NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh on Monday called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “to resign,” adding that “all options” were on the table when asked if he would support a non-confidence motion.
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa hours after Chrystia Freeland resigned as finance minister, Singh said Canadians were facing a range of economic issues from expensive groceries to high home prices and the threat of tariffs from an incoming Trump administration next year.
“Instead of focusing on these issues, Justin Trudeau and the Liberals are focused on themselves. They’re fighting themselves instead of fighting for Canadians. And for that reason, today, I’m calling on Justin Trudeau to resign,” Singh said.
“He has to go.”
The minority Liberals have survived recent tests of confidence with support from the NDP.
Conservatives repeatedly called in question period on Monday for the government to either test the confidence of the House of Commons, or go to Rideau Hall and ask the governor general for a snap election.
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“Justin Trudeau has lost control and yet he clings to power,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in remarks outside the House of Commons just before question period.
“We cannot accept this kind of chaos, division, weakness while we’re staring down the barrel of a 25 per cent tariff from our biggest trading partner and closest ally.”
He said U.S. president-elect Donald Trump “can spot weakness from a mile away.”
“We simply cannot go on like this,” Poilievre said. “Mr. Trudeau is being held in office by one man: Mr. Jagmeet Singh.”
Karina Gould, leader of the government in the House of Commons, said the government has obtained the confidence of the House of Commons in multiple recent confidence votes.
An Ipsos poll released Tuesday shows Liberal support has dropped five points, down to 21 per cent, since September, putting them tied with the New Democratic Party, which saw its own share of decided voters increase by five per cent in the same period.
“What we’re seeing here is that progressive voters are starting to make a decision to maybe reconsider the NDP. We do know that one of the largest voter blocs in the Canadian population these days continues to be Liberal-NDP switchers,” Darrel Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Global Public Affairs, told Global News.
In September, the federal New Democrats pulled their support from the supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberal government.
The move puts the Liberal minority government at risk of falling at any time in the coming weeks or months if it loses any confidence votes, which could trigger a snap election as soon as this fall.
A federal election must take place no later than October 2025 under fixed election laws.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
