Canada’s Chrystia Freeland quits cabinet to become Ukraine envoy

Canadian Minister Chrystia Freeland announced on Tuesday that she would move from Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office and do not present herself to re -election.

Freeland will rather assume a new role as Canada’s special interview in Ukraine, said Carney.

It has been an element of Canadian policy since 2015, serving as a former Minister of Finance and Foreign Affairs, as well as the Deputy Prime Minister. Freeland is also recognized for having forced the release of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after having suddenly resigned from his cabinet last year.

She announced her resignation in an article on X, writing that she made the decision “with enormous gratitude and a little sadness”.

“I decided to leave the cabinet today and turn the page on this chapter of my life. I do not intend to present itself in the next elections,” she said.

In his own statement, Carney thanked Freeland “for her extraordinary service in the federal government’s office in Canada in the past decade”.

He added that he had asked him to serve a new special representative of Canada for the reconstruction of Ukraine, in addition to his role as a liberal deputy.

Earlier this year, Canada hired an additional $ 2 billion ($ 1.46 billion; 1 billion pounds sterling) in Ukraine Military. Carney then made a surprise visit to Kyiv in August.

Freeland, a former journalist for the Ukrainian heritage, has long been a supporter of Ukraine in his current war with Russia. In 2014, it was placed on a list of the Kremlin of Westerners who were prohibited from entering Russia in retaliation for sanctions against Moscow.

Since May, she had been Minister of Transport and Internal Trade to the Liberal Government of Carney, supervising efforts to dismantle internal trade barriers between the provinces while Canada is trying to combat the impact of American prices.

In 2020, Freeland became the first woman to be appointed Minister of Finance in the history of Canada, where she managed Canada’s financial response to the COVVI-19 pandemic.

She suddenly resigned from this position in December 2024 via a publicly shared letter on X, a few hours before she was due to the tax update of Table A.

In the letter, Freeland called the former Prime Minister Trudeau for “expensive political gadgets” and said the two had been “disagreeing on the best way for Canada”.

The resignation sparked the fall in the political career of Trudeau. He then resigned from his post as Prime Minister in January after nine years in office.

Freeland ranked later to replace Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party, but lost against Carney.

She is also recognized for having helped renegotiate the current free trade agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico during President Donald Trump’s first term in 2018. Trump later called “toxic”.

USMCA’s trade agreement – or CUSMA in Canada – has been recognized for helping the country largely avoid a steep rate of 35% imposed by Trump, which granted Canada a size for goods covered by the free trade agreement.

This agreement is now in place for another series of renegotiations in 2026.

In his article on X, Freeland said that his decision to resign was not taken “to spend more time with my family or because the burden of elected functions is too heavy to bear.”

“For me and for my wonderful husband and children, the public service was a privilege and not a sacrifice,” she said.

“I am grateful for every minute, and I hope that more Canadian girls and women will intervene and seek the joys and awards of the policy elected for themselves and for their families.”