Trudeau under fire; liberals eye Freeland

Pressure continues to mount on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to quit, even as a movement is afoot within the ruling Liberal Party caucus for him to be replaced by Chrystia Freeland, who was Deputy PM and Finance Minister till her bombshell resignation, on Monday.

- Anirudh Bhattacharyya

TORONTO:

On Saturday, when Liberal MPs from the province of Ontario held a virtual meeting, over 50 arrived at a "consensus" that Trudeau should resign, according to the government-funded outlet CBC News.

That builds on the MPs already opposed to him continuing, believed to be over a third of the 153 from the ruling party. Some among them, the outlet reported, are for Freeland to assume the mantle of party leader, replacing Trudeau.

Among them was Indo-Canadian MP Chandra Arya, who was one of Trudeau's strongest backers. But in a letter to the PM on Saturday, Arya said, "I have consistently supported you since last summer, even when some of our colleagues called for your resignation.