The Latest: Events unfold on Parliament Hill after Freeland’s cabinet resignation

OTTAWA — Chrystia Freeland resigned from cabinet Monday, leaving her post as deputy prime minister and finance minister on the same day she was expected to deliver the government’s fall economic statement. The move reignited calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down and call an election. All times are Eastern.

Here’s the latest.

Dec. 17, 13:30 p.m.

Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says Trudeau is taking some time to reflect both on Freeland’s decision to quit and on what caucus had to say about his future.

Several Liberal MPs have publicly called for Trudeau to step down, including Wayne Long, who says he thinks as many as 40 or 50 of his colleagues agree it’s time for a new leader.

11:52 a.m.

The Conservatives call for a House of Commons committee to hold two weeks of hearings early in the New Year on Trump’s threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs.

The party wants the international trade committee to hear from ministers, border agencies and the RCMP, Canada’s U.S. ambassador, and “top officials responsible for securing a ‘Canada First’ deal with the United States.”

“The NDP and the Bloc cannot sit back and watch as Justin Trudeau allows American tariffs to force our economy off a cliff,” the Conservative press release says.

11:30 a.m.

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet says the Liberals need to call an election in January to ensure a new Parliament is ready to deal with the incoming administration of Donald Trump.

Blanchet says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has lost the political, moral and ethical mandate to lead.

He says Canadians don’t want an election campaign over the holiday season but the election should happen as soon as possible in the new year.

6:30 a.m.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s former environment minister Catherine McKenna says “every Liberal MP should be calling on the prime minister to resign.”

McKenna says he should not be given the Christmas holiday to think about it.

“The surest way to elect a Conservative majority and lose all the progress we’ve made is for him to stay,” she wrote in a post on social media. “And we need to focus on tariff threat from the U.S. It’s over.”

McKenna served as Liberal environment minister between 2015 and 2019, and then as minister of infrastructure until 2021. She did not seek re-election that year.

Dec. 16, 10:35 p.m. ET

Donald Trump has weighed in on Chrystia Freeland’s decision to step down from her cabinet position.

The incoming U.S. president posted on Truth Social that “the Great State of Canada is stunned as the Finance Minister resigns, or was fired, from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau.”

Trump says Freeland’s behaviour was “totally toxic” and “not conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada.”

He added that Freeland “will not be missed.”

8:15 p.m. ET

Trudeau addresses a crowd of Liberals at a holiday fundraiser, where he says “It has obviously been an eventful day and it has not been an easy day.”

The prime minister says he showed up because he wants to speak to attendees, who he called “dedicated, devoted members of the Liberal party.”

Trudeau tells the Liberal Laurier Club fundraiser attendees that he “loves this country” and that it is the “absolute privilege” of his life to serve as their prime minister.

7:45 p.m. ET

Several cabinet ministers, including Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, Immigration Minister Marc Miller and Treasury Board President Anita Anand, arrive at a holiday fundraiser in Gatineau, Que.

The Liberals’ national campaign director, Andrew Bevan, and Gerald Butts, a personal friend of Trudeau and his former principal secretary, are also in attendance.

6:45 p.m. ET

Justin Trudeau walks to his motorcade after an evening meeting of the Liberal caucus in Ottawa.

He doesn’t answer questions or offer a comment to the reporters outside his motorcade, as a group of protesters referring to him as “King Trudeau” shout at him that he’s “ruined our country.”

Trudeau is set to attend a Liberal party fundraiser this evening in Gatineau, Que.

6:30 p.m. ET

Liberal MPs filing out of the caucus meeting Monday night would not say whether the prime minister is staying on or whether he has their support.

Most MPs did not answer questions from reporters as they exited the meeting, saying that what happens in caucus is confidential.

Ruby Sahota says Trudeau has her full support while James Maloney says the prime minister has the confidence of caucus. But Chad Collins, who publicly called for the prime minister to resign on Monday, disagreed.

“We’re not united. There’s still a number of our members who feel we need a change in leadership. I’m one of those,” he said.

5 p.m. ET

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives at a special national Liberal caucus meeting on Parliament Hill.

Chrystia Freeland, who quit as cabinet minister this morning, arrives at the meeting to join her caucus colleagues.

Wearing a purple dress, Freeland does not respond to reporters’ questions as she walks into the closed-door room.

4:30 p.m. ET

Dominic LeBlanc is sworn in as finance minister and intergovernmental affairs minister.

He tells reporters after the ceremony “the government continues to focus on the work that Canadians want us to focus on.”

LeBlanc says he spoke with the prime minister today and the conversation was “entirely focused on the work that we want to do to support Canadians around affordability.”

“That will obviously be a huge focus in my work as the minister of finance. We need to also be extremely focused on the challenges that the incoming American administration will pose with respect to the potential imposition of tariffs.”

3:54 p.m. ET

Government House Leader Karina Gould informs the House of Commons that given the day’s events, the finance minister’s statement that was expected at 4 p.m. would not be happening.

She tables the fall economic statement document, which includes some new measures to encourage business investment and beef up border security ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House next month.

The document shows a much larger deficit than expected for the fiscal year that ended last March, partly because of billions of dollars the government expects to pay for Indigenous legal claims and pandemic-related benefits and loans it doesn’t expect to recover.

The deficit for 2023-24 came in at $61.9 billion, almost $22 billion more than forecast last spring. The deficit is projected to fall to $48.3 billion for the current fiscal year.

