Canada's Freeland exits Carney's cabinet to become a special envoy to Ukraine

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TORONTO (AP) — Chrystia Freeland, whose abrupt resignation as finance minister last year forced Justin Trudeau’s exit as Canada's prime minister, resigned Tuesday from the Cabinet of Prime Minister Mark Carney to become a special envoy to Ukraine.

In a letter announcing her departure as minister of transport and internal trade, Freeland said she will not run in the next election.

Carney said Freeland will serve as Canada’s new special representative for the reconstruction of Ukraine — a newly created position outside Cabinet — in addition to her responsibilities as a member of Parliament.

“With tremendous gratitude and a little sadness, I have decided to step down from Cabinet today and turn the page on this chapter in my life,” said Freeland, who lost the Liberal Party leadership to Carney in March but returned to Cabinet as his transport and internal trade minister.

Freeland, who is of Ukrainian heritage, has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia.

The former journalist has been a frequent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who banned her from traveling to the country in 2014 in retaliation for Western sanctions against Moscow.

She was Trudeau’s most powerful minister, serving as both deputy prime minister and finance minister but her abrupt resignation as finance minister and deputy prime minister last December forced Trudeau to eventually say he was resigning as prime minister and party leader.

Freeland then ran for the party leadership but received just 8% of the vote.

After she resigned as finance minister and deputy prime minister, U.S. President Donald Trump called her “totally toxic” and “not at all conducive to making deals.” Freeland was Canada’s point person when the U.S., Canada and Mexico renegotiated their free trade deal during the first Trump administration.

The 57-year-old Harvard graduate and Rhodes scholar speaks five languages and has influential friends around the world.

“As she takes the decision to step down from the Ministry, I would like to thank Chrystia Freeland for her extraordinary service in the Cabinet of Canada's federal government over the past decade,” Carney said in a statement.

A person close to Freeland said she's been in discussions with Carney over the last month and said it was her decision to leave. The person, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, said Freeland will remain as a member of Parliament for now but expects to do some writing, teaching and be involved in issues like multilateralism and the defense of democracy.

Robert Bothwell, a professor of Canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto, said Freeland should be credited for Trudeau's exit at a time when the Liberals looked like they were headed for sure defeat.

“Her instincts were good. She pressed the button and Trudeau exploded through the roof,” Bothwell said.

Carney replaced Trudeau after a leadership contest and won the federal election, capping a stunning turnaround in fortunes fueled by Trump’s annexation threats and trade war.

Bothwell called Freeland a strength of the Trudeau tenure.

“She supplied some of the gravitas that Trudeau lacked,” Bothwell said, adding that she wasn’t too popular among her fellow Liberal lawmakers given the leadership contest that she lost to Carney.

“She obviously wasn’t too popular, so she seemed to lack a certain amount of common touch,” he said.