Butts says Trudeau less likely to remain leader since Freeland quit

Gerald Butts wrote in a Substack newsletter that Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's surprise resignation from cabinet last week dealt Trudeau a staggering blow.

A former chief adviser and close friend to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday he doesn’t think Trudeau will stay on to lead the Liberals in the next election.

Gerald Butts wrote in a Substack newsletter that Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s surprise resignation from cabinet last week dealt Trudeau a staggering blow that loosened his already tenuous grip on the party.

His post came the same day the Conservatives said they will move to bring down the government as early as the end of January, by first moving a non-confidence motion in a House committee that will sit Jan. 7.

Trudeau is said to be thinking about his future during the holiday break, as an increasing number of current and former Liberal MPs publicly call on him to step down for the good of the party.

Butts said Trudeau was “unlikely” to lead the party into the next campaign before Freeland’s stunning departure and is “now much less likely to do so.”

Just a week ago, Butts joined the Liberal Christmas party confab in Ottawa alongside Trudeau’s longtime chief of staff and close confidant Katie Telford.

Butts, who has been friends with Trudeau since they studied together at McGill University, and Telford were part of the original team Trudeau, helping craft both his leadership bid in 2013 and his first winning election campaign in 2015. Butts then served as Trudeau’s principal secretary during the first Trudeau term.

He wrote that the Liberals are back now to where they were before Trudeau took over the party in 2013, in terms of their popularity and voters viewing them as out-of-touch.