Canada PM Justin Trudeau tries to downplay Freeland's resignation, challenge to leadership as 'family' spat
Justin Trudeau
Justin Trudeau, the embattled Canadian Prime Minister on Tuesday (Dec 17) tried to downplay the most serious challenge to his leadership yet — the resignation of his deputy PM as a 'family' spat.
As per Bloomberg, speaking at the Liberal Party's end-of-the-year, Trudeau chalked up the exit of his long-time trusted Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland as "fights around the holidays".
This comes as, in the last few days, over a dozen members of Trudeau's caucus have publicly said that he cannot carry on as the party leader.
Also read |Trudeau next? Ontario Liberal MP calls for change in leadership after Canada Deputy PM's resignation
What did Trudeau say?
"Like most families, sometimes we have fights around the holidays," Trudeau told the Liberal Party's 153 lawmakers and their staffers in Ottawa.
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"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," he added in a glancing reference to Freeland's resignation.
This comes after Freeland resigned while slamming Trudeau's "costly political gimmicks" in a scathing letter.
Freeland's resignation
Freeland, on Monday (Dec 16), announced that she is resigning from Trudeau's cabinet. Freeland said that on Friday, the Canadian PM told her that he was removing her as the nation's finance minister and assigning her a different role and that she felt she had no option but to resign.
Media reports suggest that Trudeau was planning to replace her Brookfield Asset Management Chair, Mark Carney. Following her resignation, Trudeau named Dominic LeBlanc as the finance minister.
Why Freeland's resignation is Trudeau's biggest challenge yet?
Freeland by far is the highest-ranking Liberal to publicly criticise Trudeau. However, she's far from being the only Liberal MP to slam him. Especially after Freeland's resignation, the number of Liberal Party MPs calling for his resignation has increased.
As per a CBC News tally, after Freeland's resignation, over 10 members of Trudeau's caucus have called for him to step down. The MPs as per the report are Wayne Long, René Arseneault, Francis Drouin,Helena Jaczek, Ken McDonald, Ken Hardie, Sean Casey, Chad Collins, Anthony Housefather, Patrick Weiler,Serge Cormier, Yvan Baker and Alexandra Mendès.
(With inputs from agencies)
