Bill Morneau has announced his resignation as finance minister, and will also step down as the MP for Toronto Centre, after meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier Monday.
“I met with the prime minister today to inform him that I did not plan to run again in the next federal election,” Morneau told reporters Monday evening. “It has never been my plan to run for more than two federal election cycles.”
Both Morneau and Trudeau are being investigated by Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion after the Liberal government gave WE Charity a $43.53-million contract to administer a $900-million student grant program despite both their families having close ties to the charity.
Morneau said he was not pushed out of government. He said it was time for a new finance minister to carry Canada forward as it continues to battle the economic realities of the pandemic.
“Since I’m not running again, and since I expect that we will have a long and challenging recovery, I think it’s important that the prime minister has by his side a finance minister who has that longer term vision,” Morneau said. “That’s what led me to conclude during this time period that it’s appropriate for me to step down.”
And in another surprise, Morneau said he wants to continue to serve and is putting in a bid to be the next secretary general for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
He remains finance minister until a successor is appointed to replace him.
Watch | Watch Bill Morneau’s full press conference:
Bill Morneau, who has been Canada’s finance minister for nearly five years, takes questions after announcing his resignation. 22:19
Morneau has been under pressure to quit ever since it was revealed that he had to repay $41,366 in travel expenses covered for him by WE Charity.
“I wish that, in hindsight, that we had done things differently around the WE Charity,” Morneau said, noting that he should have recused himself from discussions around the decision to task WE Charity with running the student grant program.
Morneau’s daughter, Grace, works for the charity in its travel department. Another of Morneau’s daughters, Clare, has volunteered for the organization and been a speaker at past WE Day events.
While appearing before a parliamentary committee, Morneau revealed that he cut a cheque to repay the travel expenses incurred by the WE organization related to two 2017 trips he and his family took with the organization.
Trudeau issued a statement heaping praise on his finance minister for his work since taking office in 2015.
“I want to thank Bill for everything he has done to improve the quality of life of Canadians and make our country a better and fairer place to live. I have counted on his leadership, advice, and close friendship over the years and I look forward to that continuing well into the future,” the statement said.
“Canada will vigorously support his bid to lead this important global institution that will play a critical role in the global economic recovery,” Trudeau added of Morneau’s OECD plans.
Watch | The National: Morneau resigns as finance minister, MP:
Bill Morneau has resigned as finance minister and MP for Toronto Centre and will run to become secretary general of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Morneau had faced calls to quit after revealing he forgot to repay $41,366 in expenses to WE Charity. 3:26
Pandemic response
Morneau used his final press conference as finance minister to tout his work leading up to and during the pandemic, admitting some mistakes were made in the rush to respond to the crisis.
“While we didn’t get everything right, I know that the cost of inaction would’ve been far greater,” he said. “Canadians are better off today because their federal government stepped in and decided to protect them.”
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer took to Twitter to say that Morneau’s departure from cabinet was an effort to scapegoat the finance minister in order to save the prime minister
“Bill Morneau’s ‘resignation’ is further proof of a government in chaos,” Scheer said. “At a time when Canadians are worried about their health and their finances, Justin Trudeau’s government is so consumed by scandal that Trudeau has amputated his right hand to try and save himself.”
Bill Morneau’s “resignation” is further proof of a government in chaos. <br><br>At a time when Canadians are worried about their health and their finances , Justin Trudeau’s government is so consumed by scandal that Trudeau has amputated his right hand to try and save himself. 1/3
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh took a similar position, telling his Twitter followers tonight that Morneau’s move is about trying to put a new face on the Liberal government and not about the finance minister seeking new challenges.
“This isn’t about Minister Morneau’s ethical lapses — it’s about the prime minister’s failure to work for people instead of for himself,” Singh said late Monday evening in a statement.
“Let’s not forget that this prime minister is under his third investigation for breaking ethics rules — and he was found guilty for the first two. Ministers can come and go, but if the prime minister keeps breaking the rules for his wealthy friends, this governments priorities won’t change,” Singh added.
Canadians need a government that is focussed on helping them<br><br>Not on their own scandals<br><br>In the middle of a financial crisis, Justin Trudeau has lost his Finance Minister<br><br>Every time he gets caught breaking ethics laws, he makes someone else take the heat<br><br>That’s not leadership <a href=”https://t.co/IxGNVnmhyo”>https://t.co/IxGNVnmhyo</a>
WINNIPEG – The federal New Democrats have kept a longtime stronghold in the Elmwood-Transcona riding in Winnipeg.
