Singh won’t support Conservative non-confidence motion that uses his own words

OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he won’t play Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s games by voting to bring down the government on an upcoming non-confidence motion.

The Conservatives plan to introduce a motion that quotes Singh’s own criticism of the Liberals, and asks the House of Commons to declare that it agrees with Singh and has no confidence in the government.

The motion is expected to be introduced on Thursday and the debate and vote are set for Monday.

Singh said he is not going to trigger an election when he believes Poilievre would cut programs the NDP fought for.

“I’m not going to be playing Pierre Poilievre’s games. I have no interest in that. We’re frankly not going to allow him to cut the things that people need. I want to actually have dental care expanded, I want people to actually start to benefit from the pharmacare legislation we passed,” Singh said.

With the NDP’s expected support, the Liberals should survive this next confidence vote brought forward by the Conservatives.

The Tories have vowed to bring forward non-confidence motions every chance they get. The party will have two more opposition motions after this one, which are expected to continue to call for non-confidence.

The NDP are scheduled to have their opposition day on Friday.

Earlier on Tuesday, Singh did acknowledge that the Conservatives have a sizeable lead on the NDP in public opinion polls, while giving a campaign-style speech to visiting party staffers from across the country.

Most pollsters in Canada have recorded a roughly 20 point lead for the Conservatives over both the Liberals and NDP for the last few months.

The non-confidence vote was scheduled after Speaker Greg Fergus intervened to pause a filibuster on a privilege debate about a green technology fund.

The Conservatives have said they would only end that debate if the NDP agree to topple the government or if the Liberals turn over unredacted documents at the centre of the parliamentary gridlock.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 3, 2024.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press