Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre addresses his caucus on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Sept. 15. Parliament is scheduled to resume Monday following summer recess.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre again challenged the NDP and Bloc Québécois on Sunday to bring the government down at their earliest opportunity in the House of Commons but the Liberals are returning to Parliament confident they’ll get co-operation instead.
Speaking to a boisterous caucus meeting, Mr. Poilievre derided Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet in French and then the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh in English for supporting the minority Liberals. He accused Mr. Blanchet of abandoning Quebeckers in favour of the Liberals and again accused Mr. Singh of making voters wait for change until his pension accrues.
“Canadians cannot wait,” Mr. Poilievre said. “They need to vote now for common sense Conservatives and Jagmeet Singh needs to vote with us to trigger a carbon tax election.”
In response to Mr. Poilievre’s attacks on Mr. Singh, the party sent a statement from NDP MP Heather McPherson describing them as “tired old lies from Pierre Poilievre.”
“He’s trying to distract from his callous plan to cut health care, cut pensions, cut dental care, cut EI and more,” she said.
Two weeks ago, the NDP ended its deal to give automatic support to the minority Liberals in exchange for policy concessions. While that decision has brought more uncertainty to the Liberals, the NDP and Bloc have both dismissed the Conservative Leader’s continued insistence on an early election.
The Bloc has said it is open to negotiating with the government on policy items in exchange for its support and Mr. Singh has said that his party will vote on each measure in the House based on what’s in the best interest of Canadians.
The public comments from Mr. Blanchet and Mr. Singh leave Liberals confident they will not end up in a snap election this fall. But Liberal House Leader Karina Gould acknowledged to The Globe and Mail in an interview Sunday that things will be more unpredictable now for her government.
Still, she pointed out that the Liberals have now managed to govern in minorities for five years, only two of which were under the deal with the NDP.
“The Conservatives want to create drama and they want to torque things up, but my job as the House Leader is to simply move forward the business of Canadians,” Ms. Gould said.
She expressed optimism that the NDP and Bloc will continue to support the bills in the House that they have already voted for at earlier stages and said pulling support now would be “a bit hypocritical.”
“We are in full minority Parliament now, so it’s going to be a lot of back and forth, a lot of negotiation.”
The minority Liberals have no plans to prorogue Parliament in order to avoid a confidence vote, she said, adding the Conservatives will get the chance to call one through an opposition day motion “soon.”
Two polls released in the past week show voters are divided on whether they want an election, but a Leger poll showed Conservative supporters overwhelmingly want a snap election.
Mr. Poilievre has made that a key demand for three weeks now as several other polls show his party is enjoying about a 20-point lead ahead of the Liberals.
The Conservatives are returning to the House of Commons emboldened after their breakthrough win in the Toronto-St. Paul’s by-election in June. It marked the first time that the Liberals had lost a seat in Toronto since 2015.
New MP Don Stewart got loud ovations from his caucus as he introduced himself as the first Conservative to represent the riding in more than three decades before handing the podium to Mr. Poilievre for a public speech ahead of their day of closed-door meetings.
In it, the Conservative Leader described the federal carbon price as a “sucker punch” and appeared to blame it for the high rates of food bank use, saying if it goes as high as the Liberals propose by 2030 “there would be mass hunger and malnutrition.”
Mr. Poilievre has not yet released his own climate plan and, while criticizing the consumer carbon price, has not said whether he would do-away with the industrial carbon price. His party also hasn’t said whether it will keep programs brought in by the Liberals like $10-a-day child and dental care.