NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s looming tariff threat is part of the reason why he’s not committing to voting non-confidence in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government.
In an interview on CTV’s Your Morning with Anne-Marie Mediwake, Singh was asked repeatedly to explain how he’s calling on the embattled Liberal leader to resign, but won’t say he’s ready to help trigger an election.
After noting several times that there will be an election in 2025 and “all options are on the table,” Singh offered the uncertainty south of the border as an explanation for why he’s hesitant to play a role in sending Canadians to the polls early.
“If there’s a vote on the table about retaliatory tariffs to fight back against Trump, versus calling an election in the midst of threats to hundreds of thousands of jobs, I want to make a decision that’s in the best interest of Canadians,” Singh said.
“I’m not going to speculate on what that decision is now, but I can tell you what I am saying right now, Trump is a real threat. People are worried about their jobs. Trudeau has to go. I’m not going to speculate about what’s going to happen months from now. When that happens, I’ll make a decision.”
It’s not clear that there would need to be a vote in Parliament on a potential federal response to U.S. trade action, depending on the approach taken.
The fall sitting began with Singh tearing up the two-party pact that saw the NDP back the Liberals up on confidence votes in exchange for progressive policy action such as dental and pharma care. Instead, he said he’d navigate the rest of this Parliament on a vote-by-vote basis.
The fall sitting ended with the NDP remaining the only opposition party still propping Trudeau’s government up, with the Bloc Quebecois and Conservatives pushing for an early election.
Asked what he sees as the downside in pulling support now, Singh said: “Why would I box myself in and say I’m going to do something definitive when we don’t know what’s going to happen?”
The NDP leader continued to say that he wants to see what transpires over the next few weeks, and will wait until the country has a better sense of what’s going on.
“When there’s a vote in front of me, I’ll make a decision,” Singh said. “I’m not going to box myself in. But what I can tell people is there will be an election in 2025 and I’m ready to fight it, and people have an important choice to make.”
Singh was also asked, given the current state of chaos the Trudeau government is in, whether he regrets not moving to bring down the Liberals sooner, and he said no.
“No, I have no regrets.”