Michael Higgins: A Trudeau epiphany would be welcome — but don’t count on it 

PM should see the light and recognize that his time is up

Published Dec 30, 2024  •  Last updated 6 minutes ago  •  4 minute read

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should realize the party is over and quit before it’s over for his party, writes Michael Higgins. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press

There’s no rest for the wicked, so the saying goes, and both Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh are going to be super busy now that the Conservatives have signalled they will force a non-confidence motion in early January.

When the 12 days of Christmas are over, Singh will be tested on whether he is willing to bring down the government — as he said he would — or whether he will again choose ambiguity over action. The NDP leader may have said he would vote for a non-confidence motion, but he never said when.

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Singh might get a pass on having to honour his promise if the prime minister decides to prorogue Parliament and keep the Liberal government in power. Trudeau’s rationale to a chagrined nation that believes he will do anything to cling to power, is likely to be that, “Now is not a good time for an election,” with president-elect Donald Trump threatening Canada with 25 per cent tariffs.

The same rationale can also be applied by the prime minister if he decides to stay on as Liberal leader (after carefully reflecting on the matter, of course.)

It is appropriate timing that both Singh and Trudeau are being forced to realize their predicament the day after the Feast of Epiphany on Jan. 6.

On Jan. 7, the Conservatives plan to recall the public accounts committee where they will propose a non-confidence motion in the government and then move it to the House of Commons.

It could be voted on within days of the House returning from the Christmas break on Jan. 27.

In his letter announcing the plan, John Williamson, the chair of the committee, said if the Liberals filibuster and delay the motion he is prepared to hold meetings throughout all of January.

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As constitutional lawyer Lyle Skinner argued, there are a lot of “ifs” here, but the plan could work.

One big “if” is Singh. Since ending his supply and confidence deal with the Liberals in September, the NDP leader has since lapsed into a stultifying routine where he denounces the government at every turn but continues to support it.

Embarrassingly, Singh didn’t even support a non-confidence motion in the House when it was phrased in the very words he used about the Liberals being “too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people.”

If Singh is searching for words to live by, Groucho Marx comes to mind: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them … well, I have others.”

The NDP leader hardened his position after Chrystia Freeland’s explosive exit as finance minister. On the day of her departure, Singh called for Trudeau to resign, then waffled about what that meant during year-end media interviews.

Finally, in a letter, he announced he would vote to bring the government down and that the NDP would put forward a motion of non-confidence in the House when Parliament returns.

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But will he support a Conservative non-confidence motion? Or has the festive season allowed him to concoct some more delaying machinations?

Hopefully, Singh will have his own epiphany, realize that words do matter, that principled stands involve standing and not caving, and have the courage to act on his so-called convictions.

And if miracles do happen, perhaps the prime minister will have an epiphany that his continued presence at the helm of the government is leading the Liberal party to disaster.

The party’s slide to irrelevance is fast matching its rapid descent in the polls. The latest polling aggregate by 338Canada has the Liberals winning a mere 39 seats in a federal election (a week ago they were at 47 seats.)

Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas and fewer and fewer of them appear to be supporting the Liberals.

Faced with those numbers, savaged by his former loyal deputy, and seeing his own members rebelling, what’s a prime minister to do?

Resign is a possibility and let the new man or woman deal with the fallout. It might improve the Liberals’ chance at the polls.

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Stop his political enemies in their tracks by proroguing Parliament is another possibility. Critics might claim that prorogation is a desperate move to keep the prime minister in his job, and they wouldn’t be wrong.

No doubt Trudeau and his acolytes are feverishly working on other possibilities to stave off the inevitable — that this government is doomed and the Conservatives are doing everything in their power to bring the day of reckoning forward.

Whether Trudeau sees the light and recognizes that his time is up is beside the point. The people and his party are finished with him and the Conservatives have vowed to be the means to his end.

Trudeau’s ultimate epiphany should be to realize the party is over and quit before it’s over for his party.

National Post

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