Toronto: A petition before the House of Commons calling for a no confidence vote against the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has garnered the maximum signatures of any in recent years.
The petition, e-4701, was initiated by Melissa Outwater, a resident of the town of Peterborough in the province of Ontario, on November 24. By Wednesday evening, it had already crossed 300,000 signatures, the maximum for any petition since Trudeau became PM in 2015.
The petition is sponsored by Michelle Ferreri, an MP from the opposition Conservative Party.
“We the citizens of Canada have lost confidence in Justin Trudeau and the Liberal/NDP coalition,” the petition states, referring to the understanding between the ruling party of the New Democratic Party, though that is not in the form a formal coalition.
It calls for a vote of no confidence against the Trudeau government in the House of Commons, and, if it succeeded, to have elections within 45 days. Trudeau is leading a minority government and elections are not scheduled till October 2025.
“The current government elected is not acting in the best interest of all citizens,” the petition said, outlining the crises facing the country from housing costs to high inflation and unbalanced immigration policies, among others.
“Based on the past eight years of this Prime Minister, Canadians do not have confidence in this Prime Minister, after five ethics investigations and Canada’s reputation being tarnished on a global scale under his leadership,” it opined.
Trudeau is already facing headwinds as his party trails the Conservatives by over 10% in recent opinion polls, placing the opposition party in comfortable majority territory.
The petition also reflects public opinion in Canada, as evinced from recent surveys. On November 29, a poll by the agency Ipsos for the news outlet Global News, found that nearly three in four of those sampled wanted Trudeau to resign and that figure included a third of Liberal Party supporters.
