Sawt Falasteen - Canada's Trudeau battles to hold on after deputy PM resigns

Chrystia Freeland, after nearly a decade of being at Trudeau's side, made the surprise announcement on Monday, after disagreeing with the prime minister over Trump's tariff proposals.

The move marked the first open dissent against Trudeau from within his cabinet and has emboldened his critics.

"As a country, we have to project strength and unity, and it's chaos right now up in Ottawa," commented Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

When the news broke, Canada's provincial premiers were meeting about Trump's threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports.

"This is not the best time to have a (power) vacuum," Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said.

"I'd be looking at this wondering who the next leader is going to be" and whether the domestic political upheaval will derail Canada's approach to Trump, Smith added.

In her resignation letter, Freeland said the country faces a "grave challenge."

More than 75 percent of Canadian exports go to the United States and nearly two million Canadian jobs depend on trade.

Freeland warned the standoff could lead to a "tariff war" with the United States and urged Ottawa to keep its "fiscal powder dry" while rebuking Trudeau's spendthrift policies.

She resigned just hours before she was to provide an update on the Group of Seven nation's finances -- a Can$62 billion (US$43.5 billion) deficit that blew past her earlier projections.

- Internal Liberal revolt grows -

According to ballot tracking conducted by Nanos Research and released Tuesday, Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives are ahead of Trudeau's Liberals by 20 points, 43 to 23 percent.

A small group of Liberal MPs who previously urged Trudeau to step aside, hoping a fresh face could breathe new life into their beleaguered party, has reportedly ballooned and now represents one-third of the party caucus.

"Canadians want change," lawmaker Yvan Baker told public broadcaster CBC, saying he believed it was "in the best interest of the country and of the party" to transition to a new Liberal leader before the next election.

"I think he needs to go," said fellow Liberal MP Francis Drouin. "It's time to clean house."

Jagmeet Singh, leader of a small left-wing faction in parliament that had kept the Liberals in office before breaking with Trudeau in late August, has also joined the chorus.

"They're fighting themselves instead of fighting for Canadians," he told reporters. "For that reason, I'm calling on Justin Trudeau to resign. He has to go."

Trudeau appeared to brush off the controversy at a fundraiser Monday evening, saying only that it had "not been an easy day."

It would soon get worse, however, with the Liberals losing a fourth by-election this year, in British Columbia, and Trudeau awakening Tuesday to a market slump.

- 'Clown show' -

Poilievre, who has tried three times since September to topple the Liberal minority government and force snap elections, doubled down.

At a news conference, he called Trudeau "a weak, pathetic prime minister" and Monday's dramatic events "a clown show."

Trudeau has vowed to lead the Liberals into the next election, which is scheduled for October 2025, but analysts say they could come much sooner.

"He has already taken many blows but this time, it is really difficult not to see it as a fatal blow," University of Alberta professor Frederic Boily told AFP.

Boily said, however, he would be "surprised if he resigned before Christmas because it would create even more chaos."

"If he insists on staying," said crisis management expert Amanda Galbraith, "the party apparatus will grind to a halt, people will leave."

"It would be death by 1,000 cuts and the damage to himself, the Liberal brand and the country is going to pile up."

On Tuesday, the Toronto stock market closed down slightly after rallying later in the day, and the Canadian dollar fell to 70 US cents.

Q.Bulbul--SF-PST