How Trump’s tariff threat pushed Canada’s Trudeau to brink of resignation

Canada’s embattled prime minister faces fresh calls to resign after top minister steps down over possible ‘tariff war’.

Montreal, Canada – For weeks, Justin Trudeau has tried to reassure Canadians that his government has everything under control.

US President-elect Donald Trump’s threat late last month to slap 25-percent tariffs on his country’s northern neighbour has dominated the headlines, with Canadian business leaders and politicians hammering the prime minister about how he plans to respond.

This week, the simmering crisis took an unexpected — and escalatory — turn when Canada’s finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, announced she was stepping down from her post because she and Trudeau were “at odds about the best path forward”.

“The incoming administration in the United States is pursuing a policy of aggressive economic nationalism, including a threat of 25 per cent tariffs. We need to take that threat extremely seriously,” Freeland wrote in her resignation letter on Monday.

“That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war. That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment.”