OTTAWA | In front of an audience of thousands of liberal activists gathered in Ottawa to celebrate the end of the year, Justin Trudeau delivered an enthusiastic speech in which he avoided addressing head-on the deep leadership crisis he is going through.
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“As in most families, there are sometimes arguments during the holidays,” he said. But of course, like most families, we find a way to overcome this,” he simply mentioned at the start of his speech.
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Present in the room, former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, caused shock waves in the party on Monday after announcing her resignation through social networks the day she was to present the fall economic update .
Mr. Trudeau found himself in already conquered territory: the Christmas dinner attended by the Prime Minister brought together a number of ministers, MPs and their staff from the four corners of the country.
In just under fifteen minutes, the Prime Minister defended his record and threw arrows at his Bloc and Conservative adversaries, without clearly addressing the elephant in the room.
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Interviews canceled
However, a few minutes before speaking, his office confirmed that Justin Trudeau had canceled all his end-of-year interviews with the media at the last minute.
Mr. Trudeau was to answer questions from Paul Larocque on Thursday on LCN in a one-on-one interview, but ultimately will not take part in the exercise, according to what TVA Nouvelles has learned.
- and Global News also made the same announcement in the evening.
Justin Trudeau is going through the worst leadership crisis since the start of his reign in the Liberal Party of Canada in 2013.
Several of his deputies are now openly calling for his resignation while ministers prefer to change the subject rather than offer him their unconditional support, when questioned by journalists.