John Nater was on his way to Ottawa on Monday for a public accounts committee meeting.
The Perth-Wellington MP planned to move a non-confidence motion Tuesday to trigger a non-confidence debate and a vote in the House of Commons.
That won’t happen after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced yesterday that parliament will be prorogued and he will step down after the Liberals find a new leader.
“So instead of actually taking accountability, the prime minister decided to quit and then prorogue parliament to avoid avoid accountability and avoid the difficult issues,” Nater told MyStratfordNow.
Nater said government business essentially grounds to a halt.
“Every single piece of legislation that had not yet been passed is killed…so it dies…it basically pauses every single legislative and parliamentary function.”
Trudeau has been Liberal leader since 2013 and prime minister since 2015.
Stratford Mayor Martin Ristma said it’s a big decision when anyone decides to move on from a position of leadership but the writing may have been on the wall for Canada’s 23rd prime minister, after Chrystia Freeland, finance minister, resigned her post.
The mayor said there are micro and macro impacts to Trudeau’s decision.
“Will the work go forward with regards to the housing applications out there in regards to federal dollars to build affordable homes?”
At the macro level, Ritsma said there is work to do building a united stance with a new government soon to take office in the U.S., Canada’s biggest trade partner.
Ritsma said Trudeau, overall, managed to accomplish things with a mostly minority government, including negotiating a new free trade agreement with the U.S. and Mexico (CUSMA), handling COVID and working on the affordable daycare file.
