Canada’s finance minister resigns as PM Trudeau deals with declining popularity

Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, long Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s most powerful and loyal minister, announced on December 16 she was resigning from the Cabinet as Trudeau struggles with declining popularity, Report informs via AP.

Freeland, who also was deputy prime minister, said Trudeau had told her Friday that 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 the prime minister that the only “honest and viable path” was to leave the Cabinet.

“For the past number of weeks, you and I have found ourselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada,” Freeland said.

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 US President-elect Donald 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.”