The NDP’s Leila Dance won a close battle over Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds, and says the community has spoken in favour of priorities such as health care and the cost of living.
Elmwood-Transcona has elected a New Democrat in every election except one since the riding was formed in 1988.
The seat became open after three-term member of Parliament Daniel Blaikie resigned in March to take a job with the Manitoba government.
A political analyst the NDP is likely relieved to have kept the seat in what has been one of their strongest urban areas.
Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba, says NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh worked hard to keep the seat in a tight race.
“He made a number of visits to Winnipeg, so if they had lost this riding it would have been disastrous for the NDP,” Adams said.
The strong Conservative showing should put wind in that party’s sails, Adams added, as their percentage of the popular vote in Elmwood-Transcona jumped sharply from the 2021 election.
“Even though the Conservatives lost this (byelection), they should walk away from it feeling pretty good.”
Dance told reporters Monday night she wants to focus on issues such as the cost of living while working in Ottawa.
“We used to be able to buy a cart of groceries for a hundred dollars and now it’s two small bags. That is something that will affect everyone in this riding,” Dance said.
Liberal candidate Ian MacIntyre placed a distant third,
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say the Liberals have “all sorts of reflections” to make after losing a second stronghold in a byelection in Montreal Monday night.
His comments come as the Liberal cabinet gathers for its first regularly scheduled meeting of the fall sitting of Parliament, which began Monday.
Trudeau’s Liberals were hopeful they could retain the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, but those hopes were dashed after the Bloc Québécois won it in an extremely tight three-way race with the NDP.
Louis-Philippe Sauvé, an administrator at the Institute for Research in Contemporary Economics, beat Liberal candidate Laura Palestini by less than 250 votes. The NDP finished about 600 votes back of the winner.
It is the second time in three months that Trudeau’s party lost a stronghold in a byelection. In June, the Conservatives defeated the Liberals narrowly in Toronto-St. Paul’s.
The Liberals won every seat in Toronto and almost every seat on the Island of Montreal in the last election, and losing a seat in both places has laid bare just how low the party has fallen in the polls.
“Obviously, it would have been nicer to be able to win and hold (the Montreal riding), but there’s more work to do and we’re going to stay focused on doing it,” Trudeau told reporters ahead of this morning’s cabinet meeting.
When asked what went wrong for his party, Trudeau responded “I think there’s all sorts of reflections to take on that.”
In French, he would not say if this result puts his leadership in question, instead saying his team has lots of work to do.
Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet will hold a press conference this morning, but has already said the results are significant for his party.
“The victory is historic and all of Quebec will speak with a stronger voice in Ottawa,” Blanchet wrote on X, shortly after the winner was declared.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party had hoped to ride to a win in Montreal on the popularity of their candidate, city councillor Craig Sauvé, and use it to further their goal of replacing the Liberals as the chief alternative to the Conservatives.
The NDP did hold on to a seat in Winnipeg in a tight race with the Conservatives, but the results in Elmwood-Transcona Monday were far tighter than in the last several elections. NDP candidate Leila Dance defeated Conservative Colin Reynolds by about 1,200 votes.
Singh called it a “big victory.”
“Our movement is growing — and we’re going to keep working for Canadians and building that movement to stop Conservative cuts before they start,” he said on social media.
“Big corporations have had their governments. It’s the people’s time.”
New Democrats recently pulled out of their political pact with the government in a bid to distance themselves from the Liberals, making the prospects of a snap election far more likely.
Trudeau attempted to calm his caucus at their fall retreat in Nanaimo, B.C, last week, and brought former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney on as an economic adviser in a bid to shore up some credibility with voters.
The latest byelection loss will put more pressure on him as leader, with many polls suggesting voter anger is more directed at Trudeau himself than at Liberal policies.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The New Democrats have declared a federal byelection victory in their Winnipeg stronghold riding of Elmwood—Transcona.
The NDP candidate Leila Dance told supporters in a tearful speech that even though the final results weren’t in, she expected she would see them in Ottawa.
With several polls still to be counted, Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds conceded defeat and told his volunteers that they should be proud of what the Conservatives accomplished in the campaign.
Political watchers had a keen eye on the results to see if the Tories could sway traditionally NDP voters on issues related to labour and affordability.
Meanwhile in the byelection race in the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun the NDP, Liberals and Bloc Québécois remained locked in an extremely tight three-way race as the results trickled in slowly.
The Liberal stronghold riding had a record 91 names on the ballot, and the results aren’t expected until the early hours of the morning.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
