Freeland’s departure.
At least one member of Trudeau’s cabinet also expected the prime minister would take time to consider his options.
“The prime minister, as I understand it, a number of caucus colleagues have said that the prime minister has said that he will reflect on both the decision that minister Freeland made, but also what he’s heard from members of his own caucus,” Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told The Canadian Press.
“I think we all need to give him a little time to reflect, and I respect that fact that he’s going to take some time to reflect.”
The prime minister has not spoken to reporters since Freeland’s departure Monday thrust his government into chaos. That saw the fall economic update delivered against a backdrop of disarray, and a swift cabinet shuffle in which Trudeau named his confidante Dominic LeBlanc as finance minister.
Trudeau addressed an emergency caucus meeting, and later influential party donors, calling the day “eventful” and not an easy one.
After Trudeau told Freeland last Friday that she would no longer be his finance minister, sources say she turned down his offer of being named a minister without a portfolio or department to handle the Canada-U.S. relationship. Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney passed on a similar offer, which doesn’t come with the tools of the large department that Freeland had when she renegotiated NAFTA during the first administration of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump.
On Monday morning, she abruptly told Trudeau she was quitting instead, and immediately posted her letter of resignation on social media.
In it, she challenged Trudeau’s fiscal and political approach to the incoming Trump administration’s threatened 25-per cent tariff on Canadian products, urging more frugal stewardship of the nation’s finances to buffer the economic hit tariffs would bring, and a more consensus-building approach working with premiers when it comes to plotting strategy.
Freeland also slammed the government’s use of “costly political gimmicks” at a time when the nation should keep its “fiscal powder dry,” and said Canadians can tell when the Liberals are putting their own interests over those of the public.
Another senior Liberal said Freeland and Trudeau had been drifting apart since late November, when Trump threatened to hit Canada with 25-per-cent tariffs. Freeland viewed that threat as a potential “COVID-level crisis” for the country, according to the source, and wanted to preserve Canada’s strong balance sheet to deal with it.
Freeland also pushed for the inclusion of business-friendly tax credits in the fall economic statement to help with the upcoming trade war. Despite her concerns about the spending, Freeland was prepared to deliver the document until Trudeau told her she would be shuffled out of the finance portfolio.
Freeland is Trudeau’s 10th minister to leave his cabinet this year alone. While most left voluntarily to pursue other jobs or to be closer to family, one — Randy Boissonnault — left under a cloud. Freeland left in a blaze of fire.
The prime minister is overdue for a cabinet shuffle and was expected to shift MPs into new roles Wednesday. By early Tuesday evening, there was still no word whether that would go ahead. However, a cabinet shuffle was still a possibility for this week, the source said.
The pressure on Trudeau from within his own caucus to step down as party leader has grown, with 11 Liberal MPs calling for him to resign. Prior to Monday, only three — Sean Casey, Wayne Long and Ken McDonald — had publicly called on the prime minister to resign.
They were joined by Anthony Housefather, Helena Jaczek, Francis Drouin, Patrick Weiler, Ken Hardie, Chad Collins, Yvan Baker, Alexandra Mendès and Joël Lightbound René Arseneault after Freeland went public. Many more have reportedly signed a letter calling on Trudeau to step down.
Casey said Tuesday he doesn’t think the prime minister will resign. “There’s not a single indicator in anything that he says or does that would that would tell me otherwise,” he told reporters in Ottawa. “He seems to be absolutely committed … he’s been remarkably consistent.”
Casey noted that after a confrontation with caucus this fall, Trudeau had promised to reflect on what he was told, only to announce his plans to stay on within 24 hours. Casey, like others in caucus, lamented the loss of Freeland, and said he thinks she should run for Liberal leadership.
In an emergency caucus meeting Monday, Freeland received a standing ovation from her colleagues. When the prime minister appeared, many of his caucus members told Trudeau they were disappointed in how she was treated, according to an MP who was in the meeting.
Cabinet solidarity has held, but barely, with many ministers declining to answer direct questions from reporters Monday about whether they still had confidence in Trudeau.
Trump continued to take shots at the disruption his incoming presidency is causing. Late Monday, the president-elect took jabs at the Trudeau government on social media.
“The Great State of Canada is stunned as the finance minister resigns, or was fired, from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Her behaviour was totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada. She will not be missed!!!”
Freeland played a key role in dealing with the last Trump administration, including the renegotiation of NAFTA, and was one of Trudeau’s closest allies.
The president-elect had earlier joked that if Canada wanted to avoid his tariffs, it could become the 51st state . Canadian officials, including LeBlanc, have since tried to downplay that as good-natured humour.
It’s not yet clear how Freeland’s exit will impact Canadians’ perceptions of the Trudeau government.
Polling done by Abacus Data for the Star after Freeland’s announcement showed 42 per cent of Canadians had been following the news closely and 39 per cent had heard about it, compared to 19 per cent who were not yet aware of it.
Overall, 67 per cent of those polled believed that Trudeau should resign; among Liberal supporters, the survey showed 26 per cent support calls for the prime minister’s resignation with 56 per cent of party supporters believing he should stay. The poll also showed that 58 per cent of Canadians want an election now.
The overnight poll didn’t show a big change in the Liberals’ already dismal polling, with the Conservatives at 45 per cent support, the Liberals 25 points behind at 20, and the NDP at 18 per cent.
Abacus surveyed 1,186 Canadian adults from Monday evening to Tuesday morning using online panels based on the Lucid exchange platform. While opt-in polls cannot be assigned a margin of error, for comparison purposes, a random sample of this size would have one of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
