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.”
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.
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.”