Chrystia Freeland Resigns From Cabinet, Seeks ‘Fresh Challenges’

Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland says she has resigned from cabinet and will not be seeking re-election.

Freeland, a former deputy prime minister, minister of finance, and foreign affairs minister under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, made the announcement in a Sept. 16 statement. She did not say whether she will resign her seat in the House of Commons, nor what she will be doing next.

“After twelve fulfilling years in public life, I know that now is the right time for me to make way for others and to seek fresh challenges for myself,” Freeland said.

In a statement published shortly after Freeland’s, Prime Minister Mark Carney said she will now serve as Canada’s new Special Representative for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, while keeping her duties as MP. Freeland is of Ukrainian descent and had played a key role steering Canada’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“Chrystia’s versatility, raw intelligence, and principled leadership have served Canadians with distinction through extraordinary challenges and changes,” Carney said.

Contrary to her resignation from Trudeau’s cabinet last year, Freeland did not seek in her statement to distance herself from Prime Minister Mark Carney. The statement was also accompanied by a photo of her and Carney hugging.

“Mark Carney is a unifier in a time of crisis, and I have absolute confidence in his ability to lead us through it,” she wrote.

Freeland is a longtime friend of Carney and had faced-off against him during the Liberal leadership race last winter. Carney won the contest with 85.9 percent of the votes, with Freeland finishing a distant second with 8 percent.

After being sworn-in as prime minister in March, Carney appointed Freeland transport minister in his first cabinet. Freeland kept her post when Carney appointed his second cabinet in May, after winning the April 28 election.

Freeland’s resignation on Sept. 16 is the second time in under a year she steps down from her cabinet role.

She had resigned from her post as deputy prime minister and finance minister moments before she was set to deliver the Fall Economic Statement on Dec. 16, 2024.

In her letter of resignation to Trudeau she made public, she accused the then-prime minister of using “costly political gimmicks,” in reference to a GST holiday introduced by Liberals, at a time when Canada was facing the prospects of U.S. tariffs from the incoming Donald Trump administration.

Trudeau had told Freeland he was removing her from the finance portfolio in the days prior but still expected her to deliver the Fall Economic Statement.

Freeland’s resignation caused consternation in the Liberal caucus, which was already in turmoil following the party losing two strongholds in byelections in 2024. Some Liberal MPs had begun publicly calling on Trudeau to step down.

Trudeau eventually announced his intention to resign in early January, triggering the Liberal leadership race.

Trudeau had first recruited Freeland as a star candidate and she had entered the House of Commons by way of a byelection in 2013. At the time, the Liberals had a small number of seats, with Jack Layton’s NDP serving as the official Opposition.

Freeland, a Toronto MP, won re-election in 2015 and was appointed as international trade minister in Trudeau’s first cabinet.

Her colleague, Defence Minister David McGuinty said he was unaware of her impending resignation when he spoke to reporters on his way to the cabinet meeting on Sept. 16.

McGuity said, however, that he “wishes her well” on her Ukraine envoy role.

“She’s an extraordinary person, and if Minister Freeland wants to serve in that capacity, I think she would do a wonderful job,” he said.

Freeland said in her statement that she is not leaving her post to spend more time with her family or because of the strain caused by political life. “For me and for my wonderful husband and children, public service has been a privilege and not a sacrifice,” she said.