Trudeau starts year as a PM out of options

Opinion

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This article was published 03/01/2025 (271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a quirk of geographical and astronomical reality that the first place Canadians see each day’s sunrise is in the Atlantic provinces.

Tourists and locals alike can be found every morning, just before dawn, near the historic lighthouse on Cape Spear, the easternmost point in both Newfoundland and North America. As the sun peeks out over the Atlantic Ocean, those visitors are the first on Canadian soil to greet the day.

The sun rises first in the Atlantic provinces, so there’s no small irony in the recent turn of events that might also make them the place where the sun sets, both first and finally, on the political career of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Such an outcome now seems very likely, with the federal government’s Atlantic Liberal caucus having last week released a letter it sent to the prime minister demanding his resignation and expressing “deep concern” regarding the government’s future.

The letter, dated Dec. 23, was written by Nova Scotia MP Kody Blois, who serves as chair of the Atlantic caucus. It states Trudeau cannot continue as Liberal Party leader, professing the caucus members’ “deep personal affection for (Trudeau), their pride in our work as a Liberal team, but also their deep concern that without a leadership change that progress will be lost under a Pierre Poilievre-led government.”

The letter was made public “for openness and transparency” by New Brunswick MP Wayne Long, who has for several months been calling for the prime minister to step down.

The one-page missive cites concerns over looming instability rooted in the perceived economic peril posed by the incoming Trump administration’s threatened 25 per cent tariff on imported Canadian goods.

“Time is of the essence,” the letter states, “and our caucus is of the view that it is not tenable for you to remain as the leader, and that we need to allow for the necessary conversations on transition to take place.”

The letter’s release no doubt puts added pressure on the embattled PM, who has reportedly been using the holiday break to consider his political future. Despite sagging popularity and murmurs from certain factions within caucus that his time is up, Trudeau had, even as the calendar page turned to December, remained outwardly steadfast — some would argue intransigent — in his belief he will lead the Liberals into the next election.

But the uncertainty that surrounds him turned to outright chaos in the lead-up to Christmas, sparked by then-deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland’s shocking resignation from cabinet on Dec. 16. Within days, the number of Liberal MPs publicly calling for Trudeau’s exit had risen to more than 20, some of whom had expressed support for Freeland as his replacement.

Now, with an entire regional caucus having made a united public declaration that the prime minister must step down, and with the resumption of parliamentary business next week guaranteed to include the immediate introduction of another Conservative non-confidence motion — one which, this time, will almost certainly receive the support required to trigger an election — Trudeau has effectively run out of time and options.

The current government cannot and will not survive beyond month’s end; surely this is a reality with which the prime minister has come to grips during his not-so-festive interlude of reflection and rumination.

As the sun rises again over Cape Spear, Trudeau must surely — just as his father did during that now-mythical walk in the snow so many years ago — have come to the only logical decision about the exit toward which his next step must lead.