Justin Trudeau suffers unexpected blow: Jagmeet Singh’s NDP withdraws support for Canada’s Liberal govt

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is staring at a crisis as the small party, New Democratic Party led by Jagmeet Singh, that was helping keep the minority Liberal government in power, withdrew its support. At this turn of events, Trudeau has been forced to form new alliances for the government. 

Trudeau, however, dismissed talks of early elections, and promised to continue governing and pushing through social programmes. NDP’s Singh said that he was ‘ripping up’ the deal that was struck between Trudeau and him in 2022. 

This comes after Singh had expressed growing frustration with Trudeau in the past months especially over high grocery prices. In a video posted on social media, Singh who declared that he would run for prime minister in the next election, said that Trudeau has always given in to corporate greed and does not deserve another chance. 

Trudeau who had ascended to power in 2015 has been struggling to maintain his ship from attacks from the opposition centre-right Conservatives. Their criticism of Trudeau revolves around high inflation and a housing crisis. 

Singh’s move to rescind support will now leave Trudeau reliant on support from opposition lawmakers to survive confidence votes in the lower chamber of the parliament. However, if polls are anything to go by, Trudeau would lose badly if the elections are held now.

The NDP, in its deal with Trudeau in 2022, had agreed to keep Trudeau in power till mid-2025 in turn for more social spending. 

The House of Commons resumes work on September 16, following which the Conservatives would have a chance to propose a vote of confidence. The Liberals could survive if the NDP abstained from voting, which could occur as the party said it would decide on an issue-by-issue basis whether to support the Liberals on confidence votes.

(With Reuters inputs)