The exact timing is very much up in the air, but the best bet is for the government to fall by late March, and then a general election day would fall in April or May, said Yaroslav Baran, co-founder of the Pendulum Group and former chief of staff to Conservative house leader Jay Hill.

Trudeau is moving to plug gaps in his front bench after several in cabinet have decided not to run again in the election next year but he is not moving around the big players on his team.

Trudeau's decision to demote Chrystia Freeland appears to have backfired spectacularly, igniting a chorus of calls for him to resign, including from several Liberal MPs, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and the Toronto Star's editorial board.

The Liberal government was thrown into disarray this week when Chrystia Freeland stepped down from cabinet as finance minister, reviving calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down or call an election.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resigned from cabinet on the day of the fall economic statement and Housing Minister Sean Fraser announced he won't run in the next election

The update is expected to include measures to spur business investment in Canada to respond to Trump's "America first" economic agenda.

Canada is preparing retaliatory tariffs in response to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's threat to levy a 25 per cent import tax on all Canadian goods, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatened to withhold the province's energy, which it exports to five states.

Speaking at an event put on by the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, Trudeau said that's because Trump's team is coming in with a much clearer set of ideas of what they want to do right away than after his first election win in 2016.

Unity among provinces and the federal government is critical in the face of the grave challenge posed by the threat of massive new import tariffs from Canada's closest trading partner, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Wednesday following an emergency first ministers' meeting.