View From the Legislature

Politics has always been tribal. Political parties are driven to win elections and because of that there isn’t much grace given to other political parties. Division in politics isn’t new nor is it inherently bad. Division helps to provide choice and competing visions. But recently what has developed is a level of division that is more vitriolic and personally toxic than what we have seen in the past.

Because of this, I am aware that many of my own articles or interviews are viewed through this political lens and can just be seen as Conservative partisanship. I had this in mind when asked at Manitoba Youth Parliament late last month whether I thought Prime Minister Trudeau should resign. My answer was a firm “yes”, but I prefaced that with the comment that it wasn’t simply a partisan perspective.

I have only interacted with Mr. Trudeau on a handful of occasions. Most of my time was dealing with ministers in his government who held federal portfolios that were the same, or closely connected, to my provincial ministerial responsibilities. That meant working with former Liberal Health Minister Jane Philpott, Finance Minister Bill Morneau, and on the Justice and Public Safety file, David Lametti and Marco Mendicino. I had many disagreements with the policies these Liberal ministers put forward and, ironically, eventually each of these Liberal ministers had disagreements with the Prime Minister as well and either left cabinet or government all together.

But as I said to the youth parliamentarians, I also had several opportunities to interact with Mr. Trudeau directly. Some of these were at events like Folklorama, others were funding announcements such as at Canada Goose and on several occasions in the fall of 2021 serving as Premier of Manitoba. To be sure, there were many points of strong disagreement, but like most discussions between governments they were disagreements on policy, such as the use by the federal government of The Emergencies Act.

But the need for the Prime Minister to resign was clear and it was overdue. While I am a strong believer in respecting democratically elected mandates and have rarely called for any Premier or Prime Minster to resign, the current situation was causing significant damage to Canada and its provinces both now and potentially for years to come.

Prime Minister Trudeau had not simply lost the confidence of Canadians if polls are correct, he had lost the confidence of his own Caucus and likely his Cabinet. If the NDP are to be believed, he has also lost the confidence of Parliament. No political leader can continue if they cannot reasonably say they have the confidence of either their own Caucus or Parliament. That is especially true when there are very significant issues that require a stable and functioning government to deal with. Not the least of these is the threat by the incoming U.S. government to impose tariffs of 25% on all goods that Canada exports to the United States.

Mr. Trudeau’s resignation itself will cause a period of instability, but it is necessary as Canada heads to an election where all Canadians can decide which political party should have a mandate to deal with difficult issues. That election needs to come as quickly as possible so that a clear mandate can be provided to a new federal government, whoever Canadians choose.

Mr. Trudeau’s decision to step down was overdue and the need for an election is as well. Not because of partisanship, but because the challenges that the country faces require a stable federal government that Canadians themselves have expressed confidence in through a democratic election.