Ukraine’s ally Chrystia Freeland resigns: what Ukrainians remember about the Canadian politician
17 December 14:49
on December 16, 2024, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Canada Chrystia Freeland resigned due to disagreements with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Komersant ukrainskyi reports citing The Guardian.
The formal reason for Freeland’s voluntary resignation was Trudeau’s allegedly ambiguous reaction to the statements of future US President Donald Trump about the need to impose a 25% duty on goods from Canada.
In her resignation letter, Freeland noted that Canada faces a “serious challenge” due to Trump’s aggressive economic nationalism and called for avoiding “costly political gimmicks” to preserve financial reserves for a possible tariff war. At the same time, the politician did not clearly explain what Trudeau’s fault was.
Freeland’s resignation came after she and Trudeau disagreed over the necessary response to Trump’s alleged measures. According to Reuters, the disagreement went so deep that Trudeau even offered the minister another, lower position in the government. She decided not to accept.
“On Friday, you said that you no longer wanted me to be finance minister. You offered me another position in the cabinet. After thinking about it, I decided that the only honest and right thing for me to do would be to resign from the government. To be effective, a minister must speak on behalf of the prime minister and with his full confidence. With your decision, you have made it clear that I no longer have that trust,”
– Freeland wrote.
This event caused a political outcry in Canada. Freeland resigned just a few hours before she was to present the government’s economic strategy on the eve of the new administration in the United States. Now the country is in a political crisis, and Trudeau will be particularly hard hit. According to Reuters, the opposition New Democrats have already announced that they will initiate a vote of no confidence in the government in the first quarter of 2025 if Trudeau does not resign voluntarily.
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Who is Chrystia Freeland?
Chrystia Freeland is a Canadian politician, journalist and author of Ukrainian descent who has served as Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister of Canada. She was born in Pease River, Alberta, into a family with Ukrainian roots: her mother, Halyna Khomyak, was a Ukrainian diaspora activist, and her maternal grandfather, Mykhailo Khomyak, worked as a journalist and editor for Ukrainian newspapers in Poland and Canada. Thanks to this connection, Chrystia has always maintained close contact with Ukrainian culture and community.
In her political career, Freeland has been a consistent voice in support of Ukraine, especially since the beginning of Russian aggression in 2014. She was one of the key initiators of tough sanctions against Russia after the annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of the war in Donbas. Her strong stance as Minister of Foreign Affairs and later as Minister of Finance helped strengthen Canada’s international support for Ukraine, including financial and military assistance. Freeland has also been actively engaged with the Ukrainian diaspora, helping to keep the world’s attention on Ukraine.
earlier, Russia declared Chrystia Freeland persona non grata.
