Chaos in Canada: Calls grow for Justin Trudeau to resign

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in trouble. On December 16th his closest ally in government suddenly quit on him over their disagreements on the future of the nation and it prompted calls for his resignation from all sides of the political aisle. 

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resigned from Trudeau’s cabinet and her two key government positions in spectacular fashion with a resignation letter that seemed designed to force Trudeau’s own resignation from politics. 

What spurred Freeland to quit, at least according to her public letter, was the Prime Minister's loss of confidence in her. However, Freeland made it clear that she was resigning more so because she was concerned over their political disagreements. 

Freeland publicly called Trudeau out in her resignation letter not taking the threat from Donald Trump and his proposed 25% tariffs on all Canadian goods entering the United States seriously, but there was also a bigger problem at play as well. 

Freeland quit just hours before she was set to present the government's fall economic statement to parliament, which ultimately revealed that Trudeau’s government has run up Canada’s 2023/2024 deficit to a whopping $61.1 billion according to CBC News. 

Freeland's resignation was also followed by the news on the same day that Trudeau’s Housing Minister Sean Fraser was also stepping down from his cabinet. The chaos of December 16th immediately led to calls for Trudeau to resign. 

New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh, the man who has been ensuring that the minority Liberal government has stayed in power since Canada’s 2021 election, said it was time for Trudeau to step down when asked by reporters. 

“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 according to Global News. “He has to go.” 

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre echoed Singh’s call in remarks he made just outside the House of Commons. Poilievre claimed that Trudeau had “lost control and yet he clings to power” and said the country couldn’t accept all the chaos. 

“We cannot accept this kind of chaos, division, weakness while we’re staring down the barrel of a 25 percent tariff from our biggest trading partner and closest ally,” Poilievre explained. “We simply cannot go on like this,” he added before blaming Singh for keeping Trudeau in power. 

Trudeau also faced calls from a handful of Members of Parliament (MP) from his own party to step down from leadership, including Francis Scarpaleggia, who said the Prime Minister “has to think about whether he has the right vision for the country?"

When it comes to Canadians, it appears they would agree with their politicians. Abacus Data released new polling on December 17th showing just 19% of Canadians thought the country was moving in the right direction. 

Abacus Data noted the new polling figures on the direction of the country represented a three-point drop following Freeland’s resignation and it was the lowest the public opinion polling firm has recorded since the beginning of 2023. 

“The 56% of Canadians want a change in government and believe there’s a good alternative compared (up 2) with only 11% who think Justin Trudeau and the Liberals deserve to be re-elected – the lowest we have ever tracked that,” Abacus Data noted.

Only 20% of Canadians had a positive view of Justin Trudeau while 63% had a negative view of the Prime Minister, which gave him a net impression score of -43. 67% of those surveyed said that Trudeau should resign, which was a shocking number. 

“It’s clear from this data that Chrystia Freeland delivered a body blow on Prime Minister Trudeau and the government finds itself in the weakest position it's been in public opinion since it was elected in 2015,” Abacus Data CEO David Coletto concluded. 

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