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 Trudeau posted to social media on Monday morning, Freeland said this decision came after Trudeau offered her “another position in Cabinet.”
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.
“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.”
Freeland says she will stay on as a Liberal MP and is “committed” to running again in the next election.
This move comes hours before Freeland is set to table the fall economic update.
This is a breaking news story. More details to come.