OTTAWA — The Liberal minority government easily survived a first confidence vote over this week’s federal budget, but the fate of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s administration is still uncertain, with another test coming Friday that could trigger a snap election.
With the support of the Bloc Québécois, NDP and the lone Green MP in the House of Commons, Liberal MPs voted down a Conservative attempt to reject the government’s budget policy on Thursday. The final result was 198 to 139 against the motion to reject the budget.
Just moments ahead of the vote, the politics in the minority Parliament shifted again as the second Conservative MP in as many days announced he would leave Pierre Poilievre’s caucus — this time to resign as an MP. Alberta’s Matt Jeneroux announced his decision to leave, with news breaking amidst shouts and applause from Liberal benches as the House prepared to vote Thursday.
It was not immediately clear when Jeneroux’s seat would be vacant.
Ahead of the vote, after the NDP confirmed it would vote against and likely defeat the Conservative motion, Carney briefly told reporters outside the Commons, “They made the right choice.”
The result means the Liberal minority government lives to face a second vote on a similar Bloc Québécois motion Friday.
A spokesperson for Liberal House Leader Steven MacKinnon confirmed to the Star that the government is treating both votes as confidence matters that put its survival on the line.
If the Bloc motion fails Friday, the Liberals will face a third confidence vote on their budget on Nov. 17, when MPs return to Ottawa after a break next week.
Both the Conservatives and the Bloc have been clear they will oppose the Liberal government’s budget, which posts a $78.3-billion deficit — double the shortfall projected last year — and includes almost $60 billion in spending reductions and tens of billions more in new spending for defence, housing, infrastructure, and investment tax breaks over the next five years.
Yet even with a caucus that plummeted to just seven members in the April election, the New Democrats could still save the Liberals in the upcoming budget votes.
On Thursday, NDP interim leader Don Davies said his party still hadn’t decided how to vote on Friday or on Nov. 17. In recent days, NDP insiders have told the Star there’s no guarantee the party’s seven MPs will vote in unison.
But Davies was clear Thursday that the New Democrats could not support the wording of the Conservatives’ motion to reject the budget, even if he said avoiding a snap election is not the party’s “prime consideration.”
The Thursday vote with the government was to avoid endorsing the Conservatives’ demands for even deeper spending cuts, Davies said, arguing the Tories want to “rip the government to shreds” with their demand to reduce this year’s deficit to $42 billion.
“We’re voting against a Conservative motion because it’s absolutely irresponsible. It’s extremely right wing, and it’s not the direction that the country should be going,” he said.
Asked about the NDP’s refusal to support motion before the vote on Thursday, Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman was muted.
“We’ve been pretty clear that we can’t support this budget,” she told reporters, “and what other parties decide to do is what other parties decide to do.”
The Liberals now have 170 seats in the Commons, after the dramatic floor-crossing of Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont, who defected from the Conservatives to join the government party just hours after the budget was tabled on Tuesday. D’Entremont later said other Conservatives are considering whether to follow him across the aisle, prompting speculation about who might do so. By Thursday night, fellow Conservative Jeneroux — who had earlier denied rumours he was going to join the Liberals — announced he would resign his seat.
To pass the budget with all 343 seats occupied in the House, the government will need at least 172 votes. With the Conservatives and Bloc voting against it, Green Leader Elizabeth May — the party’s only MP — said that she will “probably” also vote against the budget on Nov. 17, despite voting with the government against the Conservative motion Thursday.
But the government could still survive with the support of the NDP, even if some of its MPs abstain instead of voting to support the budget.
Davies and other members of the party — including candidates running for its leadership — have criticized the budget for spending cuts and tens of thousands of job losses in the public service. At the same time, Davies has said all options remain on the table, including abstentions, while two MPs — Winnipeg’s Leah Gazan and Vancouver’s Jenny Kwan — have criticized the budget and said they would not abstain.
Heather McPherson, who is running to be the party’s leader, has also slammed the budget and suggested she would not abstain nor support it unless major changes are made.
Calling it a budget catering to “big business,” NDP MP Gord Johns suggested he’s still on the fence about how he’ll vote.
“What we’re going to do right now is head home and get the feedback from Canadians, but I know certainly Canadians don’t want an election,” he said.
With files from Ryan Tumilty and Raisa Patel
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