Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Sept. 25.Blair Gable/Reuters
The minority Liberal government has survived a confidence vote but still faces uncertainty over its short-term future after the Bloc Québécois announced a deadline on how much longer they will be willing to prop up the Trudeau Liberals.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said Wednesday that unless two specific pieces of legislation pass by Oct. 29, he’d be prepared to vote in favour of any non-confidence motion brought before the House of Commons.
To pass any legislation, Liberals require the support of only a single other party. For them to fall, the Conservatives would need both the Bloc and NDP to join them in a non-confidence vote.
Mr. Blanchet’s demand came hours ahead of the non-confidence motion introduced by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, the first of what’s expected to be several such motions during the fall sitting of Parliament. The Conservatives are already expected to debut another such motion on Thursday, and it would come up for a vote next week.
But on Wednesday, only 120 MPs voted for the Conservatives’ motion that “the House has no confidence in the Prime Minister and the government,” while 211 voted against it.
“Today we will see this House does not have confidence in the Leader of the Conservative Party,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during Question Period ahead of the vote.
How the Liberals can hang on through rounds of confidence votes will be a “day by day, week by week” matter, Liberal House Leader Karina Gould told reporters after the vote.
The vote Wednesday followed a heated Question Period that saw Speaker Greg Fergus repeatedly admonish MPs – including Mr. Trudeau – to mind their words.
Mr. Trudeau ultimately withdrew a comment using the word “crap” to describe behaviour by the Conservatives, and he also accused them of making “casual homophobic comments.” The Speaker said he did not know who made the comment.
The heightened rhetoric and volatility comes after the New Democrats decided to rip up the supply-and-confidence agreement they had with the Liberals. It saw them agree to vote alongside the Liberals on confidence matters up until the next scheduled election, in exchange for action on their key priorities.
The fall of the deal also gave Mr. Blanchet’s party some measure of power back in Parliament. They have more seats – 33 – than the NDP at 25 but had previously been unable to flex that muscle as they have in past minority situations.
Mr. Blanchet said Wednesday he intends to use that leverage to make gains for Quebec via two specific pieces of legislation.
The first is private member’s Bill C-319. It amends the Old Age Security Act to provide a 10-per-cent boost in benefits for seniors aged 65 to 74. The Liberal government recently brought in such an increase for seniors aged 75 and older.
Implementing the bill would cost $16-billion over five years and more than $3.5-billion a year once fully implemented, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer. The bill is awaiting third reading in the House of Commons.
The second is the Bloc’s legislative effort to protect the supply-management system in future trade negotiations. Concessions over supply management, which other countries view as protectionist, in the last Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade talks were a sore spot for the Quebec agricultural sector.
Bill C-282 has already passed the House of Commons, and the Senate was already scheduled to begin studying it this week.
It was not immediately clear Wednesday whether the Liberals would agree to the Bloc’s demands.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland had said Tuesday that she was in talks with the Bloc about the seniors’ benefits, though she did not reveal specifics.
Mr. Blanchet said there actually has not been much discussion at all.
“It is a friendly specialty of the Liberals to say that they are having discussions and that everybody is their close friends.” he told reporters in English.
“So far, there has been very little discussions, and as you see, there is not so much room for discussion.”
The NDP has yet to make any similar demands of the government.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh anchored his opposition to the Conservatives’ motion in his desire to keep the government working to improve health care overall. The pharmacare bill, which was a key demand in the now-defunct supply-and-confidence agreement, has yet to become law.
The next scheduled election is October, 2025.