Trudeau taps Dominic LeBlanc to serve as finance minister after Chrystia Freeland’s shock resignation

The latest:

• Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc has been sworn in as Canada’s new finance minister after Chrystia Freeland’s shock resignation.
• Despite the drama, fall economic statement was tabled — showing a big deficit of more than $60B
• Freeland says PM told her Friday he no longer wanted her to serve as finance minister.
• Rather than accept a job change, Freeland resigned Monday.
• In letter to Trudeau announcing her resignation, Freeland denounced Trudeau’s “costly political gimmicks.”
• Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Trudeau must call an election right away.
• NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says Trudeau must resign.
• Asked if he would pull his support for the Liberal government, Singh says: “All options are on the table.”
• At least seven Liberal MPs, including a former cabinet minister, publicly say Trudeau must resign.

After Chrystia Freeland’s shocking resignation as finance minister, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc was sworn in Monday to replace her as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau turns to a close confidant to try to shore up his shaky government and restore some stability.

LeBlanc, who has been friends with the prime minister since childhood, has long been one of Trudeau’s most trusted lieutenants.

The New Brunswick cabinet minister recently joined Trudeau for dinner with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. He had been tasked with drafting the government’s billion-dollar border plan to appease American concerns about drugs and migrants coming into the U.S. from Canada.

The next challenge for Trudeau is holding off an increasingly restless Liberal caucus composed of MPs who are intent on deposing him as prime minister and putting someone else in the top job.

Trudeau is expected to face those MPs later tonight and dozens of them are expected to tell him he should resign after mismanaging his relationship with Freeland.

Freeland said earlier today she was resigning from Trudeau’s cabinet — just hours before she was set to deliver the government’s fall economic statement.

It’s a disastrous development for the government that throws its economic agenda into a tailspin and leaves a huge gap on Trudeau’s front bench at a time when Liberal Party support has collapsed in the polls.

Freeland’s jaw-dropping move to leave just before tabling the economic statement is unprecedented. The statement is supposed to be the government’s fiscal road map at a time of great uncertainty, as Canada stares down Trump’s tariff threat.

In a letter to Trudeau that was subsequently posted to her social media account, the outgoing deputy prime minister said she had no choice but to resign after Trudeau approached her Friday about moving her to another cabinet role.

“On Friday, you told me you no longer want me to serve as your finance minister and offered me another position in the cabinet,” Freeland wrote, addressing Trudeau. “Upon reflection, I have concluded that the only honest and viable path is for me to resign from the cabinet.”

Freeland also took a jab at Trudeau’s handling of the country’s economy, denouncing what she called the government’s “costly political gimmicks” and imploring him to work collaboratively with the country’s premiers to take on Trump’s tariffs.

She conceded that she and Trudeau have been “at odds” in recent weeks.

A senior government official told CBC News that Freeland’s announcement was not expected today.

Just last week, at an event celebrating women in politics, Trudeau said he’s a “proud feminist” and cited his appointment of Canada’s first female finance minister.

“I’ve touted the adage ‘Add women, change politics,’ which to us is more than just words,” he said.

Two days later, Trudeau would ask Freeland to leave that post, effectively pushing out the most senior woman in government.

The resignation derailed the fall economic statement and left officials at a media lockup scrambling to figure out what to do after the person who was set to present the statement abruptly quit.

After an hours-long delay, the embargoed reading for reporters went ahead and the document was quietly tabled in Parliament without the usual pageantry.

The statement revealed Canada’s finances are in worse shape than expected. The deficit for 2023-24 came in at $61.9 billion — billions more than the roughly $40 billion Freeland had promised it would be.

Tumultuous time for Trudeau

This is just the latest challenge for Trudeau, who has endured a very tumultuous six months.

The party lost two federal byelections in formerly rock-solid Liberal ridings in Toronto and Montreal this summer.

He also faced a caucus revolt earlier this fall, when about 25 of his own MPs wrote to Trudeau demanding he resign to save the party from electoral ruin.

Trudeau has brushed off those blows and repeatedly said he will hold on to lead the party into the next campaign.

Freeland’s departure renews questions about his viability as leader and his decision-making.

Carlene Variyan, a former senior Liberal staffer, said it’s mind-boggling that Trudeau would try to shuffle Freeland out of her finance role just days before she was set to deliver the economic statement.

