The Mark Carney Liberals have suggested of late that the reckless opposition parties – meaning the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois – might be crazy enough to defeat the budget the Prime Minister will deliver Nov. 4.
That would trigger a federal election.
Why the Carney Liberals have chosen this tactic is hard to understand, since all they have to do is bribe what little remains of the NDP caucus, which they’ve been doing for years whenever it came to passing their budgets in a minority parliament.
The math is simple.
The Liberals have 169 seats, three short of a majority of 172.
All they have to do is throw a bone to the NDP, which has seven MPs and did so poorly in the recent election that it no longer has official party status.
The idea the NDP wants an election when what little resources it has is being directed to its ongoing leadership race is absurd.
Pollster Frank Graves, of EKOS Research, on Friday released his latest survey showing most Canadians don’t want an election and would blame the party or parties they perceived caused it, whether in opposition or the government.
(While Graves is unpopular among many Conservatives, he was the first to detect the surge toward Carney and the Liberals during the federal election race earlier this year.)
Given Carney’s pre-budget warnings that this is going to be an austerity budget requiring sacrifice, it’s hard to imagine the Liberals are secretly dying to provoke an election to run on it.
Ditto the Conservatives who will hold a review of party leader Pierre Poilievre’s election performance in January – to either endorse his leadership, or, if his support is too low, trigger another Conservative leadership race.
Costly election doesn’t make sense
Finally, sending Canadians to the polls in a dreary late fall/winter election costing taxpayers close to $600 million while they’re in the middle of a cost-of-living and affordability crisis doesn’t make any sense.
Voters already gave Carney and the Liberals a mandate to govern and to make a new trade deal with the U.S., within the confines of a minority government.
That means they want the government and opposition parties to work together to get the deal done.
Politicians in all parties would be wise to consider that.
