Jagmeet Singh, NDP promise to bring down government 'in the next sitting' of Commons

Article content

OTTAWA — Thirty minutes before the Trudeau Liberals were to shuffle their cabinet — probably for the final time — the leader of the NDP promised to lend his party’s votes to efforts to bring down the government via a confidence vote.

In the letter released on social media at 11 a.m. Friday Jagmeet Singh said, “We will put forward a clear motion of non-confidence in the next sitting of the House of Commons.”

Singh also called on embattled Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down.

“Justin Trudeau failed in the biggest job a prime minister has: to work for people, not the powerful. To focus on Canadians, not themselves,” Singh wrote.

“The Liberals don’t deserve another chance. That’s why the NDP will vote to bring this government down, and give Canadians a chance to vote for a government who will work for them.”

He said that no matter who leads the Liberal Party, this government’s time is over.

NDP sources tell the Sun they’ll introduce a non-confidence motion in late January at the earliest — the House of Commons resumes on Jan. 27.

Despite publicly tearing up the two-year old supply and confidence agreement earlier this year between the NDP and Liberals and frequently criticizing the Trudeau Government, Singh has been reluctant to join with efforts by the Tories and Bloc Québécois topple the government.

After Friday’s cabinet shuffle, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promised to dispatch a letter to Governor General Mary Simon, asking she recall Parliament in order to hold a non-confidence vote, and urged Singh to follow suit.

“We cannot have a chaotic clown show running our government into the ground,” he told reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons.

“What is clear is that Justin Trudeau doesn’t have the confidence of government.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume