Graphic by Daman Singh

Goodbye and hello again: Resignation or opportunity? 

By Leah Mushet, February 3 2025—

When one door closes, another one opens, or so many would like to think. But would our country’s political leaders agree with this statement? Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney likely would, but Justin Trudeau’s view remains open to interpretation.

On January 6th, a day shy of the first week of 2025, Justin Trudeau announced he: “intend[s] to resign as Party leader, as Prime Minister“. Parliament thus will be prorogued, or suspended, until March 24th, 2025. This decision has significant implications for Canada, which can only be understood by grasping the context in which it was made.

Prorogation means that all parliamentary sessions, including all issues brought up in parliament, are now expired. New parliamentary sessions will begin again on March 24th, and the business brought up in these sessions will be unburdened by the previous ones. 

This suspension means that most members of parliament are released from their parliamentary duties until the end of March. Strategically speaking, Trudeau claims he resigned and suspended parliament to let “the party select its next leader” because he says Canada deserves “a real choice.” In other words, he wishes to give the liberal party time to select the most viable candidate for the coming federal election. But then why does the Prime Minister plan to resign anyway?

On Dec. 16, 2024, the Finance Minister of Canada, Chrystia Freeland, resigned. As Freeland reveals in her resignation letter posted publicly to X, the Prime Minister had informed Freeland that he intended to replace her with the Bank of Canada’s former governor, Mark Carney, days before she announced the fall economic statement with $20 billion in new spending. 

In the letter, Freeland laments that after consideration, she would turn down a lesser position in the Cabinet that Trudeau had allegedly offered her, and she failed to fulfill Trudeau’s last request of announcing the considerable new spending amount. She then alludes to the “internal conflict” that Trudeau mentioned in his speech, as the two could not see eye to eye on economic solutions for Canada moving forward, which included the oncoming 25 per cent tariffs from the United States. She subtly indicates her intentions to run in the future election, although only for a seat in Toronto since Trudeau had yet to announce his resignation. Mark Carney then turned down the opportunity to replace Freeland, and now, both Carney and Freeland are running for Liberal Party Leader in an attempt to replace their old boss or would-have-been boss, Trudeau.

Now things become a bit clearer: Freeland resigned to avoid taking the heat for the fall economic statement. And Carney, wishing to avoid similar controversies, snubbed Trudeau’s offer. Instead, both took an opportunity that promised much more fruits for their labour: to be the Prime Minister of Canada. 

Speaking of which, since the reopening of parliament on the 24th of March occurs two days before the 26th of March, there may be an early spring election. This is because supply day occurs on the 26th when the government must approve its spending plan for the next fiscal year; the majority of members of parliament must approve it, and if it isn’t, it may trigger an election. 

Canada can expect a new candidate to run in what might be a sooner-than-expected upcoming election as Trudeau’s term ends. One might conclude from all of this that some goodbyes are new opportunities in disguise, while other goodbyes are simply just that.

This article is a part of our Opinions section and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Gauntlet editorial board.


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