Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resigns from Trudeau’s cabinet #CanadaFinance

The latest:

• Freeland says PM told her Friday he no longer wanted her to serve as finance minister.
• She will stay on as Liberal MP.
• Status of the fall economic statement is unclear.

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 for the government that throws its 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 jaw-dropping move to leave just before tabling the economic statement is unprecedented. The statement is supposed to be the government’s fiscal road map at a time of great uncertainty, as Canada stares down president-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threat.

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

“On Friday, you told me you no longer want me to serve as your Finance Minister and offered me another position in the cabinet,” Freeland wrote, addressing Trudeau. “Upon reflection, I have concluded that the only honest and viable path is for me to resign from the cabinet.”

A senior government official told CBC News that Freeland’s announcement was not expected today.

It’s not clear if the fall economic statement will go ahead given Freeland’s departure. Officials at the media lockup, where journalists were expected to read the document under embargo, were scrambling to figure out what to do after the person who was set to present the statement abruptly quit.

This is just the latest challenge for Trudeau, who has endured a very tumultuous six months.

The party lost two federal byelections in formerly rock-solid Liberal ridings in Toronto and Montreal this summer.

He also faced a caucus revolt earlier this fall, when about 25 of his own MPs wrote to Trudeau demanding he resign to save the party from electoral ruin.

Trudeau has brushed off those blows and repeatedly said he will hold on to lead the party into the next campaign.

Freeland’s departure renews questions about his viability as leader and his decision-making.

Carlene Variyan, a former senior Liberal staffer, said it’s mind-boggling that Trudeau would try to shuffle Freeland out of her finance role just days before she was set to deliver the economic statement.

“There’s a level of delusion there that is hard to comprehend,” Variyan said. “In what universe?”

Variyan said if Trudeau had lost confidence in Freeland, there was a better “playbook” to follow than trying to dump her so close to a big moment for the government.

‘I don’t see a way out’

Liberal Ontario MP Francis Drouin said Freeland’s resignation means Trudeau himself needs to step down and let someone else take over.

“I think he needs to go,” Drouin told Radio-Canada. “I’ve been a great defender but I don’t see how we move forward.”

Drouin’s shift on this issue is significant because he previously told disaffected Liberal MPs to drop their plan to push Trudeau out, and to rally behind him to take on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

Freeland’s departure shows Trudeau has lost control of the government’s agenda, Drouin said.

“I don’t see how this helps. I don’t see a way out,” he said.

Jody Wilson-Raybould, a former Liberal cabinet minister who left government under circumstances similar to Freeland’s departure, said it’s untenable for Trudeau to stay on at this point.

“When the general is losing his most loyal soldiers on the eve of a tariff war, the country desperately needs a new general,” she said in a social media post. “It’s time, it’s long past time to go.”

Freeland sounds alarm over Trump tariff threat

In her letter to Trudeau, Freeland said that Canada “faces a grave challenge” and cited Trump’s threat to impose a punishing 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods.

“That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war,” Freeland wrote.

She signalled that she doesn’t think the economic path Canada is on under Trudeau’s leadership is a prudent one.

“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 specify in her letter what she meant by “costly political gimmicks.”

It could be a thinly veiled swipe at Trudeau’s plan to freeze the GST/HST for two months on some goods and send $250 cheques to all working people sometime in the new year.

The finance minister also urged Trudeau to work “in good faith and humility” with provincial and territorial premiers to build a “true Team Canada response.”

“I know Canadians would recognize and respect such an approach,” Freeland wrote. “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.”

While stepping back from cabinet, Freeland told Trudeau she would stay on as Liberal MP and plans to run again under the party banner in the next federal election.

The finance minister’s resignation came moments after Housing Minister Sean Fraser announced he won’t seek re-election. Fraser said he wanted to spend more time with his family.

WATCH | Sean Fraser reacts to Chrystia Freeland’s surprise resignation:

Sean Fraser reacts after Chrystia Freeland says she’s leaving cabinet

Outgoing Housing Minister Sean Fraser was asked Monday about his colleague Chrystia Freeland’s social media post, in which Freeland said she will no longer serve in cabinet after being asked to leave her post as finance minister.

When asked about Freeland’s resignation, Fraser said that he considers her “a friend, and that friendship will continue long after my time in politics.”

“My sense is that she’s been an excellent team member to work alongside,” Fraser added.

Six cabinet ministers have told Trudeau in recent weeks they are not running again in the next election. MP Randy Boissonnault, Trudeau’s former housing minister, resigned amid scandal over his Indigenous ancestry claims and business dealings.

Those departures, combined with Freeland’s resignation, means are now eight cabinet spots that need to be filled in short order.