Trudeau tries to brush off Freeland’s exit as family spat

Article content

A defiant Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, all smiles at an end-of-year holiday party for lawmakers, tried to downplay the most serious challenge yet facing his leadership.

“Like most families, sometimes we have fights around the holidays,” Trudeau told a gathering for his Liberal Party’s 153 elected members and their staff in Ottawa on Tuesday. “But of course, like most families, we find our way through it. You know, I love this country, I deeply love this party, I love you guys, and love is what families are all about.”

That was a glancing reference to the exit of his longtime No. 2, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who shocked the country by publishing a scathing resignation letter instead of delivering an expected economic and fiscal statement on Monday. Tuesday’s speech was the first time Trudeau has said anything publicly about it.

Freeland’s resignation note slammed “costly political gimmicks” and said the government needed to keep fiscal reserves available for a possible trade war with the incoming US administration of Donald Trump. Last month, Trudeau announced a temporary sales-tax holiday and tax rebates for millions of Canadians.

Freeland wrote that she felt her only option was to quit after Trudeau told her Friday he was removing her as finance minister and offering her a different role. In that conversation, which happened over Zoom, Trudeau told her he was replacing her with Brookfield Asset Management Chair Mark Carney, several media outlets including the Globe and Mail reported. Freeland resigned Monday morning and Trudeau named Dominic LeBlanc, not Carney, as finance minister later that day.

“In politics, there are always tough days and big challenges,” Trudeau said in the speech that was largely focused on celebrating party staffers. But he said the Liberals don’t “shy away from these moments. We put in the work, whether it’s easy or hard.”

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

Freeland is by far the most senior Liberal to criticize Trudeau’s leadership, and her departure may prove a fatal blow. Since the party lost special elections in once-safe Toronto and Montreal seats earlier this year, and another in a British Columbia district on Monday, a drumbeat of caucus dissent has gotten louder.

A national election is due by October 2025, though it can also happen sooner.

Trudeau has been unable to reverse a slide that has seen the Liberals fall far behind Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party in national opinion polls. But the prime minister nonetheless brushed aside a letter that was signed by about two dozen Liberal members of parliament in October that called for him to step down.

The number calling for his resignation has grown to about 45 members, according to Wayne Long, a Liberal lawmaker from New Brunswick.

“He’s delusional if he thinks he can continue on this trajectory. The country wants him to step down,” Long said in an interview. “He needs to do the right thing for the party and for the country. He needs to step aside. He needs to allow this party to heal, to rebuild and present viable alternatives.”

There are “great people” within the Liberal caucus who could be wonderful party leaders, such as Freeland, LeBlanc or Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, Long said. There may be a private-sector candidate, he added, including Carney, who serves in a number of philanthropic and business roles including as Bloomberg Inc. chair.

“We can do this if we have the will to do it and the courage to do it,” Long said. “We stay static at our own peril and we all know it.”

Canada’s parliament is now on a break until late January, and Long and several other caucus members chose to return to their ridings rather than attend the holiday party. Inside the large hall lit up in Liberal red, the festive mood marked a stark contrast from the grim discussions about the government’s future that have been unfolding over the past two days in Ottawa.

Trudeau walked on stage to loud cheers and a 30-second standing ovation from the crowded room. At one point before he appeared, the Michael Buble song “Home” punctuated classic Christmas tunes. The lyrics included: “Let me go home, I’ve had my run. Baby, I’m done. I gotta go home.”