OTTAWA – In a career filled with fresh milestones, Chrystia Freeland is taking up another new role: backbench member of the governing Liberal party.
Freeland resigned from the federal cabinet Monday, the day she was set to present the government’s fall economic statement.
In a resignation letter, posted to social media, she said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered her another ministerial position on Friday, and the “only honest and viable path” was to leave cabinet.
Freeland’s move came amid persistent rumblings that Trudeau has been wooing former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney to be finance minister.
In the letter, addressed to Trudeau, Freeland said she and the prime minister had found themselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada.
“To be effective, a minister must speak on behalf of the prime minister and with his full confidence,” she said. “In making your decision, you made clear that I can no longer credibly enjoy that confidence and possess the authority that comes with it.”
Freeland added that Canada faces a grave challenge with the incoming Trump administration in Washington and its threat of steep tariffs.
Meantime, the government’s decision to offer a two-month GST break on certain goods over the holidays has garnered lukewarm support from consumers and businesses.
She said the government needs to take the U.S. threat seriously and 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 is the latest Liberal finance minister over the last half century to find themselves out of sync with their leader, much like John Turner, Paul Martin and Bill Morneau before her.
The friction is indicative of ongoing debate within the Liberal party over how far to the right or the left it should be, said Jonathan Malloy, a political science professor at Carleton University.
“It’s the job of the finance minister to say ‘No.’ So there’s always some tension there,” he said. “But then, the Liberal party seems to have more difficulty navigating that.”
Freeland, a noted author and journalist, entered politics as a star recruit, handily winning the Toronto Centre riding in a 2013 byelection.
She became a fixture of Trudeau’s front bench when he took power two years later, with a series of assignments in the trade, foreign affairs, intergovernmental affairs and finance portfolios. Freeland has also been deputy prime minister since November 2019.
Following Donald Trump’s re-election last month, she was named chair of the reconstituted cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations.
“She’s been, I think, the most important minister in the Trudeau cabinet and one of the most important women in Canadian politics ever,” Malloy said.
Freeland, who traces some of her family roots to Ukraine, has steadfastly supported Kyiv in its resistance against Russia’s military invasion.
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress lauded Freeland on Monday for playing a crucial role in securing aid and assistance.
“As one of the key leaders in the G7 and international community in developing the plan to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, she ensured continued and predictable support for Ukraine’s defence of the freedom of Europe.”
Freeland won widespread applause as foreign minister for shepherding renegotiation of the crucial trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Though she may have effectively delivered her message at the international bargaining table, the Oxford-educated master of several languages hasn’t always connected with ordinary Canadians.
Emails from members of the public accused Freeland of being smug and elitist when she likened trimming federal finances to cutting her family’s Disney+ streaming subscription.
The former cabinet minister’s new role in the governing party might be short-lived, with the next federal election to take place by October 2025.
Freeland says she intends to run in the next campaign.
“I don’t think leaving at this point is necessarily going to be a fatal blow to her aspirations,” said Don Desserud, a political science professor at the University of Prince Edward Island.
On the other hand, with the Liberals headed for a possible electoral thrashing, Desserud suspects the party will come to see pretty well anyone associated with the Trudeau government as persona non grata, “and that they’ll want a fresh a fresh team all the way around.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 16, 2024.
