Is Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Government Falling Apart?

There seems to be an uneasy feeling in the House of Commons for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party these days.

Of course, Trudeau and the Liberals have been embroiled in scandals before and survived, but right now there is a feeling of stagnation in Parliament as if there is little willingness within the Liberal caucus to fight for Trudeau. 

Maybe it’s due to the slumping Liberal poll numbers, record-high inflation, the Emergencies Act scandal, or the new RCMP Commissioner scandal, but the Liberals have become noticeably tired in their defense of themselves, and the Canadian public is even more tired seeing it all play out.

In media circles, it is a fairly well-known rumour that a group of around 30 Liberal MPs were prepared to challenge the leadership of Trudeau during the Freedom Convoy, and were only denied the ability after Trudeau raised the stakes by invoking the Emergencies Act, which caused one of the largest scandals for the Liberals to date.

With that context, it makes the current situation that Trudeau finds himself in make more sense. 

If a substantial group of Liberal MPs wants to see Trudeau gone, then it would be a rather savvy political move for them to just let Trudeau flounder during this recent spate of scandals and poor economic climate. 

They don’t owe Justin Trudeau anything, and if they refuse to intervene on his behalf what can he actually do to them? Trudeau can’t slam members of his own caucus for not vigorously defending him enough, it would just bring more attention to the fact the scandals plaguing him are serious and that his leadership is falling apart. 

Honestly, a lot of Liberal MPs’ only chance at reelection may require them to distance themselves from their own party and prime minister.

Another issue for Trudeau’s Liberal government is the falling support for Jagmeet Singh within the NDP Party and in the public at large.

Because the Liberals are in an informal alliance with the NDP they are negatively affected when Singh loses support with his base. If Singh were to become so unpopular his position as the NDP leader was threatened there could be a scenario where Singh has to break the alliance with the Liberals in order to stabilize his support, by showing he can still act as strong opposition to the Liberals, or a new NDP leader would opt to break the alliance to move away from Singh’s overly-conciliatory attitude towards the Liberals. 

The alliance was already not popular among NDP and Liberal MPs. Many inside politics have said that there is a palpable amount of dissatisfaction among both Liberal and NDP MPs due to the informal alliance formed between the two parties by Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh.

NDP MPs rightfully see partnering with the Liberals as undermining the entire point of their party as being the Liberal’s opposition from the left, and Liberal MPs see partnering with the NDP as making them appear radical.

Regardless of which public scandals or internal power struggles are currently affecting the Liberal government, it seems clear that there has been a mood shift in the country against Justin Trudeau and his unserious brand of politics, and the Liberal Party MPs are far less willing to save Trudeau and his inner circle from themselves yet again.