Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau Reportedly Considers Quitting as Bombshell Resignations Throw Government Into Chaos
Liberal and conservative members of Parliament are calling for Prime Minister Trudeau’s ouster.
Prime Minister Trudeau’s time in office may be coming to an abrupt end after two high-profile resignations from the cabinet have thrown his government into chaos.
Mr. Trudeau’s approval rating has plummeted in recent months, and polls show his Liberal Party would be handed a defeat if federal elections were held today. However, questions about how much longer he could remain in power erupted on Monday after the bombshell departure of the finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, from the cabinet.
A Canadian news outlet, CTV, reported that as pressure mounts on the liberal prime minister, he is considering resigning or proroguing the Parliament. A prorogation of Parliament would lead to the end of the current session and bring a halt to business until the start of the next session.
On Monday morning, the Housing minister, Sean Fraser, announced his decision to resign from the cabinet and not seek re-election to his seat in the next election, marking one of the highest-profile officials to step down.
Also on Monday, the finance minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Ms. Freeland, announced her resignation. Ms. Freeland, one of Mr. Trudeau’s key allies in the cabinet, said in a post on X that the prime minister “told me you no longer want me to serve as your finance minister and offered me another position in the cabinet.”
In Ms. Freeland’s resignation letter, which was posted on X shortly before she was supposed to deliver a fall fiscal update to Parliament, she noted she has been “at odds about the best path forward for Canada” with Mr. Trudeau.
Specifically, she pointed to President-elect Trump’s threat to implement a 25 percent tariff on Canada and said, “We need to take that threat extremely seriously. That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war. That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment.”
The resignations of Mr. Fraser and Ms. Freeland led members of Parliament to call for Mr. Trudeau’s resignation.
The leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, said that the “government of Canada is spiraling out of control right before our eyes and at the very worst time.” He urged liberal voters who are disappointed with the government to vote for conservatives in the upcoming elections.
Calls for Mr. Trudeau’s ouster are coming not only from conservatives. The leader of the left-wing New Democratic Party, Jagmeet Singh, also called on Mr. Trudeau to resign. While speaking to reporters, Mr. Singh did not rule out holding a no-confidence vote to oust the prime minister.
However, he did not share whether his party would withdraw its support for the Liberal Party. Mr. Singh’s party helped keep Mr. Trudeau in power by voting against three no-confidence motions this fall.
During a Question Period on Monday, Mr. Singh criticized Mr. Trudeau, saying, “Canadians literally cannot afford the groceries they need.”
“Trump is threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs in this country…the prime minister cannot remain in that position,” he said.