After Chrystia Freeland resigns, new finance minister set to be sworn in

Just hours after Chrystia Freeland resigned from cabinet, a new finance minister is set to be sworn in, sources tell Global News.

Three sources told Global News there would be a swearing in at Rideau Hall at 4 p.m. Eastern.

Earlier on Monday, Freeland advised Trudeau in a letter that she would step down from her role in the cabinet. She wrote that the only “honest and viable path” was for her to resign after she said Trudeau advised her he no longer wanted her to serve as finance minister.

Freeland’s resignation also came the day she was expected to deliver the fall economic statement.

Department of Finance officials confirmed just after 1:30 p.m. Eastern that the statement is still being delivered as expected at 4 p.m., though it is not known at this time who will deliver the financial outlook in the House of Commons.

Freeland, in her letter, went on to say she had found herself increasingly “at odds” with Trudeau in recent weeks.

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That included over recent financial decisions, saying the tariff threat from the incoming administration of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump meant the country needed to keep “our fiscal powder dry.”

Freeland has been a cabinet minister since 2015 when the Liberals formed government, serving briefly as international trade minister before taking on the foreign affairs role where she was part of the team negotiating the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).

When the party won re-election in 2019 but as a minority government, she was named deputy prime minister and became Canada’s first female federal finance minister in 2020 after Bill Morneau resigned from the job.

The resignation of the Toronto Centre MP has led to calls by various party leaders for Trudeau to resign, with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh saying the prime minister “has to go.”

—with files from Global News’ Katie Dangerfield and Uday Rana

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