Key ally propping up Canada’s Trudeau says he will vote to topple him

Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP), says he will introduce a motion to topple Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government in the new year.

It marks a turn for the NDP leader, whose centre-left party helped prop up Trudeau’s minority government in exchange for support on their shared political priorities.

He is the last of Canada’s three main opposition parties to turn on Trudeau, meaning the prime minister is now unlikely to survive a non-confidence vote.

Singh’s announcement comes at the end of a difficult week for Trudeau, who is facing growing calls to resign from his own Liberal Party following the exit of his most senior cabinet minister on Monday.

In a letter posted on X, Singh said, “the Liberals don’t deserve another chance,” and vowed to “put forward a clear motion of non-confidence in the next sitting of the House of Commons.”

Canada’s next election must be held on or before October. With the Liberals holding power with a minority government, a non-confidence motion could trigger an earlier election if most members of Canada’s parliament vote in favour of it.

The House of Commons is currently on its holiday break but is scheduled to resume in late January.

All three main opposition parties have now said they want Trudeau’s government to fall.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has repeatedly called for an election as soon as possible, while Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said a confidence vote must happen as soon as possible to trigger an early 2025 election.

Singh’s announcement is the latest in a series of political setbacks suffered by Trudeau this week after the resignation of Chrystia Freeland, his deputy prime minister and finance minister.

Freeland quit in a public letter hours before she was set to deliver an economic statement on Monday, citing political disagreements between her and Trudeau on the “best path forward for Canada” in light of tariff threats posed by US President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump has promised to impose a levy of 25% on imported Canadian goods unless progress was made on securing the countries’ shared border. Economists have warned the tariffs would significantly hurt Canada’s economy.

Freeland said the tariffs are a “grave challenge” for Canada, and accused Prime Minister Trudeau of championing “costly political gimmicks” that the country cannot afford instead of working to keep its “fiscal powder dry”.

Trudeau has since faced growing calls to resign, including from members of his own Liberal Party.

To date, at least 19 out of 153 have publicly called on him to quit, according to a tally by the Globe and Mail.

The latest of them is Robert Oliphant, a Liberal member of parliament for Toronto riding Don Valley West.

Oliphant wrote in a public letter on Friday that his constituents “feel the meaningful difference” the Liberal government has made in its nine-year tenure, but that Trudeau’s leadership has become “a key obstacle” to the party’s success in the next election.

Trudeau has not responded publicly to these calls, and has reportedly told members of the party that he will take the holidays to reflect and decide what to do.

After appointing a replacement immediately for Freeland, Trudeau scheduled a cabinet shuffle on Friday to address other vacancies in his government, as several ministers announced that they would not run for re-election next year.