In a major setback to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, key ally Jagmeet Singh’s New Democratic Party has pulled out support for his minority Liberal government ahead of the general election next year.
In a video message shared on social media, Jagmeet Singh said Mr Trudeau will not be able to take on the opposition Conservatives amid recent polls showing them securing an easy win in elections.
“Justin Trudeau has proven again and again he will always cave to corporate greed. The Liberals have let people down. They don’t deserve another chance from Canadians,” Mr Singh said in the video.
The leader said that the “big battle” now is defeating the Conservatives to stop them from choosing big corporations over the young people and Canadian families.
“There is another, even bigger battle ahead. The threat of Pierre Poilievre and Conservative cuts. From workers, from retirees, from young people, from patients, from families — he will cut in order to give more to big corporations and wealthy CEOs,” he said.
The two leaders had struck in 2022 to come together to boost the Liberal party’s minority government. The deal was supposed to go on till October next year but an NDP spokesperson said the plan to end the agreement was in the works for the past two weeks.
Reports suggest the sudden social media post was a surprise for the Canadian PM’s party as within minutes of informing them of their decision to withdraw Mr Singh posted the video on social media.
Mr Singh said “the NDP is ready for an election, and voting non-confidence will be on the table with each and every confidence measure.”
Reacting to Mr Singh’s announcement, Mr Trudeau said his government will continue to focuse on tackling the affordability crisis in the country.
These are the things that we’re focused on. I’ll let others focus on politics.I really hope the NDP stays focused on how we can deliver for Canadians, as we have over the past years, rather than focusing on politics,” he said.
The Canadian prime minister also said he remained hopeful that the next election will not happen “until next fall” so that his government can also work on pharmacare, dental care, and school food programmes.
Mr Singh’s NDP kept the Mr Trudeau’s Liberal government in power through a confidence-and-supply agreement. In exchange for its support, the government agreed to address key priorities, including introducing dental care benefits, providing one-time rental supplements for low-income tenants, and temporarily doubling the GST rebate.
But some of the promises made to Mr Singh’s party are yet to be fulfilled.
