The majority of the Liberal caucus wants Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down in the wake of last week’s resignation of his second in command, say Liberal MPs Anthony Housefather and Chandra Arya.
“I see very few people that think he should stay,” Housefather, a Montreal-area MP, said during a Dec. 22 interview with CBC. “The vast majority of people I am talking to, whether they have gone public or not, believe he needs to go.”
Housefather first publicly called for Trudeau to step down on Dec. 16, after Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resigned earlier that day, hours before she was set to deliver the 2024 Fall Economic Statement.
Calls for Trudeau to resign has since grown louder, with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh joining the chorus on Dec. 20, saying his party would vote in favour of a non-confidence motion to bring down the Liberal government.
Housefather said he fears that if Trudeau stays on as leader, the next election will be a referendum on his leadership rather than on the government’s track record over the past nine years.
“We won’t be looking at Liberal programs. We won’t be looking at anything else,” he said. “It’ll be a question for voters: Do they want Justin Trudeau to stay as prime minister? I think they’ve clearly come to a conclusion on that.”
Related Stories
Having a new leader would allow more Liberal MPs to be re-elected, Housefather said, adding that he has heard from many Canadians who want to vote for the party but don’t support Trudeau.
“We have to be honest about that. That is clear from all of the polling data that we’ve had for the last year,” he said.
The Liberal Party has been trailing behind the Conservatives in the polls for more than a year. The latest Abacus survey shows that only 20 percent of Canadians support the Liberals compared to 45 percent for the Tories, and 67 percent want Trudeau to resign.
Housefather said that while Trudeau had done an “exemplary job” for Canadians, he needs to know when to leave.
“I think the time was a few months ago at the very latest, but I think now we’re at the precipice, and he really needs to make that decision to go for the wellbeing of the country, the party, and the caucus.”
He told CTV News on Dec. 16 that he had already told Trudeau to resign “a couple months ago.”
Loss of Confidence
Arya, an Ottawa-area Liberal MP, also said he has come to the conclusion that Trudeau needs to step down, though he wouldn’t say how many MPs at a recent Ontario Liberal caucus meeting agreed.
“I have written even before yesterday’s meeting, that in my opinion, the majority of the caucus thinks it’s time for the prime minister to step aside,” he said.
Arya sent Trudeau a letter on Dec. 20 saying that “you no longer hold the confidence of the House of Commons” and that he was “reasonably certain” a majority of the Liberal caucus no longer supports Trudeau’s leadership. Arya added that Freeland was “a credible and stable alternative” to Trudeau as Liberal leader.
During the Dec. 22 interview, Arya also described Freeland as a good leadership alternative, noting her track record of renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump has said he will renegotiate NAFTA’s successor, the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), and has threatened 25 percent tariffs on Canada if it does not increase its border security. Arya said Freeland knows the “tools that are available for Canada and Canadians to respond to these threats.”
Liberal MP Wayne Long has also called on Trudeau to step down. He recently said 40 to 50 caucus members believe it was time for Trudeau to resign.
Following the Dec. 20 cabinet shuffle, Trudeau told reporters he had just finished an “excellent cabinet meeting” focused mostly on the Canada-U.S. relationship, but did not say whether he would resign. The Liberal Party has no official mechanism to push Trudeau out as prime minister, unlike the Conservative Party, which voted in early 2022 to oust leader Erin O’Toole.
The Conservatives are also calling for change. Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre has written a letter to Governor General Mary Simon urging her to recall parliamentarians as early as possible for a non-confidence vote.
Poilievre’s Dec. 20 letter asks Simon to tell Trudeau that he must “either dissolve Parliament and call an election or reconvene Parliament” before the end of 2024 for a non-confidence vote.
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
