Canadian finance minister Chrystia Freeland resigns

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Canada’s finance minister has resigned, citing differences with leader Justin Trudeau about how the country should respond to the “grave challenge” posed by the incoming Trump administration’s economic policies. 

Chrystia Freeland, who is also Canada’s deputy prime minister, said the PM had on Friday told her he no longer wanted her to serve as finance minister and had offered her a different cabinet position. She said that in recent weeks the pair had been “at odds about the best path forward for Canada”. 

In a letter to Trudeau posted on X, Freeland called US president-elect Donald Trump’s threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports “a grave challenge”.

She added that to “take that threat extremely seriously” meant “keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war” as well as “eschewing costly political gimmicks”. 

This is a developing story