NDP won’t prop up Harper
OTTAWA— A Conservative minority government led by Stephen Harper could end up being brought down in short order, as both main opposition party leaders have vowed not to support it.
“The short answer to your question is, there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell,” New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair told reporters Wednesday in Montreal when asked whether his party would vote in favour of a throne speech brought in by Harper.
The longer answer Mulcair gave cited “divisive politics,” lost manufacturing jobs, unemployment and the fact that Canada is the only country to have formally withdrawn from the Kyoto Protocol as reasons the NDP could not prop up a Harper-led minority.
“I think that anybody who has attended a single question period over the course of the last several years would be able to tell you that there is no likelihood that the NDP would ever, under any circumstance, be able to support Mr. Harper,” Mulcair said.
Since public opinion polls suggest none of the three main national parties — the Conservatives, the NDP and the Liberals — are within easy grasp of forming a majority government, reporters have been asking about postelectoral scenarios.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau also ruled out supporting a Harper-led minority government. “There are no circumstances in which I would support Stephen Harper to continue being prime minister of this country,” Trudeau told reporters in Montreal.
Mulcair was not asked Wednesday whether he would support a Liberal minority government.
He has previously expressed a willingness to form a coalition government with the Liberals, though he has noted Trudeau rejected that option.
On Tuesday, Trudeau reiterated he is not open to forming a coalition with the NDP, but did not reject the idea of working with an NDP minority government in some other way.
“One of the nice things about elections is that it is Canadians who get to decide who sits in their Parliament, and the Liberal party has always been open, in minority situations, to working with other members of the House to pass legislation that serves Canadians,” said Trudeau.