Some Liberal MPs Ask Trudeau to Step Down After Freeland Quits Cabinet

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, and other cabinet ministers pose for a photo before the tabling of the federal budget on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on April 16, 2024. The Canadian Press/Justin Tang

Some Liberal MPs, including one who expressed full support during the October caucus revolt, are asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down after Chrystia Freeland tended her resignation from cabinet.

MP Francis Drouin told CBC News he has been a “great defender” of Trudeau “but I just don’t see how we move forward.” Drouin said the prime minister “needs to go.”

Drouin was reacting to the resignation of Freeland as deputy prime minister and minister of finance, hours before she was set to table the Fall Economic Statement. Freeland said Trudeau asked her to be shuffled out of the finance portfolio on Dec. 13, which she saw as a lack of confidence in her.

Drouin, an Ontario MP who serves as parliamentary secretary to the minister of agriculture, said Liberal MPs were supposed to be briefed on an unspecified plan but now they’re talking about the resignation of the finance minister.

“I don’t see how this helps the prime minister, and I don’t see a way out,” he said.

Ottawa is expected to present a plan soon on how to bolster border security after incoming U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 25 tariff over illegal migration and drug smuggling at Canadian and Mexican borders. The budget associated with the plan will appear in the Fall Economic Statement.

Freeland said in her letter of resignation that she has been “at odds” with Trudeau over how to manage the public purse, especially in the context of a potential trade war with the United States. The Fall Economic Statement is expected to go beyond Freeland’s own fiscal guardrail of a deficit not exceeding $40.1 billion.

October Revolt

Trudeau faced other calls to resign in October when MPs from the Liberal caucus presented him with a letter.

After a tensed caucus meeting on Oct. 23, where dissenting MPs spoke to Trudeau directly about their concerns, Drouin had said the “caucus is 100 percent behind Mr. Trudeau.”

One of the MPs who signed the letter repeated his call for Trudeau to step down on Dec. 16. Chad Collins, also an Ontario MP, said a new leader needs to take the country in a “new direction.”

“It’s obvious that Canadians across the country feel the same and want him to leave,” Collins wrote in a statement.

Few Liberal MPs who signed the letter had come forward publicly at the time to call for Trudeau’s ouster.

B.C. MP Patrick Weiler was one who spoke out at the time and he repeated his call on Dec. 16, saying the latest developments “only reinforce this call.”

“It is clear that the Prime Minister has lost the confidence of members of caucus and increasingly much of the country,” said Weiler in a statement.

The dissenting MPs asked Trudeau in October to think about his future and gave him a deadline to come back with a response. Before time elapsed, Trudeau said he was staying on as leader.

The caucus revolt, which petered out after the Oct. 23 meeting, was spurred by the Liberals losing stronghold ridings in summer byelections in Toronto and Montreal. It also came after the NDP broke their supply-and-confidence agreement keeping the Liberals in power until June 2025.

There were other reactions from Liberal MPs.

Montreal MP Anthony Housefather posted on social media platform X that he was sending “all my strength and support” to Freeland.  Later in the day Housefather told CTV News he believes Trudeau should resign. This was echoed by fellow MP and former minister Helena Jaczek.

Housefather also said he wrote to Liberal caucus chair Brenda Shanahan to ask for a national Liberal caucus meeting within the next 24 hours.

The Liberal caucus typically meets on Wednesdays, but Tuesday is the last day the House of Commons is sitting before the weeks-long holiday break.