NDP will not trigger election

OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he will not trigger an election as long as the COVID-19 pandemic persists.

Singh said he will stand by his pledge to prop up the Liberal minority government on confidence votes regardless of whether it backed an NDP private member’s bill to enshrine a universal pharmacare program in legislation Wednesday afternoon.

The bill failed to pass second reading in the hybrid House of Commons, with the Liberals, Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois voting against it in a vote of 295-32.

The government is expected within the next couple months to table a federal budget, which would trigger an election if related legislation fails to garner support from at least one major opposition party.

“We do not think it’s the right thing to do to go to an election while we should be fighting the pandemic. We are not going to trigger an election. So that means any confidence vote,” Singh told reporters at a press conference Wednesday.

“We will vote to keep the government going.”

All parties say they seek to avoid an election while the virus cuts a swath across the country. At the same time, all parties are gearing up for a possible campaign as they vet candidates and rev up fundraising efforts.

New Democrats had been hyping their proposed legislation on pharmacare — a key plank of any NDP campaign platform — in advance of a vote that wound up killing Bill C-213. Private member’s bills, especially those introduced by opposition parties, rarely succeed.

The NDP and Liberals both promised some kind of pharmacare program during the 2019 federal election campaign, but differ on the details.

Singh said his party’s universal prescription medication plan, laid out in the private member’s bill sponsored by MP Peter Julian, mirrors the framework recommended by a government-commissioned report released in June 2019.

The $15-billion-per-year program is modelled after the Canada Health Act, which is the legislative framework underpinning universal health care.

Singh’s vow to back the government almost unconditionally puts the ball in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s court.

“In a sense it forces Trudeau’s hand — that if he really wants an election now, he will have to trigger it himself. But of course, if Trudeau doesn’t want an election, then he doesn’t need to bargain really hard to survive,” said Karl Belanger, president of consulting firm Traxxion Strategies and former senior adviser to the NDP.

“In the end what Jagmeet Singh is doing is really to keep Justin Trudeau in charge of his destiny when it comes to the election timing.”

A bumpy COVID-19 vaccine rollout, ongoing devastation to industries such as travel and retail, and the complications attending an election amid strict lockdown rules are all reasons to think twice about sending Canadians to the polls.

“It would be a gamble for sure,” Belanger said of a potential spring election.

“As a prime minister, you should always think twice before gambling the power that you currently have, because you may end up losing everything.”