The Conservative party will attempt to topple Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government once again with their third non-confidence motion of the fall.
The motion, which is expected to be tabled before the House of Commons on Thursday, is using past snippets of criticisms of Trudeau’s Liberals coming from the New Democratic Party.
The text of the motion quotes NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh when he announced in September that his party was pulling out of the supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberal government.
“Whereas the NDP Leader said, ‘the Liberals are too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people,’” the motion states in preamble and continues to ask that: “Therefore, the House agrees with the NDP Leader and the House proclaims it has lost confidence in the Prime Minister and the Government.”
The motion also includes Singh’s comment criticizing the Liberal government for imposing binding arbitration to end the railway shutdown in August.
The minority Liberals need the support of at least one other party in the House of Commons to survive such votes or pass any legislation.
Two previous motions by the Conservatives in September and October failed and this third one won’t likely pass as the NDP have said they will oppose it.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
If a non-confidence motion were to pass, the government would fall and a snap election would be triggered.
Singh said on Tuesday that he won’t play Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s “games.”
He said he is not going to vote non-confidence and trigger an election when he believes Poilievre would cut programs the NDP fought for, like dental care and pharmacare.
“I’m not going to be playing Pierre Poilievre’s games. I have no interest in that. We’re frankly not going to allow him to cut the things that people need. I want to actually have dental care expanded, I want people to actually start to benefit from the pharmacare legislation we passed,” Singh said.
The non-confidence vote was scheduled after Speaker Greg Fergus intervened to pause a filibuster on a privilege debate about a green technology fund.
The Conservatives have said they would only end that debate if the NDP agree to topple the government or if the Liberals turn over unredacted documents at the centre of the parliamentary gridlock.
Another two Conservative motions would be heard Monday and Tuesday, with both set for a vote on Tuesday, barring changes to those plans.
— with files from The Canadian Press
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
