LILLEY: Justin Trudeau, your time is up, you need to leave now

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Justin Trudeau, your time is up. For the good of your party, the good of your country, the good of the Canadian people, it’s time to leave.

Quite frankly, your time has been up for a long time now, you’ve just refused to listen. The Canadian people have made it clear that they are done with you leading the country.

Chrystia Freeland’s decision to resign as finance minister, and to upbraid you and your policies on the way out the door, is just the latest sign that you have overstayed your welcome. There are now reportedly 60 Liberal MPs calling on you to step down, joining millions of Canadians who feel the same way.

You have ignored the public polling, you have defied those in your own party, some of your own advisors and others who have told you to go graciously.

Rather than leave graciously, you have clung to power in the false belief that you are uniquely positioned to save Canada. Your messianic complex — where you view yourself as the only person who can rescue Canada from the problems our country faces — is clearly clouding what little judgment you have left.

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The most recent public polls have your party tied with the NDP, a fall from grace that should be an embarrassment for any political leader.

Ipsos puts Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives at 44% voter support, that is more than the 21% your Liberal Party is receiving even after combining it with the 21% supporting Jagmeet Singh and the NDP. Your support among women, once one of your strongest voting blocs is now down to 20%, that’s half of the 40% of women who say they will back Poilievre and the Conservatives.

Support for you and your party in British Columbia, a province once key to your electoral success, is down at 15%. In fortress Quebec, your Liberal Party is polling at 24%, behind the Conservatives at 25% and the Bloc Quebecois at 32%.

Just 14% of voters aged 18-34 say they will support you in the next election, while 42% of this same age bracket say they will support Poilievre.

You and your government are weak, wounded and ineffective. At a time when we need strong national leadership, you are unable to provide it.

This is another reason that you should step down or call an election as soon as possible.

President-elect Donald Trump is threatening Canada with 25% tariffs, a fact that requires a strong and capable leader. You are not capable, and you are definitely not strong at this point — a fact that is not lost on Trump or his supporters, who continue to ridicule you in public.

Here at home, you preside over a government that has not been able to move its agenda through the House of Commons due to a scandal. How bad are the documents in the Green Slush Fund Scandal that you allowed the House to focus only on that issue for the entire fall sitting rather than release the documents, as the Speakers and the Commons ordered, so that you could move government bills?

You have driven Canada’s finances into the ground.

Long gone is your promise of three small deficits of $10 billion. We now have structural deficits that will take years to tackle once a new and fiscally responsible government is back in charge.

This year, we are spending more on debt service charges than the federal government spends on health care. Debt service charges are more than double what we spend on our military.

Canadians are struggling under higher costs of living than we have seen in decades. Food prices are up 25% over where they were three years ago, rents have doubled during your time in office, and the dream of home ownershipp has evaporated.

Crime is up, especially violent crime, and your justice reforms have turned our court system into a revolving door that releases repeat violent offenders as quickly as police arrest them.

It’s shocking that in the face of this, you are still hanging on, convinced that voters will reward you with another government.

They won’t; it’s not about to happen.

What is shocking is that 21% of the population would still vote for you despite your abysmal record.

As you head into the Christmas break, Mr. Trudeau, do us all a favour. Take some time to reflect on the facts laid out above, and then devise a plan to step down.

The sooner, the better.