Poilievre says House should be recalled as NDP vows to vote down Liberal government
'The Liberals don't deserve another chance,' NDP leader says in letter
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says the House of Commons should be recalled now that NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is vowing to bring forward a motion of non-confidence to take down the Liberal government.
"The Liberals don't deserve another chance," Singh wrote in an open letter on Friday. "That's why the NDP will vote to bring this government down."
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Poilievre said the House shouldn't wait until it comes back from the winter break in January.
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"I will be writing the Governor General asking her to urgently reconvene Parliament and require a non-confidence vote so the prime minister can judge whether he stays in power," he said.
It's unlikely that Governor General Mary Simon can do what Poilievre is asking her to do. The House currently stands adjourned but is still in session. According to House of Commons rules, it's up to the Speaker to recall MPs when the House is adjourned. The Governor General also has no authority to dictate the House of Commons' agenda.
Singh's letter comes as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shakes up his front bench in the wake of Chrystia Freeland's sudden resignation from cabinet on Monday.
https://x.com/DavidRaymondAm1/status/1870181467004784810
Trudeau spoke to reporters following a cabinet meeting on Friday afternoon. He said the meeting was entirely focused on Canada-U.S. relations in the wake of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's recent tariff threats.
"We know how important it is that we be there, not just to protect the Canadian economy, but their jobs … we have a lot of work to do and that's what we're focused on," he said.
It was the first time the prime minister had spoken to journalists since Freeland's resignation. He didn't take any questions.
Singh called on Trudeau to resign after Freeland quit, but he hadn't been clear about whether his party would vote to bring down the Liberals until Friday.
For the past few days, Singh has said he did not want to commit himself to any one course of action and would not promise to help take down Trudeau's government.
He said that after NDP House Leader Peter Julian told CBC News Network's Power & Politics on Monday that the party would vote to bring down the government in the coming months.
After backing out of a governance agreement with the Liberals this fall, the NDP has voted with the government on a number of confidence motions over the past few months. The most recent confidence motion came in early December, when the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois voted to topple the government.
Poilievre criticized Singh for not voting down the government earlier — specifically when the Conservatives put forward a motion using Singh's own criticism of the Liberals.
"Just 11 days ago you voted against a non-confidence motion filled with your own words. Had you voted the other way, we'd be almost half-way through the election now," Poilievre said in a response to Singh's letter on X, formerly Twitter.
Singh said in his letter that he would introduce his own confidence motion when the House of Commons meets in the new year. It's not clear when that would happen or if he would support one of the other opposition parties' motions.
With all three of the main opposition parties now saying they want the government to fall, the Liberals are almost certain to lose the next confidence vote.
In response to Singh's letter, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said a confidence vote must happen as soon as possible in order to trigger an election in early 2025.
"It must be understood that there is no scenario in which Justin Trudeau's Liberal government … will survive budgets, throne speeches or opposition days," he wrote in a French social media post.
Trudeau has been facing calls to resign from within his own party over the past few months. That push has gained momentum since Freeland stepped down.
On Friday, Toronto MP Rob Oliphant became the latest to add his name to the list of more than a dozen Liberal MPs who have called publicly for Trudeau to step aside and let someone else take on the party leadership.
"People have kind of stopped listening to our party and I want them to listen again, perhaps with a new fresh voice and a new face," he told CBC News Network's Power & Politics.
Oliphant said he decided to speak out after meeting with members of his riding association. He characterized Friday's shuffle as setting up a "caretaker cabinet."
"I looked at my colleagues that have been put into cabinet and I wish them well," he said.
"But I think the clock is ticking on this government and so we need to have some careful management of both our agenda and our program, as well as making sure we're in a good position to elect the best leader."
Another MP from the GTA, Ali Ehsassi, told Power & Politics on Friday that he thinks the Liberals need a new leader.
"I appreciate full well that it's [Trudeau's] decision but I think everything we've been hearing for the past four or five months, and everything we've been seeing, indicates that Canadians do like to see change," Ehsassi told guest host John Paul Tasker.
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Singh says NDP will vote to bring down Trudeau government
'The Liberals don't deserve another chance,' NDP leader says in letter
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says his party will bring forward a motion of non-confidence to bring down the Trudeau government in the next sitting of the House of Commons.
"The Liberals don't deserve another chance," Singh wrote in an open letter on Friday. "That's why the NDP will vote to bring this government down."
https://x.com/DavidRaymondAm1/status/1870181467004784810
Singh's letter comes as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shakes up his front bench in the wake of Chrystia Freeland's sudden resignation from cabinet on Monday.
Singh called on Trudeau to resign after Freeland quit, but he hadn't been clear about whether his party would vote to bring down the Liberals until Friday.
For the past few days, Singh has said he did not want to commit himself to any one course of action and would not promise to help take down Trudeau's government.
He said that after NDP House Leader Peter Julian told CBC News Network's Power & Politics on Monday that the party would vote to bring down the government in the coming months.
After backing out of a governance agreement with the Liberals this fall, the NDP has voted with the government on a number of confidence motions over the past few months. The most recent confidence motion came in early December, when the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois voted to topple the government.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre criticized Singh for not voting down the government earlier — specifically when the Conservatives put forward a motion using Singh's own criticism of the Liberals.
"Just 11 days ago you voted against a non-confidence motion filled with your own words. Had you voted the other way, we'd be almost half-way through the election now," Poilievre said in a response to Singh's letter on X, formerly Twitter.
Singh said in his letter that he would introduce his own confidence motion when the House of Commons meets in the new year. It's not clear when that would happen or if he would support one of the other opposition parties' motions.
With all three of the main opposition parties now saying they want the government to fall, the Liberals are almost certain to lose the next confidence vote.
In response to Singh's letter, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said a confidence vote must happen as soon as possible in order to trigger an election in early 2025.
"It must be understood that there is no scenario in which Justin Trudeau's Liberal government … will survive budgets, throne speeches or opposition days," he wrote in a French social media post.
Trudeau has been facing calls to resign from within his own party over the past few months. That push has gained momentum since Freeland stepped down.
On Friday, Toronto MP Rob Oliphant became the latest to add his name to the list of more than a dozen Liberal MPs who have called publicly for Trudeau to step aside and let someone else take on the party leadership.
"I consider Justin Trudeau to be a friend. We were elected together in the small class of 2008. I have witnessed firsthand his capacity to gather, inspire and motivate Canadians to dream bigger, to act with more kindness, and to do better," Oliphant wrote in a letter posted to social media.
"Nonetheless, it is time now for him to do his part to ensure that Canada remains strong and united in the face of changing continental and global reality."
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NDP sending mixed signals on whether it will vote non-confidence in the Trudeau government
The NDP’s vague messaging doesn't appear to be hurting the party in the polls
After Chrystia Freeland's sudden and unexpected resignation from the Trudeau cabinet earlier this week, it seemed clear that the NDP would vote non-confidence in the government, triggering an early election. It hasn't been clear since.
The party seems to be backing away from comments NDP House leader Peter Julian made on CBC's Power and Politics hours after Freeland quit Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's cabinet. Host David Cochrane asked Julian if the NDP would vote non-confidence in a Trudeau-led government.
"When it's a straight-up confidence motion, the end of February (or) early March. If we have the continued debacle and the prime minister has not stepped down … so yes, the NDP as the adults in the room would step up on that," Julian said.
In his comments on Monday, Julian went further than NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who told reporters at one point that all options were on the table.
But then on Wednesday, Singh said he did not want to commit himself to any one course of action and would not promise to help take down Trudeau's government.
"Why would I box myself in and say I am going to do something definitive when we don't know what is going to happen?" Singh told CTV News on Wednesday.
"I am not going to speculate. I don't know what the votes are going to be. I don't know what they are going to be presenting to us. So I am not going to box myself in."
Singh said that he would decide once there's a non-confidence motion in front of him. The NDP leader said he does not know what Canada will face in the first few months of 2025, given U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's promise to slap high tariffs on imports of Canadian goods.
The House of Commons returns on Jan. 27, a week after Trump's inauguration day. Singh questioned whether fighting those punitive tariffs might be more important for Canadian workers than triggering an early election.
Singh called on Trudeau to resign for the first time on Monday, shortly after Freeland's departure. She resigned after Trudeau informed her that he would be replacing her as finance minister and she would be assigned to another cabinet post.
Karl Bélanger, former principal secretary to previous NDP leader Tom Mulcair and now head of Traxxion Strategies, said it's difficult to follow the party's thinking since it cut ties with the Liberals in September by ending its governance agreement with them.
"The logic and the positioning doesn't seem to be followed by concrete actions. And so it begs the question of what will they actually do the next time a confidence motion comes up," Bélanger said.
Despite the lack of clarity, Bélanger said the party's current messaging doesn't seem to be harming the New Democrats.
"Well, they don't seem to be paying a political price for supporting an unpopular government," he said. "They have not been going down in the polls.
"That said, they have not been going up."
According to CBC's Poll Tracker, support for the NDP has remained consistently above 15 per cent since the last federal election in 2021. The latest averages show Liberals are polling just above the New Democrats, with less than three points separating the two parties.
New Democrats have been under pressure to join other opposition parties in overthrowing the government. On Tuesday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called on Singh to follow through on his tough talk.
"He has got to end his hypocrisy and stop selling out the people and put his votes where his words are to trigger an election, to join with me in signalling non-confidence, to bring down this government as soon as legally possible using any means legally possible," Poilievre said.
If Singh sends a clear signal that he would bring down the government at the first opportunity, he could accelerate efforts within Liberal circles to oust Trudeau.
In an open letter, Liberal MP Wayne Long — one of more than a dozen Liberal MPs publicly calling on Trudeau to step down — inaccurately claimed that "Jagmeet Singh has already stated the NDP will vote non confidence in the government if Justin Trudeau remains as Liberal leader."
"MPs must consider whether you want to go into a February election with a leader whose favourability is -42 or hope to hold on for an October election with a more popular leader offering a version of change," Long wrote in his letter.
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