BREAKING: Chrystia Freeland resigns as Canada's finance minister ahead of dire economic report

Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland resigned from the Trudeau cabinet Monday morning. She was scheduled to deliver the Fall Economic Update in the House of Commons Monday afternoon, which is expected to reveal a higher than usual deficit. 

Freeland posted a letter she had written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that revealed he had asked her to resign as finance minister but had offered her another cabinet position. Freeland did not say what that role would have been but in her letter she emphatically refused it.

“It has been the honor of my life to serve in government, working for Canada and Canadians, we have accomplished a lot together. On Friday, you told me you no longer want me to serve as your finance minister, and offered me another position in the cabinet. Upon reflection, I have concluded that the only honest and viable path is for me to resign from the cabinet,” Freeland wrote.

“To be effective, a Minister must speak on behalf of the Prime Minister and with his full confidence in making your decision. You made it clear that I no longer credibly enjoy that confidence and possess the authority that comes with it,” she wrote, acknowledging that a political feud had erupted between her and Trudeau where they had “found ourselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada.”

Freeland added that Canada should keep "our fiscal powder dry today so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war. That means issuing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford, and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment.”

The former finance minister also wrote about “pushing back against America First economic nationalism by “building a true team Canada response.”