Collins has not yet said whether or not he will be running again. Pictured: Chad Collins. Photo Credit: Chad Collins/X.
Local Hamilton East-Stoney Creek Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) Chad Collins put himself at odds with his own party over the past couple days, first opposing his party’s rebate cheque plan saying that it should be available to more people and then eventually calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign.
At the end of November, the Trudeau government announced plans to send $250 to every Canadian who worked in 2023 and earned less than $150,000.
The “Working Canadians Rebate” is estimated to cost $4.68 billion at a time when the Liberal government has already overshot their deficit target by over $20 billion.
The Liberals previously promised that their deficit would not exceed $40 billion, but it has now ballooned to $61.9 billion.
On Nov. 25, local MP Chad Collins put himself at odds with his party, writing on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), that his government should spend even more by extending the rebate to include seniors and people with disabilities.
In doing so, Collins aligned himself with the NDP’s position on the matter.
Collins wrote, “My first and foremost responsibility is to respect and represent the needs of my constituents.”
“I advised the government that I cannot support an affordability package that does not include support for seniors and people with disabilities,” he continued.
Collins then added that he was threatened by the Liberal Party with “consequences” for not towing the party line on the rebate cheques.
He also added that caucus members were not even consulted on the plan to announce the measure in the first place.
Then, following the news this past Monday, Dec. 16 that Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland was resigning from cabinet after a dramatic disagreement with Prime Minister Trudeau, Collins became one of the first Liberal MPs calling for Trudeau to resign in the immediate aftermath.
It appears that Freeland opposes her own government’s rebate cheque plan as well, only for the opposite reason as Collins.
While Collins wants the plan expanded, in Freeland’s resignation letter she appeared to suggest that the rebate cheque plan should be scrapped altogether, saying that Trudeau is full of “costly political gimmicks.”
In calling for Trudeau to resign, Collins appears to be positioning himself on the side of most Canadians.
A recent survey of 1,186 Canadians by polling company Abacus Data suggests that Trudeau’s net favourability is -43, with only 19 per cent wanting him to stay on as prime minister, 67 per cent saying he should resign, and 14 per cent saying they do not know.
If an election were held today, the latest poll projections suggest that Collins would lose his seat with only 27 per cent of the vote compared to 39.1 per cent in 2021.
Conservative Party of Canada candidate for Hamilton East-Stoney Creek Ned Kuruc, who is running for the second time, is currently projected to win with 41 per cent of the vote.
It should be noted that Collins has not yet said whether or not he will be running again for the Liberal Party in the next election.
While the next election is scheduled to take place in October 2025, it could happen sooner since there is a minority Parliament.
Some commentators on social media have suggested that Collins is only now trying to distance himself from the Liberal Party since he has voiced interest in running for Mayor of Hamilton against Andrea Horwath in October 2026.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
