Hours after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resigned from cabinet hours before she was set to deliver the government’s fall economic statement, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says the government is “spiralling out of control.”
In a press conference on Parliament Hill, Poilievre called for an election before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
“The Government of Canada itself is spiralling out of control right before our eyes and at the very worst time today, mere hours before Trudeau’s finance minister was to deliver a fall economic update that was expected to smash through her already massive deficit targets, she announced she no longer has confidence in the prime minister,” Poilievre said.
In her resignation letter, which she posted to social media, Freeland took shots at Trudeau’s plan to give over 18 million Canadians $250 cheques in the spring, calling the scheme a “costly political gimmick.”
She also said that the fall of the Trudeau government was “inevitable.”
Poilievre noted the government exceeded its target of keeping the deficit under $40 billion, a decision he said is “threatening our social programs and our fiscal stability” ahead of a potential trade war with the U.S.
He also took aim at ballooning public sector spending, rising homelessness, and surges in crime and illegal immigration as evidence of how the government has “lost control.”
It was not clear by mid-Monday afternoon who would deliver the fall economic update. The next in line to serve as finance minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne, passed on the role. According to the most recently published order of precedence, the role is supposed to fall next to Randy Boissonault, but he resigned from cabinet in scandal several weeks ago.
Housing Minister Sean Fraser also announced his resignation Monday morning, citing family reasons as he said he would not be seeking reelection. Several other Liberal MPs, including Francis Drouin, René Arsenault, Chad Collins, and Helena Jaczek, also called for Trudeau’s resignation.
Poilievre said it was particularly rich that NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was propping up the Liberal government when Trudeau’s own cabinet and caucus are souring on him.
“‘Inevitably, our time in government will come to an end,’ (Freeland) said, and it is coming to an end because we simply cannot go on like this,” Poilievre said. “It is up to Jagmeet Singh, now to make that realization, Mr. Trudeau is being held in office by one man, Jagmeet Singh…80% of Canadians have lost confidence in this prime minister.”
As of 2 p.m. Monday, Singh had not indicated whether he would continue to support the Liberals.
“Canadians are sick and tired of watching government after government put themselves their friends and corporate giants first,” Singh said in a statement Monday. “People deserve a government that fights for you for a change.”
Poilievre called on “patriotic Liberals” to support his bid for governance in the coming election.
“Let’s bring home the common sense consensus of liberals who believed in Liberty, conservatives who believed in conserving it, fiscal responsibility, compassion for our neighbours,” he said. “These are the shared, common values that will bind up our nation’s wounds and bring us back together.”