The federal New Democrats have pulled their support from the supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberal government.
The move puts Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority at risk of falling at any time in the coming weeks or months if it loses any confidence votes, which could trigger a snap election as soon as this fall.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said in a video released by the NDP on Wednesday that the Liberals “have let people down” and failed to take on “corporate greed.”
He also pitched the NDP as the only party that can stop a surging Conservative Party from winning the next election, arguing the Liberals are “too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people.”“Today, I have notified the prime minister that I have ripped up the supply-and-confidence agreement,” Singh said.“Big corporations and wealthy CEOs have had their government. It’s the people’s time.”
The House of Commons is set to reconvene from the summer break on Sept. 16, after which the NDP will be voting on government bills on a “case-by-case basis,” a party official told Media.
The NDP official told Global News on background that the video was shot some time ago, and that the decision to pull out of the deal has been in the works for months.
The official added a key reason for pulling the trigger now was a “fundamental difference in values on corporate greed” between the two parties.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations about the decision. No one from the NDP was made available to speak to media Wednesday.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has urged Singh to pull out of the deal, called Wednesday’s announcement a “media stunt” and criticized the NDP leader for not committing to a non-confidence vote.“My message to ‘Sellout Singh’ is this: if you’re serious about ending your costly carbon tax coalition with Trudeau, then commit today to voting for a ‘carbon tax election’ at the earliest confidence vote in the House of Commons,” Poilievre told reporters in Nanaimo, B.C.Multiple bills are still outstanding in the House that would need support from the NDP or another party to pass. They include the Online Harms Act and legislation addressing rail and port safety, airport standards, advance voting expansions and changes to the military justice system and how it handles sexual misconduct cases.