Singh Says New Democrats Won’t Give Trudeau Election He Wants
Singh #Singh
(Bloomberg) — Jagmeet Singh signaled his social-democratic lawmakers won’t back a Conservative push for a special committee to investigate alleged mishandling of Covid-19 spending, lowering the odds of a snap election in Canada.
The New Democratic Party leader’s comments Wednesday come after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dared the opposition to move forward with their attempt to reopen an ethics investigation dogging the minority Liberal government. The prime minister threatened to trigger a new election if they do so.
With the two other major opposition parties supporting the move, Singh’s NDP holds the balance of power on the vote.
Justin Trudeau.
Photographer: David Kawai/Bloomberg
“New Democrats will not give Prime Minister Trudeau the election he is looking for,” Singh told reporters in Ottawa. “We’re not going to be used as an excuse or a cover. We’re going to continue to do the work that we need to do.”
Singh’s comments didn’t fully eliminate speculation of an imminent election. The NDP leader declined to say whether his caucus will explicitly vote against the Conservative motion in the legislature Wednesday afternoon, or abstain.
If his party chooses to abstain, it would make the parliamentary vote — scheduled to take place just after 3 p.m. Ottawa time — too close to call.
The gamesmanship does suggest, however, that the prime minister is willing to try his luck with the electorate, with a majority potentially within reach. Under the Canadian parliamentary system, prime ministers have wide latitude to seek the dissolution of the legislature and control the timing of elections.
Aggregate polling averages compiled by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. show the Liberals enjoy the support of 36% of Canadians, versus 31% for the Conservatives and 18% for the left-leaning New Democratic Party. The numbers suggest an almost 50% chance for Trudeau to regain the majority he lost in last year’s election, according to the CBC.
The motion at the heart of the dispute was introduced by the Conservatives to investigate a number of the spending decisions, including a C$900 million ($686 million) student-grant contract to a charity with ties to the prime minister’s family. Trudeau’s government is claiming the new committee would paralyze his government’s ability to respond to the crisis.
“Nobody wants elections,” the prime minister told reporters on Tuesday. “People want to continue to have their government focused on helping them in their jobs, helping them in this health crisis and that’s what we will continue to concentrate on.”
The risk for the prime minister would be a backlash from an electorate suffering through a second wave of Covid-19, with little appetite for political squabbling. Failure to score a new majority could weaken the Liberals’ ability to pass legislation and embolden the opposition.
“Given that it’s the Liberals rattling the sabers this time, I’d say they do so at their own risk,” pollster Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, said by phone Tuesday evening.
(Updates with details throughout. An earlier version was corrected to show parliament vote on motion is taking place on Wednesday.)
For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.