Poilievre asks Singh to pull support for Liberal government to prompt fall election
John Paul Tasker | CBC News | Posted: August 29, 2024 1:00 PM | Last Updated: August 29
'Pull out of the costly coalition,' Conservative leader tells NDP leader
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has written a letter to his NDP counterpart asking Jagmeet Singh to pull his party's support for the Liberal government so Canadians can go to the polls this fall instead of next year as planned.
"Canadians can't afford or even endure another year of this costly coalition. No one voted for you to keep Trudeau in power. You do not have a mandate to drag out his government another year," Poilievre wrote in his letter.
"Pull out of the costly coalition and vote non-confidence in the government this September to trigger a carbon tax election in October of THIS YEAR. Or you will forever be known as 'Sellout Singh,'" Poilievre said.
Poilievre's challenge to Singh comes as the parties square off in a federal byelection in Manitoba, a Sept. 16 vote that is expected to be a competitive two-way race between the Conservative and NDP candidates.
In response to Poilievre, Peter Julian, the NDP's House leader, said that "leaving the deal is always on the table for Jagmeet Singh."
"Let's be clear: Pierre Poilievre wants to win an election because he wants to cut health care, cut your pension and cut EI in order to give more to big corporations. He wants to ensure pharmacare cannot make it to implementation this fall. We fundamentally disagree with his plans to cut," Julian said.
Julian said the party believes "in the Canadian value of taking care of our neighbours," and said that's what "guides us before and after an election."
Not Poilievre's call, says NDP's national director
In an interview with CBC News, Anne McGrath, the NDP's national director, said it's not up to Poilievre to dictate when the supply-and-confidence agreement between her party and the Liberals comes to an end.
Before signing the agreement, the NDP extracted some policy commitments in exchange for supporting the Liberals.
The government has pushed ahead with an expansion of the social safety net through new pharmacare and dental programs. It has also enacted "anti-scab" legislation that bans replacement workers.
"Pierre Poilievre doesn't get to make that decision. Decisions about how the deal proceeds are in the hands, I think, of the NDP and what kind of things we can get," she said.
McGrath said the NDP wants to get more out of the government while the agreement is still in place, building on its demands that Ottawa move ahead with new social programs.
"Walking away from the deal is always on the table, but there is a lot of work to do," she said, adding that the NDP would like the government to expand the pharmacare program that right now only covers contraceptives and diabetes treatments.
The NDP also wants the government to "improve the EI system," McGrath said.
"The Liberals have kind of run out of gas and they're not really going to be as much of a factor in the next campaign. When the election comes, we're going to be there to fight Pierre Poilievre and to make sure that Canadians get what they deserve out of a government," she said.
Trudeau defends choice of 'policy over personalities'
Poilievre said one reason Singh should send Canadians to the polls now is that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not go ahead with a "reset" of his cabinet at the government's retreat in Halifax this week — some Liberal MPs wanted a shuffle after the stinging byelection loss in Toronto-St. Paul's — and that means "all the ministers who gave us rising crime, costs and housing remain."
Asked why there wasn't a cabinet shuffle, Trudeau said he would focus on policy over personalities as he tries to boost the government's standing with Canadians.
Trudeau announced a clamp-down on the low-wage temporary foreign worker program that some experts say has spiralled out of control, and signalled further changes to the country's immigration program could be coming this fall.
Trudeau also slapped punitive tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles to support Canada's auto manufacturing sector in the face of state-subsidized cars from that country.
At a news conference on Parliament Hill Thursday, Poilievre said Singh has abandoned the labour movement by standing by a government that forced the Teamsters union, which represents railway workers, into binding arbitration with CN and CPKC.
The union wanted to work out its differences with those railways at the bargaining table, saying the government was infringing on its Charter-protected right to collective bargaining.
Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon said allowing a work stoppage at both of Canada's railways to continue would cripple the economy. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said letting the railways go dark for longer would have been a "self-inflicted wound."
The Canadian Industrial Relations Board ultimately sided with the Liberals.
Poilievre zeroes in on Singh
Poilievre wouldn't say what he would have done if he were facing an economically damaging strike action by railway workers.
He said the rail work stoppage was prompted by a dispute over wages during a time of higher inflation, and claimed inflation will not be an issue if he's elected.
"Jagmeet Singh, stop selling out the workers, stop being Sellout Singh. Put the people ahead of your pension vote for a carbon tax election now," Poilievre said, suggesting that Singh is intent on holding off an election until he qualifies for his MP pension.
Singh, first elected in 2019, will qualify for retirement benefits after he reaches six years of parliamentary service at the end of February 2025.
Poilievre, who was first elected in 2004, qualified for his pension in 2010.
"Justin Trudeau will not quit — he must be fired — and the person to do it is Jagmeet Singh," Poilievre said.
Earlier, Government House Leader Karina Gould said she's confident the NDP supply-and-confidence agreement that keeps the Liberal government in power will hold until its expected end date in June 2025.
"We signed the agreement until the end of June — that's something that has been signed and agreed to, so I'm going to be working on that premise," she said.
That agreement, first signed in March 2022, allows the government to carry on without fear of falling on a confidence vote.
If the two parties abide by the deal, there will be no federal election until next summer at the earliest.