“There’s a level of delusion there that is hard to comprehend,” Variyan said. “In what universe?”

Variyan said if Trudeau had lost confidence in Freeland, there was a better “playbook” to follow than trying to dump her so close to a big moment for the government.

‘I don’t see a way out’

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said the government is “spiralling out of control right before our eyes.” He said Freeland’s departure comes “at the very worst time,” as Canada grapples with a series of economic challenges.

Poilievre said Freeland, who was recruited by Trudeau to run for the Liberals in 2013, “knows him better than anyone and she knows he’s out of control.”

“Everything is spiralling out of control. We simply cannot go on like this and it is up to Jagmeet Singh now to make that realization,” Poilievre said, calling on the NDP leader to help him bring down the government in a non-confidence vote.

Poilievre said Canadians must go to the polls as soon as possible, even if it means disrupting the Christmas holidays.

NDP Leader Singh said Trudeau must resign, telling reporters, “Justin Trudeau has to go.”

Asked if he would bring down the government at the earliest opportunity, he said, “All options are on the table. All options.” 

Liberal Ontario MP Francis Drouin said Freeland’s resignation means Trudeau himself needs to step down and let someone else take over.

“I think he needs to go,” Drouin told Radio-Canada. “I’ve been a great defender but I don’t see how we move forward.”

Drouin’s shift on this issue is significant because he previously told disaffected Liberal MPs to drop their plan to push Trudeau out, and to rally behind him to take on Poilievre.

Freeland’s departure shows Trudeau has lost control of the government’s agenda, Drouin said.

“I don’t see how this helps. I don’t see a way out.”

MPs call on Trudeau to resign

Six other sitting Liberal MPs — René Arseneault, Anthony Housefather, Wayne Long, Patrick Weiler, Helena Jaczek and Chad Collins — also said Trudeau must resign.

Jaczek, who served as public services procurement minister under Trudeau before he shuffled her out in 2023, said Trudeau’s move to push Freeland out of the job was distasteful.

“Let’s put it this way — firing the minister of finance who has served you extremely well is not what I’d call a trustworthy move,” she told reporters.

Asked if Trudeau should resign, Jaczek said yes.

“I signed a letter with 23 MPs from across Canada asking the PM to step down and begin a formal process to replace him. Today, I publicly reiterate my request that the prime minister step down and initiate a leadership process to take our country in a new direction,” Collins said in a social media post.

Jody Wilson-Raybould, a former Liberal cabinet minister who left government under circumstances similar to Freeland’s departure, said it’s untenable for Trudeau to stay on at this point.

“When the general is losing his most loyal soldiers on the eve of a tariff war, the country desperately needs a new general,” she said. “It’s time, it’s long past time to go.”

Freeland sounds alarm over Trump tariff threat

In her letter to Trudeau, Freeland said that Canada “faces a grave challenge” and cited Trump’s threat to impose a punishing 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods.

“That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war,” Freeland wrote.

She signalled that she doesn’t think the economic path Canada is on under Trudeau’s leadership is a prudent one.

“That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment.”

Freeland did not specify in her letter what she meant by “costly political gimmicks.”

It could be a thinly veiled swipe at Trudeau’s plan to freeze the GST/HST for two months on some goods and send $250 cheques to all working people sometime in the new year.

The finance minister also urged Trudeau to work “in good faith and humility” with provincial and territorial premiers to build a “true Team Canada response.”

“Inevitably, our time in government will come to an end. But how we deal with the threat our country currently faces will define us for a generation, and perhaps longer. Canada will win if we are strong, smart, and united,” Freeland said.

While stepping back from cabinet, Freeland told Trudeau she would stay on as Liberal MP and plans to run again under the party banner in the next federal election.

The finance minister’s resignation came moments after Housing Minister Sean Fraser announced he won’t seek re-election. Fraser said he wanted to spend more time with his family.

Six cabinet ministers have told Trudeau in recent weeks they are not running again in the next election. MP Randy Boissonnault, Trudeau’s former employment minister, resigned amid scandal over his Indigenous ancestry claims and business dealings.

Those departures, combined with Freeland’s resignation, means there are now eight cabinet spots that need to be filled in short order.

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