THUNDER BAY — Residents spoke out in Thunder Bay on the future of the Liberal government after Justin Trudeau announced he would resign as Liberal Leader and step down as prime minister on Monday.
Barbara Lacosse said everybody has a timeframe and she thinks 'it’s his time.'
“He’s been in a long time and I think we need some new blood, new faces. Better perspective on things because it’s not very good right now, no, and as a senior, I am feeling the tight pinch and you can’t keep giving away money the way he’s been doing. That’s not good,” said Lacosse.
She said the best she can hope for is for somebody who can replace him and maybe come in with a different perspective on things when he does step down.
However, Lacosse is unsure who that will be.
“You’d have to see what the new leader is like and his or her outlook on things, and (they're) not going to fit everybody’s category… It’s going to be whatever it is. It’s the luck of the draw, and whoever gets the vote gets the vote. We can’t choose. We do, but we can’t choose. Everybody’s not going to choose the same person,” said Lacosse.
She said it's the people’s choice and hopes for a better choice.
All she can say is 'good luck.'
Charles Faust agreed Trudeau waited far too long to make this announcement.
“The only problem I see with it is that he’s still going to stay on as the prime minister until the new person is chosen and that really will make it hard to get a good showing in the house to start a change,” said Faust.
“To start some kind of improvement to get our country working and get the government working again. It’s been a disaster in the parliament for the last six or more months, and we need to get it going again.”
He said it’s going to be a long, uphill battle.
“I don’t support the Liberals or the Conservatives, so I think that we will all do our best to get good, responsible government for the people of Canada. A social democratic government would be very good in my mind,” said Faust.
John Peterson was also not surprised Trudeau resigned. In some way, he said he was happy it happened.
“We got to get this chaos, I guess, that’s going around resolved and I don’t just mean the chaos in the Liberal (government). I’m disappointed that it’s Liberal. I don’t want the Conservatives in there, either. He sounds more like Trump, but we need a new leader. I liked Trudeau at first. I still wish he had not sort of stumbled all the way around,” said Peterson.
With the carbon tax and health care needing improvements and not wanting to see the Conservative catering to the oil companies, he said maybe the NDP should be brought in to fix it.
“The other two won’t (fix it), but I am happy because it’s going to get results. I don’t like the fact that we’re going without a leader when (Donald) Trump is in on the American side. We’re in trouble and I don’t know how we’re going to get out of it,” said Peterson.
He said it is up in the air and nothing can be predicted.
Richard Diem said Trudeau resigning after nine years takes a lot of courage, especially when you’re in power, and it 'must be really hard.'
"That’s like (Joe) Biden deciding to resign," explained Diem.
He too was uncertain about the announcement.
“It depends on who takes over. Most politicians, in my estimation, do not do very much for the people, so usually they do a lot of things for themselves,” said Diem
He agreed the upcoming election's outcome could not be predicted, but said being in power too long has left the Liberals without a good reputation.
The 2025 Canadian federal election date is not yet known.
