News from the world – CA – Trudeau government survives vote of confidence

Rachel aiello
Ottawa News Bureau Online Producer

@rachaiello
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OTTAWA –
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the federal Liberal minority survived a vote of confidence by gaining the support needed to avoid plunging the country into an instant pandemic election

After a day of bitter tensions and accusations of partisan brinkmanship, New Democrats, Green and Independent MPs sided with the Liberals in defeating a motion to create a new committee to investigate alleged Liberal corruption

Supporting the Liberals in this key test of their power means the Conservatives’ push, backed by the Bloc Québécois, has failed MPs will come back to the drawing board for how to conduct a further review of government spending on COVID-19 , allegations of conflicts of interest and controversy over the WE charity

Just over an hour before the key confidence vote, Paul confirmed that all three Green Party MPs would vote against the motion, but sought to clarify that her caucus decision should not be interpreted as an endorsement. government or other opposition parties

“This kind of behavior should not be rewarded,” Green Party leader Annamie Paul told CTVNewsCalifornia “We have to be the ones saying what’s obvious to everyone, that the second wave of the pandemic is not not the time to hold elections ”, she declared.

Because the Liberals said the vote to create this committee was a matter of confidence, had it been successful it could have sparked an election call, on the first anniversary of the last federal election which saw the liberals reduced to a minority

Trudeau presented the vote as a decision to be made by the opposition parties: to confirm or not their declarations of non-confidence and to force an election.However, the charge of dangerous partisanship was brought directly against the Liberals for appearing to be willing to go to the polls to demand more responsibility

Ahead of the vote, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said his caucus « would not give Prime Minister Trudeau the election he seeks »

The Liberals who win this vote are a demonstration that enough MPs have confidence in the Liberals who continue to rule amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and that Parliament continues to function

In minority parliaments, governments remain in power as long as they retain the confidence of the House of Commons.This confidence is often tested several times a year with votes on budgets and other monetary matters, but governments can also appoint other key votes on important issues like trust issues

All parties have said they do not want an election at this time, as new cases of COVID-19 climb and some parties are still trying to raise funds after the last race ended there. barely 365 days

The defeat of the Conservative motion means Trudeau does not have to go to Rideau Hall to speak to the government Gen Julie Payette about the House of Commons’ loss of confidence in his leadership and the prospect of campaign tours taking the route in the following days is irrelevant for the moment

The wave of excitement over the mere prospect of an election saw liberal and opposition parties send fundraising emails to their supporters, asking for help to increase their coffers According to the latest quarterly fundraising figures, the Conservatives have the most money in their potential election war chest, and the NDP is lagging behind

On the status of a forum to further study the WE charity controversy and other Liberal spending and conflict of interest issues, the NDP and Greens say they still want to explore the means of rendering accountability in the general terms that the Conservatives had hoped for

« We are here to hold the government to account, and we will work with the opposition parties, we will work with this committee or other media… We will also show that we have a vision that Canada can do much better, » O’Toole said Wednesday ahead of the vote

In a statement in response to their defeat, the Conservatives said small progressive parties in the House « have chosen to follow the Prime Minister’s weak leadership », vowing to continue their fight to deepen the Liberals’ alleged wrongdoing. « It seems that even a pandemic cannot contain the right and arrogance of the liberals, » O’Toole said in the statement.

Specifically, what the Conservatives wanted was to create a new super committee with priority on House resources that would focus on studying Liberal controversies, including the WE Charity case and allegations of use. abuse of public funds during the COVID-19 pandemic They say it would allow other committees that looked into the controversy before Trudeau prorogued Parliament this summer to refocus on other issues.

As part of their proposal, the opposition-led committee could have forced Trudeau and his cabinet to testify for hours longer than they already did and to demand the release of thousands of more pages of documents. than those that have already been returned over the months controversy arising from failure of summer student scholarship program

The Liberals had argued that the Conservative proposal would have « crippled » the government when it should have been seized to respond to the second wave of the pandemic and the parallel economic crisis

In an unsuccessful effort to compromise, the Liberals proposed a separate special committee to assess the billions of dollars in federal spending on COVID-19 to support workers, businesses and the healthcare system, but the committee would be headed by a liberal

Following the vote, Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez said the Liberals had not specifically signed a deal to gain support for this vote and dismissed accusations that the Liberals would do their utmost possible to avoid scrutiny

“We had to do it not because we wanted to do it,” he said, because of an “irresponsible” gesture on the part of the Conservatives

The NDP has already put forward a proposal to take these various threads back to the House Ethics Committee, Singh saying there are unanswered questions that need to be answered and that a minority government is giving them an opportunity to dig deeper. that they would if the Liberals went to the polls and came back with a majority

In an interview on CTV’s Power Play, Singh denied being used to support the Liberals He said other parties had nothing to show their opposition to the Liberals, while in past confidence talks the NDP was able to use its influence to drive policy changes to help more Canadians

« We can just show the results. We can look from the start of this pandemic until now, what can the Bloc say it has done for people? What can the Conservatives say that they have done for people? Nothing « 

In a series of tweets explaining why she voted the way she did, Independent MP Jody Wilson-Raybould said the Liberals declaring the motion to look at liberal ethics as a vote of confidence « demonstrates a complete lack of leadership »

« This entire episode illustrates why we need real reform of Parliament so that MPs vote their conscience » and not be forced to vote along party lines on a « false choice » between ethical government and untimely elections She said she supported « full investigations » and believed there was more to discover

The current predicament MPs find themselves in comes after Liberal MPs filibustered to end opposition attempts to revive studies of WE Charity’s $ 912 million grant deal The committee’s investigations were prompted by conflict of interest accusations by Trudeau and former Finance Minister Bill Morneau over their close personal ties to the organization, despite public service claims suggesting that we are the best bet to run the program that never ended rise from the ground

Paul calls on all parties to sit down like ‘adults’ and find a fun way to do this job while allowing Parliament to function and Cabinet ministers to do their jobs

« It is entirely reasonable to expect the Liberals to make themselves available to respond to reasonable requests from parliamentarians, and there obviously has to be a way for them to agree on the formation of this committee, without triggering early elections, ”Paul said

As Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland pointed out ahead of the vote, had Parliament been dissolved it would have left Canadians in a mess for several weeks with no ability for the government to pass new legislation in response to a evolving situation of COVID-19

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau answers a question during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday Oct 21, 2020 THE CANADIAN PRESS / Sean Kilpatrick

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