Abandon ship!

Canada's finance minister abruptly resigns, and she'd be smart to lie low for a few years.

I know you Americans ignore what’s happening up here in the pending 51st state, but trust me: this is really getting entertaining.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland shockingly resigned her cabinet position on Monday as she was set to deliver an economic update that was expected to be soaked in red ink.

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted on social media, Freeland said the prime minister offered her a different cabinet position on Friday but that she decided “the only honest and viable path for me is to resign from cabinet.”

“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 and possess the authority that comes with it,” she wrote.

Freeland’s letter describes a disagreement between her and the prime minister about the best way to respond to threats of tariffs from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, with Freeland arguing for “eschewing costly political gimmicks” and “keeping our fiscal powder dry.”

“For the past number of weeks, you and I have found ourselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada,” wrote Freeland.

The resignation comes after weeks of tension between Freeland and the prime minister. The two had reportedly butted heads over the $250 cheques promised to Canadians, and the National Post revealed it would not be part of the fall economic update.

To promise those cheques would have added billions more to an already bloated federal deficit, Freeland having already signaled that it could be much larger than the $40 billion limit she promised last year. Observers have even mused the deficit could go up to $60 billion.

Keep in mind, it’s not just that Freeland resigned as finance minister, it’s that she resigned on the day she was supposed to provide an economic update to Parliament.

And while I can’t say I’ve been a fan of Freeland, exactly, she was the most capable member of Trudeau’s cabinet. Which is kind of like Cristiano Ronaldo being the most capable soccer player in the Saudi League, but I guess it’s something. After a surge of spending during the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government was gradually reducing the federal budget deficit each year.

But then Trudeau had a look at polling numbers like this - and the absence of the rally ‘round the Liberals effect he and I expected after Trump’s election victory - and decided to start making it rain in a desperate attempt to stay in power. And it’s worked no better than anything else he’s tried.

There’s no indication Freeland will leave politics and/or the Liberal Party altogether, and I expect she’ll run for the party leadership at some point.

The only question is when. Personally, I think she’d be smart to aim for the leadership job after whichever sacrificial lamb leads the Liberals to the slaughter in 2025.

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This isn’t the first time a Canadian Prime Minister named Trudeau was wildly unpopular and the subject of rampant speculation about his future.

Exactly forty years ago Justin’s dad, Pierre Trudeau, had been in power for fifteen of the past sixteen years, inflation and unemployment were stubbornly high during the early-eighties recession, and pretty much everyone knew the opposition Tories were going to win the impending federal election. The only questions was how much of the furniture the Liberals could salvage.

Trudeau announced his resignation, and the subsequent leadership race saw John Turner, a former finance minister who’d resigned because of disagreements with Prime Minister Trudeau (sound familiar) narrowly beat out veteran Jean Chretien as Liberal Party leader and (unelected) Prime Minister.

And then this happened:

Cornelius The First is known as the best Prime Minister Canada never had.