Canada PM Trudeau looks set to lose power after key ally vows to topple him

OTTAWA - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Dec 20 looked set to lose power in early 2025, after a key ally said he would move to bring down the minority Liberal government and trigger an election.

New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh, who has been helping to keep Mr Trudeau in office, said he would present a formal motion of no-confidence after the House of Commons elected chamber returns from a winter break on Jan 27.

If all the opposition parties back the motion, Mr Trudeau will be out of office after more than nine years as Prime Minister and an election will take place.

A string of opinion polls over the last 18 months show the Liberals, suffering from voter fatigue and anger over high prices and a housing crisis, would be badly defeated by the official opposition right-of-centre Conservatives.

The New Democrats – who, like the Liberals, aim to attract the support of centre-left voters – complain that Mr Trudeau is too beholden to big business.

“No matter who is leading the Liberal Party, this government’s time is up. We will put forward a clear motion of no-confidence in the next sitting of the House of Commons,” said Mr Singh.

The leader of the Bloc Quebecois, a larger opposition party, promised to back the motion and said there was no scenario in which Mr Trudeau could survive. The Conservatives have been calling for an election for months.

The Conservatives said it would ask Governor-General Mary Simon – the personal representative of King Charles, Canada’s head of state – to recall Parliament to hold a no-confidence vote before the end of 2024. Constitutional experts say Ms Simon would reject such a move.

“We cannot have a chaotic clown show running our government into the ground. What is clear is that Justin Trudeau does not have the confidence of Parliament,” Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre told reporters.

Shortly after Mr Singh issued his letter, a smiling Mr Trudeau, under growing pressure to quit after the shock resignation earlier this week of his finance minister, Ms Chrystia Freeland,

presided over a Cabinet shuffle

.

Mr Trudeau’s office was not immediately available for comment. The Prime Minister, who has not publicly spoken about Ms Freeland’s exit, usually addresses reporters after Cabinet shuffles but left without saying a word. Major domestic media organisations said his office had cancelled traditional end-of-year interviews.

Votes on budgets and other spending matters are considered confidence measures. Additionally, the government must allocate a few days each session to opposition parties when they can unveil motions on any matter, including non-confidence.

Mr Singh’s move is a political risk, since the polls showing a bad defeat for the Liberals also have bad news for the NDP.

Mr Darrell Bricker, chief executive of polling firm Ipsos-Reid, said Mr Singh saw a chance to replace the Liberals as the first choice for voters who opposed the Conservatives.

“Waiting to give the Liberals and even Trudeau a chance to get off the mat is ill-advised,” he said by e-mail.

Before Mr Singh made his announcement, a source close to Mr Trudeau said the Prime Minister would take the Christmas break to ponder his future and was unlikely to make any announcement before January.

Liberal leaders are elected by special conventions of party members, which take months to arrange.

Mr Singh’s promise to act quickly means that even if Mr Trudeau were to resign now, the Liberals would not be able to find a new permanent leader in time for the next election. The party would then have to contest the vote with an interim leader, which has never happened before in Canada.

So far, around 20 Liberal legislators are openly calling for Mr Trudeau to step down, but his Cabinet has stayed loyal.

The timing of the crisis comes at a critical time, since US President-elect Donald Trump is due to take office on Jan 20 and is promising to impose a 25 per cent tariff on all imports from Canada, which would badly hurt the economy.

The premiers of the 10 Canadian provinces, seeking to create a united approach to the tariffs, are complaining about what they call the chaos in Ottawa. REUTERS