Members of Parliament bickered for hours on the House of Commons floor Monday, with various lawmakers from every major party demanding the prime minister resign due to an inability to lead.
“[Trudeau and the Liberal Party] are fighting themselves instead of fighting for Canadians. And for that reason, today, I’m calling on Justin Trudeau to resign,” said former ally and New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh. “He has to go.”
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland sparked the outcry when she resigned from her office early Monday, saying she had fundamental disagreements with how Trudeau was handling economic concerns.
Freeland warned that “costly political gimmicks” from the government were threatening to stretch the national economy too thin.
Her resignation came just hours before the Fall Economic Statement was scheduled to be presented to the House of Commons. That fiscal update contained an unflattering assessment of the Canadian government’s spending — the country had accrued an annual deficit of approximately $43.45 billion USD.
Freeland promised in 2023 to keep the annual deficit below $28.17 billion USD.
Trudeau, who has been in power since 2015, appointed loyalist Dominic LeBlanc to take over for Freeland, signing the oath of office documents Monday afternoon.
The lingering threat of U.S. tariffs under President-elect Donald Trump looms over the Canadian economy.
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Trump has threatened to punish the United States’s northern neighbor with tariffs up to 25% if reforms are not made to curb illegal immigration and the smuggling of drugs across the border.
The two leaders have since engaged in discussion at Mar-a-lago, which both have described as constructive, although Trump has since trolled Trudeau, saying it could become the 51st state, and referring it is leader as “governor”.
