New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh concluded his first series of meetings with his caucus in Montreal on Thursday since he broke away from his deal with the Liberals, but without revealing whether his party still has confidence in the government.
A compilation of the Duty shows that Mr. Singh had the opportunity on at least 23 occasions to specify his intentions regarding an expected vote at the start of the parliamentary session which would result in Parliament losing confidence in the Trudeau government, and thus provoking new federal elections.
“For each vote, we said that we will think about it, and we will decide what is in the interest of Canadians,” Mr. Singh tirelessly repeated on Thursday.
Reporters have been scrambling to extract clues about his appetite for another election since he decided last Wednesday to break the deal he struck with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, now described as “too weak” to stand up to the wealthy bosses. The deal was originally intended to avoid an election until next year.
“I’m not going to say our position now,” Mr Singh replied, for example, on the pretext that he had not yet “looked at” the motion of censure that the Conservatives intend to table at the first opportunity.
Already the day after his social media post announcing the end of his cooperation with the Liberals, Mr Singh had to answer eleven versions of the same question: will his decision plunge the country into elections? “I can’t guess the date of the elections!” he said, after saying that he was also “not afraid to call an election”.
Busy return to school
The desire for new federal elections is itching the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre. “It’s up to the NDP to sell out!” he chanted during a press briefing Wednesday, in his call also directed at the Bloc Québécois to get behind his attempt to bring down the Trudeau government as soon as Parliament resumes.
” [Jagmeet Singh] “must answer the question he dodged 31 times!” continued the Conservative leader, somewhat exaggerating the number of times he was directly challenged on this subject.
The subject of the upcoming federal election has been a major part of NDP speeches for the past week. The fourth party in the Commons is trying to reframe the current political debate as a struggle between its vision and that of the Conservative Party of Canada. Mr. Singh has repeated that he will run “to be prime minister.”
“There’s no way Justin Trudeau’s Liberals can win the next election, so it’s going to be between Pierre Poilievre and Jagmeet Singh,” said NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice on the sidelines of his caucus meeting in Montreal.
Survival Talks
The Bloc Québécois, for its part, has opened the door to allowing the government to survive for “a little while,” in exchange for specific public policies. Passing through the LaSalle-Émard-Verdun by-election on Wednesday with several MPs, leader Yves-François Blanchet mentioned increasing the pension for seniors aged 65 to 74, as well as removing the religious exception in the definition of hate speech in Canada.
The Duty was able to confirm that the first discussions were held on Tuesday between the parliamentary leaders of the Liberal Party and the Bloc Québécois, less than a week before the parliamentary session resumes in Ottawa next Monday.
Although he wants to keep the suspense as to his position on the imminent Conservative motion of censure, New Democrat Jagmeet Singh has revealed that he has no intention of voting for a possible return-to-work law for Air Canada pilots.
” If [les libéraux] “If they want to make a back-to-work law a vote of confidence, let them do it. We will always oppose it,” he said, just days before a possible strike or lockout at the carrier.