NDP leader Jagmeet Singh calls on Canadian PM Justin Trudeau "to resign"
Dec 17, 2024
Ottawa [Canada], December 17 : NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh on Monday urged Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "to resign." He stated that "all options" were on the table when asked whether he would back a non-confidence motion, Canada-based Global News reported.
He made the remarks hours after Chrystia Freeland resigned as Canada's Finance Minister. Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Singh said Canadians were facing various economic issues, ranging from expensive groceries to high home prices and the threat of tariffs as US President-elect Donald Trump will assume office next year.
Jagmeet Singh said, "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," Global News reported.
He said, "He has to go."
The NDP's support has helped minority Liberals to survive recent tests of confidence. Conservatives during the question period on Monday repeatedly called on 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.
In his remarks outside the House of Commons just before question period, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said, "Justin Trudeau has lost control and yet he clings to power."
He further said, "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 stated that US President-elect Donald Trump "can spot weakness from a mile away." He stressed that Trudeau has been able to remain in office due to Jagmeet Singh's support.
Meanwhile, Leader of the government in the House of Commons, Karina Gould, said the government has been able to get the confidence of the House of Commons in multiple confidence votes conducted recently.
An Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed that Liberal support has reduced by 5 points, down to 21 per cent since September, putting them tied with the New Democratic Party, which witnessed a rise in decided voters by five per cent in the same period, according to Global News report.
Speaking to Global News, Ipsos Global Public Affairs CEO Darrel Bricker said, "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."
Earlier in September, the federal New Democrats withdrew 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 fails to obtain confidence votes, which could cause snap election as soon as this fall, the report said. A federal election must be held no later than October 2025 under fixed election laws.