'Bombshell' Resignation Could Spell the End for Trudeau

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces the biggest test of his political career after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, long one of his most powerful and loyal ministers, announced Monday that she was resigning from the Cabinet.

• The stunning move raised questions about how much longer the prime minister of nearly 10 years can stay on as his administration scrambles to deal with incoming President-elect Trump, the AP reports. Trudeau's popularity has plummeted due to concerns about inflation and immigration.
• Freeland, who was also deputy prime minister, said that Trudeau had told her on Friday he no longer wanted her to serve as finance minister and that he offered her another role in the Cabinet. But she said in her resignation letter to Trudeau that the only "honest and viable path" was to leave the Cabinet.

• Freeland and Trudeau disagreed about a two-month sales tax holiday and $250 Canadian—$175—checks to Canadians that were recently announced. Freeland said Canada is dealing with Trump's threat to impose sweeping 25% tariffs and should eschew "costly political gimmicks" it can "ill afford." Our country is facing a grave challenge," Freeland said in the letter. "That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war."
• Opposition leader Jagmeet Singh, whose New Democratic Party Trudeau's ruling Liberals have relied upon to stay in power, called on Trudeau to resign. The main opposition Conservatives demanded an election. The federal election has to be held before October next year. The Liberals must rely on the support of at least one other major party in Parliament, because they don't hold an outright majority themselves. If the NDP pulls support, an election can be held at any time.
• Trudeau "has lost control, but he's hanging onto power," Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said. "All this chaos, all this division, all this weakness is happening as our largest neighbor and closest ally is imposing 25% tariffs under a recently elected Trump with a strong mandate, a man who knows how to identify weakness."

• "This is quite a bombshell," said Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. "Freeland was not only finance minister but also deputy prime minister and, until a couple of years ago, was seen as Trudeau's heir as Liberal leader and prime minister."
• Trudeau named Dominic LeBlanc as his new finance minister. LeBlanc, a longtime ally and friend, was the public safety minister and recently went with Trudeau to have dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
• Some Liberal MPs were expected to urge Trudeau to resign at a meeting Monday night. MP Wayne Long, leader of an earlier effort to oust the prime minister, tells the CBC that around a third of the party's 153 MPs want Trudeau to step down immediately, a third are loyal, and a third are on the fence. "He's messing with his legacy and it's time to move on," Long says.

(More Justin Trudeau stories.)