Former finance minister Chrystia Freeland’s resignation as a member of Parliament takes effect today as she takes up a new voluntary role advising the Ukrainian government.
Freeland’s absence from the Liberal caucus will leave Prime Minister Mark Carney two seats short of a majority government, despite his party’s gain of a pair of seats last year when two Conservative MPs crossed the floor.
A byelection must now be called for the Toronto riding of University-Rosedale which Freeland represented for more than a decade. The Canada Elections Act requires the writ to be issued between 11 and 180 days after the Speaker of the House of Commons notifies Elections Canada of a vacancy.
The earliest date for a byelection would be in March.
The University-Rosedale Liberal riding association did not immediately respond to questions about who might be selected to replace Freeland as the Liberal candidate. It is considered a safe seat for the Liberals, with Freeland winning with almost two-thirds of the vote last year.
With Freeland’s seat vacant, the House of Commons standings sit at 170 for the Liberals, and 172 for oppositions parties, with the Conservatives at 142 seats, the Bloc Québécois at 22, the NDP with seven and the Green Party with one.
The loss of Freeland from the Liberal caucus may not be the only one Carney has to contend with. A series of diplomatic vacancies in the U.K. and Europe may soon see the prime minister tap caucus members to fill the posts.
Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux also has indicated his intention to resign his Edmonton seat sometime before the spring.
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Freeland’s departure has been months in the making, starting with her decision in September to step away from cabinet to take on a parliamentary secretary role as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s special representative for Ukraine’s reconstruction. In November, the Rhodes Trust said she would become the educational charity’s new CEO starting July 1. She will relocate to Oxford, U.K. for the job.
On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced he had appointed Freeland as an adviser on economic development in his country. Later that day, she announced her immediate resignation as Carney’s Ukraine adviser and said she would be resigning as an MP shortly. On Wednesday she said she had notified the speaker that her resignation would take effect on Jan. 9.
Freeland has developed an international reputation as a staunch defender of Ukraine since Russia’s invasion and has led a global push to seize Russian assets for the purpose of rebuilding Ukraine.
Opposition MPs said she should have resigned from her seat before taking the role with Zelenskyy. Freeland has done no interviews about the role, but in a statement posted on social media she said the position is unpaid and that she has consulted with the ethics commissioner and “followed his advice.”
“It has been an immense honour to serve my constituents and all Canadians in Parliament since 2013,” the statement said.
“Going forward, I will continue to support and help build Canada in every way I can, while championing the brave fight of the people of Ukraine, a cause I have been committed to my entire life.”
Freeland held several key cabinet posts under former prime minister Justin Trudeau before her high profile resignation as finance minister in 2024 — just hours before she was to present the Trudeau’s government’s fall economic statement.
Her resignation set off a chain of events that ended with Trudeau stepping down and Carney’s ascent to the Liberal leadership and the Prime Minister’s Office.
She also served as deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs and international trade under Trudeau, and as transport and internal trade minister under Carney. Freeland finished second in the Liberal leadership race in March, well behind Carney who earned 86 per cent of the vote.
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