Hours after Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland quit in a surprise move after disagreeing with him over US President-elect Donald Trump's tariff threats, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced fresh calls for resignation.
A third of the ruling Liberal Party's MPs have called for a change in leadership in Canada further deepening the political crisis in the country.
This comes after Canadian media outlets report that Trudeau has not made a decision on whether to continue as Prime Minister or resign. The number of rebel MPs who have asked for his ouster grew to nearly 60 out of the 153-strong caucus in the House of Commons.
Freeland also quit as Canada's Finance Minister and her resignation became the first open dissent from within Trudeau's cabinet to threaten his grip on power.
Liberal Party leader Trudeau is lagging 20 points behind his chief rival Conservative Pierre Poilievre who has made three attempts since September to oust the Trudeau government and compel a snap election.
"Our country today faces a grave challenge," Freeland said on social media platform X in her resignation letter, referring to Trump's planned 25% tariffs on Canadian imports.
"For the past number of weeks, you and I have found ourselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada," she wrote in her resignation letter.
First elected to Parliament in 2013, former journalist Freeland joined Trudeau's cabinet two years later when the Liberals swept to power, holding key posts, including trade and foreign minister, and leading free trade negotiations with the EU and the United States.
Most recently, she had been tasked to help lead Canada's response to moves by the incoming Trump administration.
Canada's leading trading partner is the United States, to whom 75% of its exports are sent every year.
The resignation letter said that it was Trudeau who wanted her shuffled to another job; to which she responded by saying: "I have concluded that the only honest and viable path is for me to resign from the cabinet."
She explained why she would have to take Trump's tariffs threats "extremely seriously" during her tenure as finance minister.
Warning that it could lead to a "tariff war" with the United States, she said Ottawa must keep its "fiscal powder dry".
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