Finance minister Chrystia Freeland quits cabinet hours before economic update

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has announced she's resigning from cabinet. In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted to social media, Freeland said this decision came after Trudeau offered her another position.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has announced she's resigning from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, after she says he told her he no longer wanted her in the top economic post.

In a letter Freeland posted to social media on Monday morning, Freeland said this decision came after Trudeau offered her “another position in Cabinet.”

“Upon reflection, I have concluded that the only honest and viable path is for me to resign from the cabinet,” Freeland said in the bombshell letter. “To be effective, a minister must speak on behalf of the prime minister and with his full confidence.”

“In making your decision, you made clear that I no longer credibly enjoy that confidence,” she added, addressing the prime minister directly.

The two have found themselves “at odds about the best path forward for Canada,” she wrote, an assertion she’s sought to downplay in recent days as reports of fraying tensions between the two top Liberals re-emerged.

The latest round of frustration between their two offices, was reportedly connected to disagreements over measures such as the two-month GST/HST pause and the in-limbo $250 workers' benefit cheques, as well as the government’s ability to abide by its fiscal anchors.

In the letter, Freeland notes the looming tariff threat from president-elect Donald Trump and makes the case for that being why Canada needs to keep its “fiscal powder dry,” and why the government should be “eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment.”