3:30 p.m. ET

A senior government official, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the appointment, confirms that Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc will be sworn in as finance minister at a Rideau Hall ceremony at 4 p.m. and that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be present.

The official is not being named because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the plans.

3:20 p.m. ET

Reporters have been summoned to Rideau Hall at 4 p.m. for a swearing-in ceremony.

Liberal House leader Karina Gould is set to introduce the government’s fall economic statement in the House of Commons at the same time.

Liberal MP Salma Zahid says the Liberal caucus is meeting at 5 p.m.

2:15 p.m. ET

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is calling for the prime minister to resign, saying the Liberals are focusing on themselves instead of fighting for Canadians.

He says “all options are on the table,” but did not commit to voting non-confidence in the minority government.

Liberal MP Anthony Housefather posted on social media that he has asked the party’s caucus chair to convene a meeting within the next 24 hours.

2 p.m. ET

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says Canada’s premiers wish Chrystia Freeland “all the best.”

Ford, who has previously spoken about his close working relationship with Freeland, says she called him today and he put her on speakerphone as he was chairing a meeting of all 13 premiers.

He says it is “chaos” in Ottawa right now, and the country must project strength and unity.

Ford says premiers will “step up” and “tell the world that there is stability here, there is certainty here in Canada and by all means, it’s a great place to invest.”

2 p.m. ET

Speaking in Montreal, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet says there should be an election early in the New Year.

“Mr. Trudeau’s government is over. He must acknowledge that and act accordingly,” Blanchet says.

“At the latest, in the beginning of 2025, the prime minister should go to the (governor general) and ask for the dissolution of the parliament.”

He says that would allow voters to elect a “new parliament that will have the mandate to deal with the real crisis at hand,” which is the current diplomatic and trade conflict with the United States.

1:15 p.m. ET

Officials confirm the fall economic statement lockup, which was set to begin at 10 a.m., will now start at 1:45 p.m.

It’s not yet clear who will present the document in the House of Commons later today.

12:45 p.m. ET

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told reporters the prime minister has lost control of the government, and repeated calls for an election.

He says it’s up to NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, whose caucus has supported the minority Liberals in key confidence votes this fall, to force an election.

And as incoming President Donald Trump is threatening the country with hefty tariffs, Poilievre says Canada needs a strong leader with a strong mandate to fight back.

He is also making a plea to Liberal voters, saying while they may have supported the party in “good faith” because they felt it was right for the country, they have been let down.

12:30 p.m. ET

Facing a barrage of questions outside the cabinet meeting room, Champagne says the situation is serious but it’s time to focus on the “best interest of Canadians.”

Asked whether, under parliamentary rules, he is now finance minister, Champagne says he is not.

Liberal MP Chad Collins released a statement on social media calling for the prime minister to step down, saying it’s obvious Canadians across the country “want him to leave.”

Collins, who represents the Ontario riding of Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, said he was among the 23 MPs who called for the prime minister to resign in October.

11:30 a.m. — 12 p.m. ET

On their way out of the cabinet meeting, ministers face reporters’ questions about whether they still have confidence in Justin Trudeau to continue as prime minister and Liberal leader.

11:30 a.m. ET

The embargoed media reading for the fall economic statement, which was supposed to begin at 10 a.m., has not yet started. The documents remain hidden under black sheets.

It remains unclear if another cabinet minister will step in and present the statement or if it will be postponed following Freeland’s resignation.

11 a.m. ET

At a meeting of Canada’s premiers in Toronto today, Ontario Premier Doug Ford is asked if he is concerned about Freeland’s resignation. He responds: “We all are.”

The premiers are meeting to discuss U.S. president elect-Donald Trump’s tariff threat. Ford says he did not know about Freeland’s resignation ahead of time.

He says it’s a time for premiers to step up and project unity across the country.

9:30 a.m. ET

Freeland’s announcement comes just before the Liberal cabinet was set to meet around 9:30 a.m.

Going into that meeting, some cabinet ministers appear shaken up by the news of Freeland’s departure, including Treasury Board President Anita Anand.

Anand says Freeland is a “good friend,” and that the news hit her hard.

Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu says she wishes Freeland “all the best,” and that the decision to resign is “difficult and deeply personal.”

9:07 a.m. ET

In a political bombshell, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announces that she’s exiting cabinet.

In a resignation letter posted to social media, she says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told her Friday she was out as finance minister. While she says Trudeau offered her another role in cabinet, the only “honest and viable path” is to leave cabinet entirely.

She points to an internal dispute with the prime minister over the path forward.

Freeland says the country faces a “grave challenge” with the incoming Donald Trump administration and its threat of 25 per cent tariffs.

“We need to take that threat extremely seriously. That means keeping our fiscal powder dry, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war. That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment.”

9 a.m. ET

With the government set to present the Fall Economic Statement later in the afternoon, doors open for reporters in Ottawa to enter the embargoed reading of the document.

Housing Minister Sean Fraser announces he will not run in the next federal election, citing family reasons. He says he will remain engaged in politics, but that today’s announcement is not about a transition to another political post.

Fraser was recently asked if he is planning a bid to lead the Nova Scotia Liberals after the party was decimated in last month’s provincial election. He said in late November he was “not making any plans.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 16, 2024.

Canadian Press Staff, The Canadian Press