Canadian opposition party ends support agreement with Prime Minister Trudeau's Liberals

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — An opposition party in Canada ended a support agreement with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government Wednesday, raising the odds an election could happen before the fall of 2025.

Leftist NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh moved to distance himself from an increasingly unpopular Trudeau.

“The deal is done,” Singh said on social media, bringing an abrupt halt to a pact that has kept the government running.

Trudeau's Liberals lack a majority of seats in Parliament and need the support of at least one other party to pass legislation and keep the government alive.

Breaking the deal doesn’t mean Trudeau’s government automatically falls if a vote of non confidence is scheduled. Rather, the NDP will determine how to vote on Liberal legislation on a case-by-case basis, and will attempt to squeeze more measures out of them.

The next election is at most a year away, and could happen earlier now depending on the NDP's decisions on future votes.

“I really hope the NDP stays focused on how we can deliver for Canadians, as we have over the past years, rather than focusing on politics,” Trudeau said.

Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said ending the agreement probably increases the odds the election will be before the fixed election date in the fall of 2025, but said the government could still last until then.

“This doesn’t mean the NDP wants to trigger federal elections anytime soon, as this could lead to a majority Conservative government, a situation that would eliminate the political clout the NDP currently enjoys in the minority parliament,” Béland said.

Trudeau has said he intends to lead the party into the next election. The Liberals have been in power since 2015 but inflation is a major concern for Canadians.