Bloc calling for Liberal heads
Trudeau, Morneau, Telford must resign, or trigger an election, Blanchet threatens
OTTAWA — Bloc Quebecois Yves-Francois Blanchet said Wednesday his party will force a confidence vote against the Liberal government this fall unless Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his finance minister and his chief of staff resign.
But New Democrats don’t seem ready to back the effort, and with 24 MPs, they have enough seats in the House of Commons to be the deciding factor in whether Canada moves toward a fall election during a pandemic.
Blanchet first made his threat Wednesday before a planned sitting of the hybrid House of Commons in Ottawa. He reiterated it later in the Commons, expressing disgust Trudeau hadn’t even bothered to show up.
Trudeau is on a two-week summer vacation with his family. Blanchet said in French that he had also been on vacation, but chose to end it in time to be able to attend, and that Trudeau’s absence sealed the deal.
“We have to ask, is this government still worthy of our confidence and they just gave us the answer,” Blanchet said in French, before storming out in a dramatic huff. He later returned for the rest of the question period.
Blanchet earlier told reporters the revelations around the WE Charity controversy — as well as new details about a contract for the commercial rent-relief program that went to a company employing the husband of Katie Telford, who is Trudeau’s chief of staff — prove the Liberal government is no longer trustworthy.
Blanchet said even though the country is still grappling with COVID-19, keeping people in office who are “mismanaging” the government would be more dangerous than sending Canadians to the polls in a pandemic.
Liberal Foreign Affairs Minister FrancoisPhilippe Champagne shrugged it off.
“I’m not concerned about threats,” he said. Champagne said Canadians are focused on their health, safety and the economic recovery and are not looking to head to the polls during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Liberals, with 156 seats, are 14 votes shy of a majority in the House of Commons. Blanchet, with 32 MPs, would need the Conservatives’ 121 seats, and either all three Greens and two Independent MPs or at least some of the NDP’s 24 votes to pass a motion of no confidence.
He said he had not yet consulted the other opposition leaders on the matter.
New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh said Wednesday that government can earn confidence by working with the NDP to fix employment insurance and improve child care so people can go back to work.
“Those are the things we will be fighting for and be looking for as we continue to try to make Parliament work,” he said. “Just like we have been throughout the minority Parliament.”
The Conservatives are set to elect a new leader later this month, so a decision on what to do this fall will depend on who wins that race. Alberta Tory MP John Barlow said Wednesday that from his perspective, an election this fall isn’t a good idea.
“Honestly, I don’t think Canadians are ready for an election right now,” he said.
Barlow said the government has a lot to answer for and needs to do a lot to show a strong economic recovery plan this fall, but he said next spring, if the virus is more under control, seems more logical to him for election timing. Having thousands of volunteers going door to door right now does not seem safe, Barlow added.
The Conservatives and Bloc focused much of their time during 95 minutes of questions Wednesday on the government’s various ethical issues. Conservative House Leader Candice Bergen at one point said Trudeau had set the lowest bar for ethical conduct of any prime minister in Canadian history.
The NDP stuck mainly to questions about the pandemic response, including asking when Canadians will get all the details about what will happen when the Canada Emergency Response Benefit ends later this month.