The Bloc Québécois is ruling out the possibility that Canadians will be plunged into an early election next week, signalling Wednesday their intention to vote against a Conservative motion of non-confidence in the government.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he will put forward such a motion for debate on Sept. 24, and specifically challenged NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh to back it.
“The decision will be up to Jagmeet Singh and the NDP,” Poilievre said. “Are they going to vote to keep this costly carbon tax prime minister in power?”
Singh, who recently ended his supply and confidence agreement with the Liberals and says Canadians are fed up with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, has not indicated what his party will do.
But Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet said Wednesday he and his MPs work for Quebec, not the Conservatives.
Blanchet said the Tory motion is essentially asking MPs to replace Trudeau with Poilievre.
“We’re voting no,” he told reporters in French outside the House of Commons.
Poilievre last introduced a non-confidence motion in March, asking the House of Commons to declare they did not have confidence in the Liberals over the carbon price. Both the Bloc and NDP voted against it.
A Conservative spokesperson said the motion this time will simply state that “the House has no confidence in the prime minister and the government,” though Poilievre is still referring to it as “a motion for a carbon tax election.”
The Conservatives don’t have enough votes to pass a motion with just one of the Bloc or the NDP.
Now that the NDP has ended the supply-and-confidence deal with the Liberals, the minority government needs to shore up support from opposition parties on a vote-by-vote basis. Not all votes in the House are matters of confidence, but if a motion of non-confidence passed it would defeat the government and most often trigger an election.
Government motions and bills including a throne speech, budget bills and the fall economic statement are considered confidence votes and if they fail to pass, the government would be defeated.
Blanchet has previously indicated he is willing to vote with the Liberals on confidence motions, but he has some stipulations.
Blanchet has said the Liberals must green-light his party’s private member’s bill that would bring pensions for seniors aged 65 to 74 to the same level as those paid to people 75 and over. The Bloc need a royal recommendation from a government minister to OK the financial implications and get the bill through the House.
In Question Period, Poilievre accused Blanchet in French of abandoning Quebecers to “prop up” the prime minister and his “expensive an centralizing government.”
Trudeau shot back that the Conservative leader is “obsessed with his own thirst for power.”
When asked whether he’s ready to bargain with the Bloc on Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded, “We’re going to keep making Parliament work.”
The Liberals have accused the NDP of caving to Poilievre by pulling out of their deal early.
“It’s up to the opposition parties now to determine what they want to do with Canadians, but I think for Mr. Singh in particular it’s now going to be on his shoulders as to whether yet again, another week he does exactly what Mr. Poilievre asks or if he’s actually going to stand up for the things Canadians care about,” Liberal House leader Karina Gould said Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.