Image Credit: House of Commons

By Dylana Kneeshaw

FALL SITTING COMPLETED

‘We want an election’: Kamloops MP among opposition members calling for federal government shakeup

Dec 18, 2024 | 4:40 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’s been a tumultuous end to the fall sitting for Canada’s minority Liberal government. Monday’s (Dec. 16) surprise departure of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has prompted calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign or call an early election.

The expectation is Canadians will either see a change in leadership style or a change in leader.

“(He) goes, basically drops the economic statement, walks out,” Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP Frank Caputo said of watching the government house leader deliver the fall economic statement this week. “(I’ve) never seen anything like it. No questions. No speech, nothing on the statement.”

Caputo was among opposition members expecting the fiscal update and was instead surprised by the cabinet resignation of the Liberal finance minister this week.

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“You know, whenever you have a $62-billion deficit, it’s time to take notice. Somebody has to pay that. And for anybody who has a mortgage, they know that eventually your bills will come due. Government doesn’t always realize it. This Liberal government has contributed more to the debt than every other prime minister combined.”

There are headlines of instability among the federal Liberal caucus, but Thompson Rivers University political science professor Robert Hanlon says there is a very real day-to-day impact with what current or future federal leaders do.

“Certainly, the impact in the grocery store, the impact on mortgages, the declining Canadian dollar — all of these things are having very real impacts on peoples lives.”

The next federal election is scheduled for October of 2025, but the prime minister himself or a non-confidence vote could call for an early election.

“I believe Canadians have been loud and clear. I’m getting messages, more messages than I’ve ever really gotten, saying, ‘We want an election, and we want an election now,'” says Caputo, who feels an early election would be a best-case scenario for the opposition Conservatives. “This government has to be accountable to the people and the way to do that is through an election.”

Regardless of election timing, Hanlon says there’s now a question of resignation or reworking the leadership style and party platform ahead of the fall.

“I think any leader going into the next election is going to have to be one who’s quite serious about not only our economic scenario with household income with the way that people are really feeling the economy, but also the concerns with our relationship with the United States,” Hanlon says of the style of leader that parties would likely need.

With the completion of the fall sitting, the House of Commons is not scheduled to resume until the end of January.