OTTAWA, Canada — New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh says he has “torn up” the deal that has propped up Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in a minority parliament for the past 2½ years, in a blow to the government’s stability.
In other words: the gloves are off.
The move distances Singh’s progressive party from an unpopular government that has sunk in the polls. With Canada’s next federal election not expected until the fall of 2025, the news has Ottawa working overtime to determine whether an election will happen much sooner.
“Justin Trudeau has proven time and time again that he will always pander to the greed of big business,” Singh said in a video posted to his social media accounts just as Trudeau was about to speak to reporters about a new school feeding program.
“The Liberals are too weak, too selfish, too dependent on corporate interests to fight for people. They cannot be the change. They cannot restore hope. They cannot stop the Conservatives, but we can,” Singh said.
The announcement comes just days before Trudeau meets with his caucus in preparation for the fall session of parliament, which begins Sept. 16.
The NDP has supported the Liberal government since the two parties signed a cooperation pact on March 22, 2022, the so-called supply and confidence agreement.
The deal allowed the NDP to pressure Trudeau to legislate for new social programs, such as dental care and pharmaceutical care, and to ban the use of substitute workers in federally regulated workplaces.
But while the progressive party has made some gains under the deal, there have been major compromises — forcing the party to compromise on policy. The NDP has failed to gain any traction in the public opinion polls since entering the agreement.
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, who is rising in the polls, has lambasted the NDP for keeping the Liberal government in place, calling Singh a “traitor.”
Tearing up the deal does not mean that an election is imminent or that parliament is about to fall. However, it does mean that the government could fall in a future confidence vote if it does not get majority support.
Singh was sharply critical of the Liberals’ handling of a labour dispute that shut down the country’s major railways for days this summer. Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon asked the Canadian Labour Council to intervene with binding arbitration.
The move to scrap the pact also comes ahead of two key federal by-elections, one-off races that could prove to be dynamic events in federal politics. They follow a stunning by-election victory for the Liberals earlier this summer in a constituency long considered safe.
Trudeau said during his press conference that he is “not focused on politics” and hopes to hold an election next fall, suggesting the two parties can still work together in parliament.
But it wasn’t long before Trudeau set his sights on Poilievre’s Conservatives and fired a few shots.
“I certainly hope that the NDP will stay true to its core values, which is to make sure Canadians get the support they need and to keep the cuts, the retrenchments and the damage that will be done by the Conservatives at bay if they get the chance.”
