Politics

The Conservatives' first chance to topple the Liberal government comes next week

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will have his first chance to try to bring down the Liberal government next week.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said he'll trigger non-confidence vote at his earliest opportunity

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 12, 2024.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 12, 2024. (Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press)

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will have his first chance to try to bring down the Liberal government next week.

The Conservatives will be allotted an "opposition day" or "supply day" — where opposition business takes priority over government business — next week, a spokesperson for Government House leader Karina Gould's office told CBC News.

A vote on a Conservative motion could happen on Wednesday, the spokesperson said.

Poilievre has said he'll trigger a non-confidence motion against the Liberals at his earliest opportunity.

Poilievre, who has a significant lead in the polls, has been pressuring the other two major opposition parties to bring down Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government and force an early election. But it is not clear the NDP or Bloc Québécois would join with Poilievre's push for an early election at this point.

The NDP has said it's taking a vote-by-vote approach to the fall sitting in Parliament. But a few bills New Democrats pushed for as part of their now-terminated governing agreement with the Liberals are still being debated in Parliament. A vote to bring down the Liberals would effectively kill those pieces of legislation.

The Bloc also has signalled that it plans to use its leverage in the current minority government to push its own priorities.

WATCH | Bloc not in the business of replacing Trudeau with Poilievre, says Blanchet: 

Bloc not in the business of replacing Trudeau with Poilievre, says Blanchet

2 months ago
Duration 12:39
The Bloc Québécois delivered a stunning upset in the LaSalle-Émard-Verdun byelection last night. Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet joins Power & Politics to discuss the win and how his party could vote in an anticipated vote of non-confidence in the minority Liberal government. Blanchet tells P&P Poilievre is no better for Quebec than Trudeau.

Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet told CBC News Network's Power & Politics that he doesn't intend to vote with the Conservatives on a non-confidence motion next week.

"They should be very, very cunning and very good at writing [the motion] if they want us to read it to the end. It will probably only be a show," Blanchet told host David Cochrane.

"I'm not in the business of replacing Justin Trudeau with Pierre Poilievre… I believe that, for Quebec, Pierre Poilievre is no better than Mr. Trudeau."

Blanchet told reporters Monday that he doesn't expect the current parliamentary session to last much longer. On Tuesday, Blanchet said he didn't think parties would look to force a non-confidence vote after Halloween because that would put an election too close to Christmas. But he did indicate that things may get heated in the middle of October.

"I believe that the middle of October will be a very hotspot," he said.

"We'll have had one month to do things, negotiate, obtain things … so that would be a few days where we'd have to be very careful about what is happening."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Darren Major

CBC Journalist

Darren Major is a senior writer for CBC's Parliamentary Bureau. He can be reached via email at darren.major@cbc.ca.