A top NDP official has said his party is willing to defeat the Liberals in a confidence vote if Justin Trudeau hasn’t resigned by next February or March, a timeline that happens to coincide with leader Jagmeet Singh’s pension eligibility.
Speaking on CBC’s Power and Politics Monday evening, NDP House leader Peter Julian told host David Cochrane that if Trudeau isn’t gone by then, the NDP would “100%” vote to support a “straight up” non-confidence motion in the House of Commons.
“If at the end of February or early March, we have the continued debacle that we’re seeing here, and the prime minister has not stepped out… We simply cannot continue like this,” Julian said. “So yes, the NDP, as the adults in the room, would step up on that. We need to act now to help people and stand up against the Trump administration.”
Hours earlier, Singh called on Trudeau to resign but refused to commit to supporting a non-confidence vote to trigger an election, simply saying “all options are on the table.”
Singh said Canadians deserve a different party in government.
“Canadians are sick and tired of watching government after government put themselves, their friends and corporate giants first,” Singh said in a statement released Monday. “People deserve a government that fights for you for a change.”
Trudeau faced many renewed calls to resign on Monday from across the political aisle, including several in his own caucus publicly demanding his resignation.
The calls came after Trudeau’s deputy prime minister and finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, resigned from the cabinet just hours before she was set to deliver the government’s Fall Economic Statement. In her resignation letter, she criticized Trudeau for “costly political gimmicks” over his proposed $250 cheque rebate.
Singh’s pension will be secured in February 2025, six years after he was elected in a British Columbia byelection on Feb. 25, 2019. Many pointed out on X that “late February, early March” is exactly when Singh’s pension is secured.
The Canadian Taxpayer Federation has estimated that if Singh took his pension early at 55 and lived until he was 90, the taxpayer would be on the hook for $2.3 million for Singh’s total retirement.
