Canadian PM escapes snap election, Liberals survive second confidence vote in a month

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau managed to avoid a snap election for the second time in one month on October 21 after a prominent opposition party backed the ruling Liberals. As per BNN Bloomberg report, Trudeau won the confidence as the House of Commons voted 180-146 to reject a Conservative motion for a special committee to investigate the alleged mishandling of funds meant to deal COVID-19 pandemic. The defeat of the opposition-pushed motion ended the dramatic day in Canadian politics with Trudeau daring the opposition to launch an investigation and threatening to call for snap elections. 

Justin Trudeau had won only a majority of seats in the Canadian parliament in an election last year and therefore, he required the support of the lawmakers to a bid to survive. It was the left-leaning New Democrats that backed the Liberals and reportedly said that the House should continue their work to help the citizens who are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the Wednesday motion, Canadians got to avoid going to the polls as colder weather is approaching and the country is already dealing with a resurgence of novel coronavirus infections. 

As per media report, the New Democrats Party leader Jagmeet Singh told the reporters that his party will not provide Trudeau with the “election he is looking for”. He insisted that opposition will not be used as an “excuse or a cover”. Instead, Singh reiterated that the lawmakers are going to continue the work that needs to be done. Currently, according to reports, Liberals have the support of 36 per cent of the citizens followed by its greatest opposition, the Conservatives that has 31 per cent backing. 

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NDP supports the Liberals for the second time

It is reportedly the second time this month that the social democrats have supported the ruling party. Earlier, NDP had supported the Trudeau government’s broad legislative agenda only after convincing the Canadian PM to make the support system more favourable to the struggling workers. The Liberals had lost the majority in 2019, therefore they are dependent on the opposition to pass the laws. 

The motion, which triggered the dispute in Canadian politics, was introduced by the Conservatives to investigate a range of decisions taken by the government to spend the funds including $686 million student-grant contract to a charity that had ties to Trudeau’s family. That controversy was also reportedly responsible factor of the downfall of government’s first finance minister this summer. The opposition touted the formation of a 15 member parliamentary club to review the spendings. But Trudeau government had previously argued that the new committee would paralyze his government’s capability to cater to the crisis in hand. 

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