Chrystia Freeland — the minister with the mile-wide mandate — leaves a massive hole in cabinet
CBC
Speaking to journalists in Toronto on Friday, Chrystia Freeland didn't want to talk about the whispers around Parliament Hill that tensions between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were running high.
"I'm proud and grateful to be able to serve in the cabinet of the prime minister," Freeland said.
"I really don't spend a lot of time focusing on Ottawa gossip. My focus is on doing what I can to serve Canada and Canadians in what is a really challenging time for our country."
Freeland stunned the country Monday by abruptly resigning from cabinet. The announcement could have been timed for maximum impact — mere hours before she was scheduled to deliver the government's Fall Economic Statement.
Her letter of resignation was posted to social media just as her cabinet colleagues were entering a 9:30 a.m. cabinet meeting, and only hours before Trudeau was scheduled to address some of the Liberal Party's top donors at an evening Laurier Club holiday party.
Monday's turn of events, which left the Trudeau government reeling, stood in stark contrast to Freeland's entry into politics more than a decade ago.
An Alberta-born Rhodes scholar, successful journalist and author, Freeland was first elected to Parliament in November 2013 in a byelection in the riding of Toronto Centre, which was left vacant by the resignation of Bob Rae. Author of an award-winning book about the world's wealthiest people, Freeland promised during the campaign to champion the middle class.
Trudeau has often talked about his efforts to recruit Freeland to run for the Liberals, a campaign that began in 2012.
"I asked her to run for politics, which involved leaving New York to move to Toronto to run for a nomination that I couldn't guarantee she was going to win and then run in a by-election as a distant third-party candidate so that maybe she could move to Ottawa," Trudeau told an audience in 2017 at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit. "And it took weeks of asking her and appealing to both service but also … saying, 'We need your voice.'"
In October 2015, Freeland won the riding of University Rosedale, the Liberals were swept to power and she was named to cabinet as minister of international trade.
There, Freeland had to salvage the Canada-Europe trade agreement. It had been initiated under the Conservatives but in late 2016 it ran into opposition from the Belgian region of Wallonia.
In January 2017, she was appointed minister of foreign affairs, just as newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump came to office pledging to renegotiate the North American Trade Agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico.
Despite the challenging negotiations and Trump personal dislike of Freeland (he took a public dig at her at one point), she managed to successfully stickhandle the talks. In November 2018, the CUSMA free trade agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico was signed.
Freeland stuck by Trudeau when he came under fire over scandals and controversies, such as the SNC Lavalin affair that prompted Justice Minister Jody Wilson Raybould to resign.
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