Trudeau just plunged Canada further into chaos.
Trudeau triggers a Liberal leadership race and plunges Canada into deep uncertainty at a moment of national crisis. Enough. Election now.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just announced that he has instructed the Liberal Party to start a leadership contest to replace him as party leader and PM. He has also asked Governor General Mary Simon to prorogue (suspend) Parliament until March 24, 2025.
As of writing, it’s unclear who is actually in charge of Canada (more on that below).
In his announcement speech he tried to brand the chaos he just unleashed as a “reset”, as opposed to it’s reality - an irresponsible, selfish, dumpster fire of instability coming after nine years of ruinous government that will cost Canadians dearly.
Here are the critical points you need to understand about what just happened, and why Trudeau’s “reset” spin must be rejected as dangerous bulls— of the highest order:
Trudeau’s departure does not immediately trigger an election. It only triggers a leadership contest within the Liberal Party of Canada. It is unclear who is actually in charge of Canada right now.
That’s because Justin Trudeau is asking his caucus to stay on as Interim Liberal leader (and Prime Minister). Backroom Liberal Party brass, in coordination with a Liberal backbench who want cabinet spots, will have to decide whether to ratify this decision or choose another person from the caucus to take that role. This situation means Canada will either be saddled with Trudeau as a lame-duck Prime Minister or a different backroom-selected Interim Prime Minister while Liberal Party insiders select yet another leader and Prime Minister in their official leadership race.
Trudeau has prorogued (suspended) Parliament in order to avoid Conservative action, which would have forced a confidence vote before the end of January. As of right now, due to Justin Trudeau, Canada does not have a functioning Parliament.
All of this mess is happening as millions of Canadians can’t afford housing or groceries, as they are losing their jobs in a weak economy, as crime runs rampant, as our immigration system is wildly broken, and as the incoming American administration is threatening our country with 25% tariffs - potentially further crippling a listless economy and historically indebted federal government.
No matter what their leader may say, the party in the House of Commons, which has propped up the Liberals for years, the New Democratic Party, might actually continue to support the Liberals in confidence motions even if they are in a leadership race.
And here’s the big kicker - the Liberal Party and their spinners want you to believe that this is a normal “reset”, and that you should sit back and let all of this happen and not demand a general election.
And again, it’s that last point that everyone who cares about the future of Canada must band together reject as complete and utter bullshit.
For those in disbelief that the Liberals could actually be delusional enough to believe that position is defensible to the general public, a senior Liberal insider recently posted the following piece of sublime arrogance, “Conservatives who would want to take down a government in the middle of a leadership race, do you have any idea how you would look to Canadians who are not a part of your club?”. This arrogance perfectly illustrates the entrenched entitled-to-power belief Liberals hold. Said differently, these fools legitimately believe that instead of immediately having an election and getting our country back on stable footing, they’re entitled to prioritize Liberal internal fighting over who gets to be the new captain of their Titanic. Insanity.
But the real coup-de-grace on this message came from a reporter at the Liberal-sympathetic Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, who asked a conservative-leaning interviewee the following inanity, “Would it not be better to have, you know, Pierre Poilievre face off against a viable alternative?”.
The only reply to that outrageous premise is, better for whom, exactly?
It’s certainly a disaster for Canada. In the middle of a housing affordability crisis, a massive crime wave, a fundamentally broken immigration system, and in the middle of historic tariff negotiations with Canada’s most important trading partner the Liberals (and likely the NDP) are happy to give all of us - including their potential voters - the finger. They’re shutting down our Parliament and saddling us with months of a lame-duck government instead of going to the polls to seek a mandate.
They’re doing this years after they should have turfed Trudeau. His caucus should have punished Mr. Trudeau for calling an early and unnecessary election in 2021 to wedge and divide Canadians on the issue of COVID lockdowns and vaccination mandates. Trudeau called this election as Afghanistan was falling to the Taliban because he thought he could get a majority government. He failed. Anyone with any political sense that the election was Mr. Trudeau’s last, including him and his inner circle. Being unwilling to quit, his caucus and the NDP should have forced his hand back then.
But they didn’t, likely because they were either that inept and weak, were prioritizing the fantasy that Trudeau would eventually elevate them into his cabinet, or both. And so they’ve wasted time during multiple summer Parliamentary recesses in which they could have held a leadership race, and still expect Canada now, in the middle of a crisis, to put our nation’s future on hold and let them get their shit together.
Even now, none of the Liberals who called for Trudeau’s head in recent days have spoken against the inflation-causing, crime wave breeding, immigration system breaking, corruption scandal-growing decisions that Justin Trudeau presided over. Even at that, they’re only now speaking up, asking for a change in leader after many of them had been passed over for a final shot at being in Trudeau’s cabinet. They have all uniformly voted in favour of these actions and haven’t denounced them. They are all complicit in Justin Trudeau’s ruination of our country.
They should know that changing the hood ornament of their party - especially given that all of the front runners are intimately tied to the mistakes of the Trudeau government - won’t reverse the ruination their nine years of government has inflicted upon the country. A new party leader - one selected by insiders and complicit in Canada’s present state of affairs - won’t be able to get Canadians to, en masse, suffer amnesia on who it was that indebted and divided our nation. Sure, extending the pain for Canadians will allow Liberal and NDP MPs and staffers to get an extra few months of salary and a bump to their pension accruals, but every indication suggests that voters are in a mood to punish both the Liberals and the NDP for their arrogance.
So, the idea that the Liberal Party should be given the luxury of sorting out its internal leadership issues without regard for the national interest underscores its focus on clinging to power rather than prioritizing Canadians isn’t smart, it’s wildly outrageous. During this moment of national crisis, Canadians should be allowed to choose their next Prime Minister, not failed Liberal party insiders. The prospect of a lame-duck leader staying in place while the party leisurely selects a new one over several months, avoiding a confidence vote by shutting down Parliament, is a perilous scenario for every Canadian that exposes the depths of the party’s disconnect with the panicked reality millions of those same Canadians are living.
But here we are. So let the Liberal party and Justin Trudeau’s legacy be this: after breaking virtually institution in our country, when Canada was in the middle of a bonafide moment of national crisis, they put every personal political interest above that of the nations. The NDP will do the same if they continue to support the Liberals. They got us to this point. There should be no kind words or mercy for any of them.
Enough. No matter how someone votes, Canadians cannot allow this to sit. Now more than ever before, Canada has to fight against these arrogant, entitled elites for the good of our nation and its democracy.
Election, now.