Jagmeet Singh-led party in Canada withdraws support to PM Justin Trudeau govt

OTTAWA: Leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP), Jagmeet Singh, has announced that he is withdrawing support to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government.

The NDP leader on Wednesday in a video posted on social media stated that he “ripped up” the supply-and-confidence agreement his party made with Trudeau’s Liberal government, the Canadian news outlet CBC news reported.

The deal is done.

The Liberals are too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to stop the Conservatives and their plans to cut. But the NDP can.

Big corporations and CEOs have had their governments. It’s the people’s time. pic.twitter.com/BsE9zT0CwF

— Jagmeet Singh (@theJagmeetSingh) September 4, 2024

The deal struck between the two leaders in 2022 and scheduled to run until June 2025 ensured the survival of the minority Liberal government and was the “first such formal agreement between two parties at the federal level”. Trudeau first took office in November 2015.

Singh accused Trudeau of not being able to take on the opposition Conservatives, who, polls indicate, are set to easily win an election that must be held by end-October 2025.

“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”, Singh said in the video as cited by CBC.

The NDP leader spoke of an “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,” said Singh.

Speaking after Singh’s announcement, Trudeau said his government is more focused on tackling the affordability crisis and climate change. The Canadian PM said he hopes the next election will not happen “until next fall” so that his government has time to move forward on pharmacare, dental care and school food programmes.

In a media statement accompanying his announcement, Singh said “the NDP is ready for an election, and voting non-confidence will be on the table with each and every confidence measure.”

Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called Singh’s announcement a “stunt” and criticized him for not saying whether he would vote non-confidence in the government.

Through the deal with Trudeau’s party, the NDP according to CBS news kept the minority Liberal government in power in exchange for movement on key priorities such as dental care benefits, one-time rental supplements for low-income tenants and a temporary doubling of the GST rebate. (ANI)