
Trudeau taps LeBlanc as finance minister after Freeland resigns
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tapped his top fixer in cabinet, Dominic LeBlanc, to replace Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland after she suddenly tendered her resignation from cabinet Monday morning in a fight over the nation’s finances.
Freeland said she had to step down from cabinet because the prime minister lost faith in her after she fought back against decisions that ballooned the deficit far past what she previously pledged.
“It’s obviously been an eventful day and it has not been an easy day,” Trudeau told supporters at a Liberal party fundraiser in Gatineau, Que., late Monday evening, hours after he replaced Freeland.
He snapped photos with party faithful at the posh holiday donor party, but avoided speaking with reporters all day about losing his most important minister on the day she was to update Parliament on the state of the nation’s finances and defend the government’s spending decisions.