Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, alternately denied on Tuesday having had a telephone conversation to discuss forming a possible coalition, as Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has repeatedly claimed.
“I regularly have conversations with the leader of the Bloc, but I [n’en] haven’t had recently, nor on this subject. The last time we spoke, it was about Israel and the Middle East,” Mr. Trudeau initially responded during question period.
Mr. Poilievre had just in turn claimed to have learned in The Press that “the Bloc wants to keep the Liberals in power for two years” and that “there was a call between the leader of the Bloc and the Prime Minister to safeguard the agenda of this Liberal government.”
“Will the Prime Minister reveal to Canadians, in the interest of transparency, all the conditions of this new costly coalition,” he continued in French.
However, the article to which Mr. Poilievre refers never mentions a telephone call or the formation of a coalition between the minority Liberal government and the Bloc Québécois.
However, he emphasizes that the Liberals, the New Democrats and the Bloc do not wish to launch an electoral campaign at the moment given the significant lead of the Conservatives in voting intentions.
The text also reveals that elected Bloc officials have confided to Liberal ministers that they will “show patience” before calling an election. He mentions that their leader had said he would not be bothered by the idea of the Liberals finishing their mandate. These two years, he mentioned, would allow him to “properly identify, define and make known” his adversaries.
In his following questions, all in English, Mr. Poilievre used the term “the separatists” to refer to the Bloc MPs in addition to repeating again and again that a coalition was born.
As soon as he had the opportunity, the Bloc leader corrected the situation. “The call that the leader of the opposition speaks of never existed, but the only thing that the leader of the opposition says is true is that we are separatists,” Mr. Blanchet sent before to continue on other subjects.
On Monday, the Liberals defeated, thanks to the support of the Bloc Québécois, a conservative motion which aimed to extend the suspension of federal carbon pricing to all forms of residential heating, and not just for fuel oil.
Mr. Poilievre immediately left the House of Commons to declare that the Trudeau government was “saved by separatists.” It was also the first time that he claimed that Justin Trudeau had “entered an expensive coalition” not without reiterating his slogan that “it is expensive to vote Bloc”.
When questioned by a journalist from The Canadian Press on what made him believe that there is a coalition between the Bloc and the Liberals, Mr. Poilievre asked the journalist: “Are you questioning The Press ? “.
“I will not accept attacks on the media. It was in the media. It must be true, no,” added the man who, during this rare time when he appeared in front of journalists, only answered questions for four minutes.
The Bloc had revealed its colors shortly before the vote by explaining that although “the carbon tax does not apply to Quebec”, the environment concerns the province, and that climate change is “extremely expensive”, which what do the “demagogic” slogans of the conservatives say?
The New Democrats, for their part, supported the motion, believing that the temporary exemption on residential heating oil from carbon pricing announced almost two weeks ago by Mr. Trudeau unfairly favors certain provinces where this fuel is used more.
They presented their “plan” on Tuesday to remove the federal sales tax from all forms of home heating. A roll call vote on their motion is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Despite this surprising support from the NDP for a Conservative motion, the political party affirms that the “support and confidence” agreement concluded with the Liberals in March 2022 in order to keep the latter in power in exchange for certain conditions remains in force.